Growth, Transformation and Small Sustainable Steps Towards Progress
By Jaclyn Tracy
What does growth and transformation have to do with sustainability? Everything. In order to make small sustainable changes towards imperfect progress, a growth mindset is required.
1. It’s about the journey & the destination
I consider the journey to include the small sustainable changes we make in our daily habits and routines (i.e. replacing your plastic dish brush with a bamboo alternative), the mistakes we make along the way, the things we try that don’t work and the messy and beautiful life experiences we have that lead us towards progress, and ultimately change.
The destination on the other hand, in my opinion, is a clear intention. My personal intention is to reduce the harmful effects of consumerism. Success to me is in the collective impact, getting a whole group of people to change their behavior by committing to choosing sustainable brands, less waste and imperfect progress.
That’s the destination. The intention. What drives me forward each and every day. It’s always in the back of my mind, consciously or subconsciously directing my decision making and shift in mindset towards sustainable habits.
If we are focused towards a greater intention—destination, vision or goal—whether we take one step forward and three steps backwards or redirect, reroute our energy entirely, the mistakes we make, the failures are what lead to transformation. Sometimes I forget that. So here is a gentle reminder (for you and I) that the failures are sometimes more important than the successes. They lead to growth. And growth leads to transformation.
So, let’s be intentional and have fun along this messy, beautiful life journey.
Image: Folchi Creative
2. Imperfect Progress > Perfection
Perfection is unattainable. I say that, but I am very prone to perfectionism. It’s taken thirty years of my life for me to really focus on the imperfect progress. And of course, I still slip up. I expect too much from myself. I set unrealistic deadlines and goals. I expect change to happen overnight. I expect to build Rome in a day.
When you begin your sustainability journey, be empathetic, be gentle with yourself. Start small. Eventually you’ll begin to adjust and direct your awareness in a way that changes your behavior and becomes natural. Never forget, choosing to be a conscious consumer is a long journey. So be patient with yourself and focus on progress, not perfection.
Because practice makes progress.
3. Holistic self-care is critical to your success
Taking care of yourself is also an essential element of the sustainability journey. Because how can you care for the earth or anyone else when you have not taken care of yourself first?
As you begin to assess your personal environmental impact, be gentle with yourself. Once you become aware of the waste of your own consumption, it’s very easy to spiral into a mode of criticism and judgement or worse, hopelessness: the “how can I possibly make a difference as one individual human?” It’s critical that as you make changes, you protect your wild heart from constant judgement, evaluations or the belief that you can’t make a difference. You can. We can. Together, collectively.
"The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently. Getting the knack of catching ourselves, of gently and compassionately catching ourselves, is the path of the warrior.”
- PEMA CHODRON
To create the mental space to allow for change in my life, I ask myself these questions daily and reset/adjust according to my answers — especially if/when I catch myself spirally into a judgmental or perfectionist mentality:
● Have I meditated?
● Have I moved my body?
● Have I laughed?
● Have I been eating healthy?
● Have I been drinking water?
● Have I checked social media too many times?
● Am I moving too fast? Can I slow down a little?
For true transformation, we must focus on creating, as Brene Brown describes, “a strong back, soft front, wild heart.” In other words, we must straddle the tension between vulnerability and resilience and the only way to do that is to take care of yourself first. Love yourself first. Belong to yourself first.
4. What you are not changing you are choosing.
Regan Walsh is a Columbus-based executive and life coach and Author of Heart Boss. She taught me to approach problem-solving differently. When I go after anything in this life because of her I ask, “What’s in my way? What’s holding me back from achieving my dreams? What do I need to upgrade in my life to reach higher? What do I want and why do I want it?” And then approach it in a way that is like writing a strategic plan, which can lead to changing my perspective, rewriting my routine, reassessing habits or acting on things I’ve been dragging my feet on because they seemed too ambiguous.
This approach is so applicable to sustainability. I challenge you to audit your consumption habits and then make a plan. Clarify what obstacles are in your way. And begin making small changes towards imperfect progress. And always remember, what you are not changing you are choosing.
“What you are not changing you are choosing.”
—REGAN WALSH, LIFE COACH & AUTHOR OF HEART BOSS
5. Change is the only constant in life
What is true for us today, may not be true for us tomorrow. This is a lesson that Covid-19 and 2020 taught each and every one of us. Personally, I underwent an unexpected transformation. It was painful, challenging and uncomfortable. But I came out on the other side of it stronger, more resilient and more focused on creating the world I want to see. The future I want to experience. The world that I want to pass on to the next generation.
“The true self is never a fixed thing. ...the true self is always in motion like music, a river of life, changing, moving, failing, suffering, learning, shining. That is why you must freely and recklessly make new mistakes…And do not try to be consistent, for what is true to you today may not be true at all tomorrow, because you see a better truth.”
—BRENDA UELAND
Author Lynne Twist poses this very important question that I will leave you with:
“If we acknowledge the true environmental costs that we pay for the gift of seemingly limitless energy required to maintain our comfort, how would we need to change?”
—LYNNE TWIST, AUTHOR OF THE SOUL OF MONEY
Be brave and embrace the discomfort that sparks growth and change for change is the only constant in life.
How can we help on your sustainability journey?
SISTAIN is a community connecting conscious consumers and sustainable lifestyle solutions for the greater good - the earth and all the people inhabiting it.
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We empower people to author their own recovery.
We exist to simplify it all, to give you the answers, because we know that living a sustainable life can feel stressful. It’s hard and exhausting work, especially when it comes to filtering through all the false advertising, but it doesn’t have to be. In an era of misinformation and misunderstanding, we seek to bring the right, true and helpful information to light.
If you are just starting your sustainable journey, we recommend reading The Plastic Problem and What We Can Do About It as a Consumer. Beyond reducing plastic though, a shift in your mindset to less is more, using your power as a consumer to choose conscious, sustainable brands who promote a more circular closed loop system, combined with the integration of small sustainable changes to your daily habits is a strong foundation to build upon.
We’re here for you always, rooting for you on your sustainable journey. If you ever have questions or sustainable lifestyle tips you think would benefit our community do not hesitate to DM us on Instagram or email us at hello@thesistain.com.
To reduce the harmful environmental effects of consumerism, we have to move forward, together imperfectly, but collectively.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jaclyn Tracy is the founder of SISTAIN. Her goal is to make a greater difference by educating, activating and making sustainable consumerism not only easier, but aspirational. She believes success is in the collective impact, getting a whole group of people to change their behavior by committing to choosing sustainable brands, less waste and imperfect progress. Jaclyn is also the founder of Brand Effect, a holistic digital marketing agency.
