Opportunities for the individual
Your own choices matter. No single person can solve sustainability problems, but everyone has a shared responsibility.
Photo: Canva.
With all due respect to the difficulty of changing behaviors, we still hope that you will find your own joy, driving force and part of the big picture. Start by thinking about which sustainable development behaviors would be meaningful for you to change in your daily work or in education and research. Feel free to start with a behavior that you think would not be too difficult to change.
Tips for changing behavior
- What can you gain from changing the behavior?
- Are there any possible barriers to the new behavior? Are they related to your psychological or physical capabilities? What physical or social opportunities exist or are missing? What about your motivation, is the behavior something you both want and need to change?
- What do you need to overcome these barriers? Do you have a need for more competence, autonomy or a sense of belonging?
- How can you make the change more enjoyable?
- Dare to experiment. You don't have to find the optimal solution right away.
- Do you have a colleague you can team up with? Maybe there is someone else who wants to change the same behavior as you!
- Who could give you feedback on your behavior and how do you want to receive feedback? Feel free to involve people around you who can warmly see and lift your progress but also support you if you encounter obstacles.
- We will all face challenges when trying to change our behaviors, which is only natural. Look at the challenge and reflect on what might be missing for it to succeed. Could it be aspects of competence, autonomy, or sense of belonging, and if so, what can you do to increase those aspects?
- Be happy and satisfied with what you accomplish!