The last few years, I’ve spent a significant chunk of time educating myself and trying to alter my own habits to be more environmentally friendly (as well as more frugal, and healthier to boot—more on this happy triangle in the next few days).

There’s no doubt that planting seeds and watching them grow is a lot of fun, and a much better hobby than watching TV as though it were a second job (which I used to do). And I feel good about the other choices I’ve made in my life, such as going mostly vegetarian, buying mostly organic, and living without a car.

In fact, if everyone made choices like these, we would be better off in terms of food and energy independence. But at the same time, I realize that victory gardens and driving less are not going to get us all the way to the magnificent future we envision. To make it over the hump, we need large-scale, systemic changes to the way we design and produce and consume and govern and live.

So then why do I eat beans and veggies, walk everywhere, and recycle like a fiend? If these changes aren’t enough anyway, why bother? There are several good reasons, I think.

First off, I need to be able to look myself in the eye and not be ashamed. After all I’ve read and learned and discussed, eating factory farmed meat and driving everywhere would just feel wrong. If we want to continue to grow and develop, we need to live up to the highest knowledge we have attained so far. So my day-to-day activities need to reflect what I’ve come to understand.

This is not to say that everyone’s day-to-day activities need to reflect what I’ve come to understand. We each have our own decisions to make, and I’m not in the business of telling people what to do, or looking down my nose at their choices. (I stopped being Hermione Granger a long time ago!)

But, this leads us to the second reason that individual action is important. Whenever we undertake activities that are a bit outside the norm, we stand as an example that it can be done, and it gives us an opportunity to share what we’ve discovered with others in a relevant, personal, and powerful way.

For instance, last Friday my company spent the morning volunteering in Central Park, cleaning and painting benches and fences. That was the same day I was going to pick up my worm bin, and I was excited about it. So when people asked me what my plans were for the weekend, I told them about my worms. Some folks thought it was really cool; others surprised me by having advice and stories about their own efforts at composting.

Of course, some of my colleagues looked at me like I was crazy for voluntarily bringing worms into my home, but that’s cool, too. These folks know me and know that I’m not a total kook. So my actions stand as one more drop in the bucket of what’s possible. Maybe the next time they hear about worm composting they will have something to contribute to the conversation: “Oh yeah, this girl I work with does that!” Seed planted = mission accomplished.

The last and possibly most important reason that individual action matters is what it does to the individual who undertakes the project. I have been changed by what I’ve learned and what I’ve done with that knowledge. Three years ago, before I got all up in this eco thing, the idea of going off the grid and urban homesteading would have sounded nice, but very far out of the realm of possibility for my life. Now, they are very real options that I am considering in the near future.

Every step we take widens the circle of what is possible. Today we recycle; tomorrow maybe we grow food on our rooftops, or live in beautiful communities where we don’t need cars, or use tiny little antennas to heat, cool, and replace power plants. There’s no telling where we will end up as we investigate and experiment and fail and succeed. But in order to get anywhere, we need to get started. And individual lifestyle changes are where most of us can have the most impact immediately—both on the planet and on ourselves.

So please don’t think that recycling and buying green and paying attention to food miles are going to save the world. But please also don’t wait another minute to open your mind by looking at your habits, deciding which could use a re-vamp, and committing yourself to making changes.

This is why we are running challenges at The Sunny Way, and a large part of why we started this site to begin with—not because changing our habits is THE solution, but because opening our minds is. We need to support one another as we do the hard work of expanding the circle of possibilities in our own lives, and therefore in the world at large. As individuals, we can make changes in our own lives, and we can also choose to come together to change things on a larger scale. Stay tuned to The Sunny Way for both kinds of challenges.

(image by STOUTCHIE via flickr)