The green movement is a wonderful thing. I have been an environmentally conscious person since I was a kid. My first real taste of it was reading a small book about what was happening to the Earth because of our misuse. I was so moved by the book, my friend and I used our allowance money to make our own pamphlets and distribute them around the neighborhood. I’m not sure I made a difference in any of those lives, but I did change the lives of my parents. From that day on, they have recycled everything that they can.
I have always been particularly concerned with water, and as such, received a degree in Hydrology. I have been a water chemist, a research chemist (developing technologies to remove arsenic from drinking water in places such as Bangladesh), and now I am a researcher. Not the kind you would think though. I research environmental cleanups in America. The things I see astonish me… horrify me. Industry in past years did not concern themselves with the environment. Plants would often utilize large holes in the ground to dump not just solid wastes, but liquid wastes as well. Industry has historically been set up near sources of water, and it was for good reason initially. People believed that dumping into a water body would “wash” it away. They believed it was a safe choice. Obviously they were wrong. I’ve studies rivers so toxic, they flowed a different color each day depending on what was being dumped. I’ve seen landfills dug up where thousands of metal drums of toxic chemicals have been found damaged and leaking. I’ve seen sites where contamination is so bad it has adversely affected the health of the surrounding neighborhood (think Erin Brokovich). That movie is an amazing story, but it is so much more common than you would think. To say that we have learned from our mistakes would be to lie.
Many industries have simply moved away from America. Not just to cut costs of labor, but to avoid strict environmental regulation that increases the cost of their production. I remember a story in college about some companies that moved just across the border of Texas into Mexico so they could avoid such regulation. In the end, a small town in Texas felt the affects. There were stillbirths, and babies born with such horrific defects, they didn’t survive more than a few hours (born without brains). The waste coming from these plants ran through a drainage channel right through the center of a small village in Mexico. I can’t say for certain, but it’s likely that waste channel transported the waste into a pond or larger stream, which in turn delivered it to the groundwater.
Other companies just flat out disregard the environmental regulations. A friend of mine works as an air inspector in Kentucky. She talked to me about the frustration in going from plant to plant to inspect their emissions equipment. Basically, the industry considers the fines and penalty’s of having improper emissions to be a small price to pay when compared to buying expensive upgrades and operating business in an environmental way. The fines were affordable, so rather than do the right thing, they just take the quarterly fines. Her job felt meaningless to her, because no company would come into compliance when they could afford to pay to be non-compliant. And the state doesn’t want to increase the fine, for fear they’ll drive business away to another more forgiving state or worse yet, another country.
We all need to commit to living green in our own lives. Driving a hybrid- I’m sorry but a ginormous truck hybrid that only gets 20 mpg doesn’t count in my book- is a great start, and in the long run it’ll save you tons of money. Recycling, upgrading your house to eco-friendly lighting, and purchasing environmentally friendly products such as toilet paper and laundry soap are all great ways to make a difference in your life. Even still, we have a long road ahead of us if we truly want to see change. Industry is in the business of making money, and as we can see from our own lives, living green typically costs a little more. Unless it is financially advantageous for companies to start operating green, we will be fighting an uphill battle. The amount of wastes generated by production of goods as well as the pollution they emit into the air is of great consequence. We alone cannot reverse the effects of what is happening to our world. Industry must change with us. As individuals, we do not have the power to force a company to keep their plant in a country where they must pay to operate under environmental regulations. We do not have the ability to convince them that cutting into their profits to help the Earth is worth it to them. BUT… we have the power to buy and not to buy. I think that if numbers large enough committed to only buying from industries which were proven to be operating “green”, then suddenly it would matter to businesses. They can’t make money if we don’t buy, right? This is very much like trying to boycott Nike for moving their plants to a location where they could hire labor for pennies on the dollar. Not that the boycott was 100% successful, but we need to do the same thing to companies who refuse to operate in an environmentally friendly and conscious way. If nothing else, you owe to yourself to become aware of the companies that you buy from. There’s a good chance you can get an item for less money from a company who cuts corners, but if you’re committed to living green, than it is worth it to you to spend a few dollars more to buy from a company who is doing their part to help.
