One of the most powerful things a person can do is remember that they always, always have options.

I find myself constantly struggling to remember that there is more than one way to live my life. It is very easy to make routine decisions. It is very easy to stop thinking critically about the patterns you find yourself falling into.

I’ve worked for a variety of employers who provide valuable services to the community. But I still feel that I end up doing more to perpetuate the broken cycles most Australians currently live in than I do to help push things towards a smarter, kinder, more sustainable world for all.

I am always looking for new ways to work on this. Currently, I’m doing the Living Smart course, paid for by my union, the CPSU/CSA. You can read what the union says about the course here.

Living Smart is a 6-ish week course devoted to examining living a sustainable existence – socially, economically, and environmentally. I’d include “spiritually” as well – while it overlaps considerably with “social”, to me “spiritual” is more strongly linked with the concept of developing a code of ethics and a mindset that supports you mentally and emotionally throughout your life – rather than living a life of burn-out, for example.

Living Smart is also concerned with health issues that arise from non-sustainable lifestyles. (Sustainability could be defined as an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. If an activity is said to be sustainable, it should be able to continue forever – nicked this definition from LandLearn NSW)

I am always looking for ways to live a simpler life focused on the things that really matter to me. This course has been helping me with this goal to an extreme. I’m definitely inspired by what I’ve learned so far (completed my third session yesterday).

Waste tracking

This week, we looked at waste – where do things go after we put them into our rubbish bin? How much landfill does an Australian produce each year? What effects does that have?

I’m currently doing a Waste Challenge to get an idea of just how much waste my lifestyle currently produces, and where there is room for improvement. To this end, I’m tracking everything I throw away for two weeks (non-organics only – organic material for the most part I can compost).

Living Smart has provided a worksheet for this, but I’m also keeping track online. You can view Week One (1.5 days in so far) here in my Google Spreadsheet.

I’m going to try to post some of the things I learn or change due to Living Smart on this blog, mostly just to reinforce what I’ve learned for myself. Very interested to hear any useful ideas or stories you might have relating to any posts on the subject, sustainability is all about communities!