Personal Life
For a person to be responsible for their action is a part of managing, and that is part of being managed sustainable. To be able to manage oneself sustainable there are many factors to consider, because to be able to manage oneself a person needs to be able to see what they are doing unsustainable, and how to become sustainable. Using plastic bags at a check out line is unsustainable because it creates pollutants, but using reusable biodegradable bags can resolve the problem. This is not only environmentally sustainable, but it also improves the physical and mental sustainability of the person that uses the reusable bags. It is physical improvement because people do not have to live with the countless plastic bags on the Earth and the pollution that comes with it. It is also an improvement to mental sustainability, because the person that uses the reusable bags has feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing the right thing. Deciding to buy local food to make the community stronger through community sustainable management, can also be emotionally, environmentally, and physically rewarding.
Figure 1 Mckenzie shows how a person can look at a behavior that they are doing and determine if it is sustainable or not, and what they could replace the bad behavior with. Education of an individual would be the first step to deciding to take a step towards managing their lives sustainable. To manage a person life the benefits needs to be high and the barriers low. Good managing would come up with a competing behavior that has no barriers to it. To come up with a Competing behavior that does not have a barrier to it would involve good problem solving.
| New Behavior | Competing Behavior 1 | Competing Behavior 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived Benefits | |||
| Perceived Barriers |
Figure 2 Mckenzie is an example of what a person might try to change in their life to make it more sustainable. Taking the bus instead of walking helps the environment, but it also loses time spent with family. The bus is in the middle of walking and taking a taxi, but another option that is not on the list is riding a bike. Good sustainable management would include all the options that are possible, and new options that were not available before. These figures are tools that can be used in helping people manage their lives sustainably, but there are other ways to think about their lives to become more sustainable.
| New Behavior Walk to Work | Competing Behavior 1 Take a Taxi | Competing Behavior 2 Take the Bus in Winter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived Benefits | Helps the Environment | Time with Family | Cheaper than Taxi |
| Perceived Barriers | Lose time with family | No alternative/Costly/Bad for the environment | Loses more time with family |
Read more about this topic: Sustainable Management
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“The white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.”
—Policy statement, 1944, of the Youth League of the African National Congress. pt. 2, ch. 4, Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope (1988)
“For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)