Here are some good resources to check out if you’re interested in learning more about industry’s role in our environmental problems.
For those of us in America:
- The Environmental Working Group has tons of great information about many different topics. Here’s one that is near and dear to my hear about MTBE. Learn how oil companies knew the dangers of MTBE, joked about it, lied about it, put it into our gasoline and what it has done to our groundwater.
- This is an EPA site that allows you to search for superfund sites in your state. A superfund site is a site where contamination is so bad, it receives special attention and funding. Do a search for you state (or even just your city). You might be surprised at how many there are. This is another EPA site that reports industries who utilize toxic chemicals in their operation. You can search by location, and even find out if they have any environmental violations.
- Maybe you’re not big industry, but if you own your own company, here are some tips on helping your company go green.
- Check out Co-op America. They “focus on economic strategies—economic action to solve social and environmental problems”. This site is also filled with good tips for your own home.
- Want to start shopping green? Check out the Eco Mall! You can shop by product or by company. This is a great way to start supporting the right companies, and to stop promoting industries that aren’t green.
For those of you not in America:
- find your country’s environmental regulatory agency. That’s the best place to start. Not only will you find information regarding hazardous waste problems where you live, but chances are there will be links to information on eco-friendly tips, businesses and organizations that you can help.
For Friday, I thought I would post on the lighter side. A little “food for thought” to work on over the weekend! I wanted to share with you some of my favorite quotes about life. Quotes can be the most profound way to see something from a new perspective, and that I think, is part of what personal development is all about.
The people who are attributed to these quotes are people whom I consider to be my examples of how I want to live my life, and so their quotes have more meaning to me than just the words they speak. Enjoy!
True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness. ~Albert Einstein
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change. ~Buddha
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. ~Elbert Hubbard
Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions. ~Dali Lama
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ~Henry David Thoreau
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves. ~Mahatma Gandhi
The most visible creators I know of are those artists whose medium is life itself. The ones who express the inexpressible without brush, hammer, clay, or guitar. They neither paint nor sculpt. Their medium is their being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see and don’t have to draw. They are the artists of being alive. ~J. Stone
I think sometimes the most meaningful thing we can do in our lives is just to be aware of the moment; Aware of ourselves and of others. I love these quotes because they reflect how I feel about life and what I strive to achieve everyday in my constant “work in progress”.
Happy Friday!
We should be what we want to be everyday, I’ll admit. Sometimes though, that’s easier said than done. Since Halloween is coming up I thought I would talk about how we can benefit from the holiday in a personal development kind of way.
Halloween gives us the ability to be something that we would otherwise feel to uncomfortable to be. A Halloween costume can be like a protective shroud… you can “let your hair down” and let go of many of your inhibitions because inside that costume you are “safe”. No one judges anyone on Halloween, so it’s your opportunity not just to dress up and have fun, but to make the holiday work for you!It’s literally your opportunity to be anything and anyone you want to be without any repercussions. What a gift!
Maybe you’re a talker like me, and would love to experience what it would be like to be quiet… a “fly on the wall”. Pick a costume that incorporates silence… a mime or monk or something of that nature (or, be a fly on a wall!). Maybe you’re an introvert who longs to know the feeling of being the life of the party! Pick a costume that not only lends itself to an outgoing personality, but also something that attracts attention and spurs conversation. You can even spend the day living as a person of the opposite sex, just to see what it’s like! One year, I was my “inner spirit” for Halloween. It was fun because that costume had no rules. I wore a collection of mismatched and unique “artifacts” that I thought represented me on the inside. There are lots of fun things that you can do, and none of them involve being a vampire, ghost, or rubber-masked freak. Think about what you sometimes wish you could experience, but have maybe been too inhibited (or concerned about judgement) and use Halloween to test the water. See how it makes you feel…
Here are some links to sites that offer great costume ideas, and some places online where you can buy whatever you need.
