Five months have passed since I wrote my first blog entry,
and set my initial goals for conscientious consumption. While I did not meet my
first objectives, I have not forgotten them, and have made some steps in the
right direction.
As a perfectionist, it is tempting to abandon projects when
I “fail” (note: labeling, all or nothing thinking) to complete them at the
highest standard possible. I entered into this experiment knowing that
immediate and complete “success” is not a realistic expectation.
In order to keep my momentum going, in this moment I choose
to withhold self-judgment and simply note some observations:
·
Goal 1:
o I
ended up modifying this goal to become
50% of the restaurants I visited would be locally owned establishments
and/or offer organic or local products.
o Most
times I eat out are for social reasons, time spent with friends. I noticed that
I felt discomfort in requesting that friends “limit” themselves to meet my
goals. However, I did end up
sharing my goal with a few people.
·
Goal 2:
o I
added organic products to my list.
o In
the last five months, it was this goal that I probably kept closest to.
o I
found it more difficult than I expected to find local products. (Gosh, a whole
lot of staples are from Pleasanton, CA!) As a next goal, I think I’ll seek more
info about seasonal foods.
·
Goal 3:
o This
was the most intimidating arena, even though the actual tasks I set forth
lacked a behavioral component. For some reason, buying food responsibly felt
less threatening than buying clothing. In general I despise the process of
shopping for clothes—it feels anxiety producing.
o Since
my last post, I went from unemployed to part-time employed. I “needed” some new
threads for my new job, and took advantage of post-holiday clearances at Target.
Hmm…
o Thanks
MSJ for wonderfully clarifying definitions for fair-trade, etc.
