The Changeling

 

For as long as I can remember, I have been the kind of person who seeks out personal transformations. I embrace new experiences with the expectation that I can grow towards a stronger, wiser, braver and happier person. I am thrilled to finish a challenging project, try out a new hobby or travel somewhere new. I certainly enjoy novel experiences for the joy of the activity. But, I can gain something more than just the pleasure from the activity- I can be transformed by them. Striving towards personal transformation helps me to live each day with more gratitude. We receive only one body, one mind, one life and one world. But we do get many chances to explore change and strive towards growth.

My blog is concerned with how we can make small changes that improve our lives for our personal benefit. I want to explore how a person can drink more water, eat less beef or sustain their household’s recycling project. The techniques I will research should help me make simple and successful changes to my life. They should also provide me with a means of taking on a few simple and successful responsibilities that benefit more than myself. I am passionate about environmental issues, so I will focus on the Anthropocene.

I will explore a variety of methods that help an individual understand what motivates them and how they can sustain changes they make. Some of the research I will use comes from what we know as “self-help” books. But, I find that the less pretentious and obtrusive material is often the most useful and relatable. So the material I will be drawing from is largely pragmatic and focuses on changes in our behavior and attitudes.

I will use this space to educate others about personal transformation techniques. As well as a place to track progress through my own goals.
I want to demonstrate that these techniques can be used to achieve simple or elaborate goals. Being transformed is a process that requires deliberation from beginning to end. But when we succeed, we get to revel in the pride of seeing our “before and after” selves.

Admittedly, means of personal transformation is not easy. The planning and execution of goals can be tiring, frustrating, irritating. But there are strategies we can use that make personal transformations easier. We can work to understand what motivates us as individuals to meet our goals and pursue transformations.

We all have various personal goals that we would like to attain and transformations we pine for. There is one is universal transformation that we must all embrace: improving the state of our environment. In the same way that I can transform into someone who exercises regularly, I can become someone who recycles habitually.

My blog is concerned with how we can make small changes that improve our lives for our personal benefit. I want to be a stronger, wiser, braver and happier person and particular strategies can help me do that. But they should also provide me with a means of taking on a few simple and successful responsibilities that benefit more than myself, like the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene can be understood as the way in which human beings have changed the geological processes of the earth. Human activity has so definitively changed the earth that it is unlikely that environmental regulations and technology can provide all the solutions. Far too often, we divert responsibility for the Anthropocene and leave the solutions for others to manage. Politicians and scientists may develop strategies that will make a grand, positive impact on the environment. Yet, we can only guarantee and control our impact and how we behave. We are all participants in the Anthropocene, so we are all responsible. It’s worth discovering whether some techniques can simultaneously help us personally and help our environment.

I believe in the power of personal transformation. We have to start somewhere. So let’s begin here. We have to start sometime. So let’s begin now.