- About.com has a great article on finding costumes for married couples.
- Here’s a great store for getting the gear you need. It’s a good place to rummage around for ideas, too.
- Ehow has a great post on how to come up with a unique costume idea.
- Here’s an alphabetical list of costumes, with age appropriate information.
- Here are some women’s costume ideas, and a link for some “sexy” costumes if you’re lookin’ to go that route.
- AskMen.com has some costume ideas for men.
- For ideas on how to use stuff in your closet to make your costume, visit Costume Idea Zone.
- If you’re in need of some ideas for you kids (this is usually not a problem because kids are soooooo creative), here’s a site for the little ones…
- Finally, here are 101 Halloween Ideas!
Remember though, these places are great for ideas, but you’ll benefit more from the day of dress up if you choose something unique and that allows you to step outside of your box for this night… if a french maid costume does this for you, great! If not, use these links as a way to come up with something fresh!
Happy Halloween…
NFL, that is. As an American, I was naturally underexposed to the real Fútbol (not that I’m knocking the NFL… it’s just there’s very little foot action going on, ya know)? But, I digress. As I watched my Broncos get pummeled on Sunday, I got to thinking about some aspects to the game that emulate real life problems and solutions. Here are 6 ways that we can learn life lessons from watching an NFL game.
1. Winner’s Never Quit, and Quitters Never Win. This is the most obvious lesson I think. If any of you happened to watch the sad, sad game in Denver you know exactly what I mean. It holds true in every game, and in every life situation. If you give up, or believe that you cannot improve your situation, you will inevitably create failure. Any successful team or individual will tell you that they succeeded because they never gave up and they always believed they could do it.
2. Pay Attention to your Quarterback. Your individual QB is your intuition. What happens when you fail to listen? It’s a false start, and you lose yardage. Just like in the game, if you fail to pay attention to your inner voice, eventually you’ll lose ground. It can be difficult sometimes to hear with all the crowd noise, but trust me. If you learn to tune out the external and listen to the internal, everything will click just as it should.
3. Read the Plays ahead of Time. I myself, feel for the middle linebacker. It’s a tough job… one of the toughest, really. He’s got to do a lot of reading and problem solving and he typically has only a few seconds to do it. If he gets it wrong, the defense could give up big yards… BUT, if he gets it right he has prevented a situation from getting out of control. In life, we must read the situation the same way. What are the possibilities? What is the likely outcome? If I make this choice, what are the benefits vs. the consequences, and are they acceptable? Lucky for us, life usually gives us a little more time than the play clock.
4. Penalty’s Suck. You might as well shoot yourself in the foot. In a game, it can mean having a glorious 60-yard pass for a touchdown taken away on a 3rd and 20 because some guy in the line decided to hold. Ughh. In real life, the consequences can be just as severe. Cheating, lying and stealing your way through life may bring you short gains, but in the long run you’ll pay for it. Let’s face it. In all honesty, you might successfully progress through life (or a game) doing this consistently, but it only takes the one time to ruin all the progress you might have made. While sometimes it pays to be a dirty player in the NFL, it almost never plays to live life that way.
5. Change-up Your Playbook. Nothing works forever. Sometimes, you have to make changes to see progress. Change is good! If a defense played zone coverage through an entire game they would get their asses kicked! You gotta change things up and keep the opponent on their toes. Life is the same way. If you do the same thing day in and day out, you’ll find yourself stagnant. Change something… change your routine, change your exercise schedule, pick up a new hobby. Whatever it takes to mix things up. Trust me, it’s good.
