The world is talking about making a change by doing what we can to protect the nature from… ourselves!
We talk about nature being polluted without realizing that we are polluting it and that we can make an effort to start making better decisions. This is what this article is about.
First of all, let’s find out why is it so hard for us to recycle.
There’s a bunch of reasons for that. First, it’s the inner psychological mechanisms that make us take short-term decisions instead of long-term. Our minds are constantly trying to find ways to get instant appraisal, and it seems like recycling doesn’t deliver that.
The famous Harvard psychologists Baumeister and Thaler in their book on Will-power write that the ability to retent the long-term goal in one’s mind deretmines if one will make a short-term or a long-term choice. In regards to recycling, it seems like there’s no instant gratification linked to it, so you should either come up with one or get it somewhere else.
What are our options then?
One of the solutions can be positive feedback from the people around you. You have probably heard of the influence that other people may have on your behavior. We will do what’s expected of us and will try to become that version of ourself that we wish others saw. Why not make use of this influence to help us keep the focus on the environment?
So, if I tell myself that I’ll do something, I may or may not do that. But if I tell someone else – or even worse a group of people – I’ll do the thing one hundred percent!
- Share your recycling goals on Facebook
- Tell your friends and family about how important daily recycling is
- Get involved in groups of like-minded people.
I hope my reflections help on your way to being more responsible towards the nature.