6. Sometimes, ya gotta go for it on 4th down. This isn’t always the best idea, because there’s inherent risk. But, when life gets to the point where you feel as though you have nothing to lose… do it. Take the leap, believe in yourself and go for it. And sometimes you should do it even if you don’t feel you’re in dire straits. Why? Because it can often be win-win. If you succeed, you’ll have gained confidence and self-esteem (not to mention the actual success of what you’ve accomplished). If you fail, you learn! That’s no consolation prize either. The only way to grow is to learn from mistakes. If I thought my Broncos had learned from their mistakes yesterday, I might be ok with what I watched them do… but I’ll have to wait two weeks to find out.
See what I mean? I’m entirely sure that all sports probably have some juicy life lessons in them, but football’s the only one I’m even remotely qualified to talk about. Life isn’t a game, and I am in no way trivializing the journey; at the same time, it’s interesting to me to look at life in this way. To break it down into smaller components and compare it to something less “monumental” makes life seem simpler… less complicated.
*** Photo from Doug Pensinger/Getty Images (my own personal statement here: Al Wilson is the BEST middle linebacker ever and Denver misses him)
Do you know what your worth? Do you think that what you’re earning at your current job is equal or more than your worth? If you don’t know, here are some tips to figure it out.
- Go to a website, such as salary.com (there are other choices, too). Use one of the calculators to determine what the “going rate” is for your job in your city. Compare this to your salary.
- If you’re below the mean for your position, consider going to your boss with this information and ask for a raise. You determine your worth, not your boss! Check out this article on Forbes on tips for asking for a pay raise if you need some help.
- If you fall near or above the mean, than so far so good! The next step is to examine other aspects of your job. Things to consider include:
- Distance from home… i.e. how much time to you spend driving to and from work? How much gas and wear and tear on your car does it cost you? Write this down in two columns; one for cost related stuff, and another for hours.
- Job related expenses. We’re talking about things like expensive clothes, shoes, briefcases, etc. that you have to have to conform to work policies. Add them up (both hours spent and money) and add this info to your worksheet.
- Food. If you bring your lunch you’re probable doing better than most. But you also need to factor in business lunches if they’re not paid for by the company, coffee trips, etc.
- Decompression. If your job is stressful, how many hours each day are required to decompress when you come home? Write these hours in your spreadsheet.
- Overtime. How many hours per week do you work that you don’t get paid for? Write it down.
- Fitness/health. If you work a desk job, chances are you incur expenses for a gym membership to keep in shape. Yeah, this might not seem like a cost related to your job… however, many of us would not choose to sit our asses all day, but we do because we have to. If you fit this description, factor in the time used to go the gym and your weekly cost associated with a gym membership.
- Depending on your job, there might be other things to consider as well, but I’ll leave that up to you to sort out.
- Now, add up your 40 normal hours plus the drive time, overtime, shopping for clothes, decompression time, etc. and figure out on average how many hours you spend each week on work. You will likely be shocked at the number of hours… they’ll be way above 40.
- Next, take your monthly salary (use your take home… after taxes have been taken out), divide by four to get your average weekly salary. Divide that number by the number of hours you just computed above. This is your real hourly wage. It can be a shocking discovery. I learned that while I make over $20/hour, my actual wage is around $8/hour.
So, the next step if for you to decide if you think you’re worth this wage. Consider how much money you spend just to keep your job (obviously this was already factored into your real wage). Is it worth it? If you really like your job, look for ways to cut costs. Move closer to work if you can. Ask to work from home one day a week. Start bringing coffee and food for lunches from home. If you’re not that attached to your current job, now’s your chance to make a change. Find a job that has a good salary, is close to wear you live and has other perks… (like no dress-code or no required overtime, for instance). Regardless of whether this changes anything for you, looking at your job in this light will make you more aware of everything you do. Like I said before, no one but ourselves can determine our worth; if you’re not making what you believe you’re worth, than it is within your power to change that for the better.
This method came from a book called Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It’s a great book, and goes into far more detail than I have presented here. I would recommend the book to anyone looking to improve their life and their finances.
![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
