Motivating towards Sustainability

July 18, 2019 AURELIS, Sustainability No Comments

How to attain durable motivation? Especially in case of a future-oriented goal such as sustainability, one needs to go towards ‘deep’.

People are difficult to motivate towards the future.

Not because ‘caring for the future’ is irrational, but because human motivation internally is not always rational. One can be motivated for a while, then things come between and gone is motivation. Every New Year, for instance. What comes between are mainly other motivations.

The winner takes it all? Perhaps for a while. In any case, sustainability needs to be deeply attractive. How?

Deep motivation towards sustainability is spiritual and ethical.

Without the need for imposing a particular belief, let alone in a vengeful God. Spirituality is a feeling of oneness, connectedness, oriented towards more than ego, towards ‘nature’, towards other people now and in the future.

Seeing linkages rather than separation.

This is also ethics: through oneself, helping others. Ethical persuasion is powerfully motivating, including towards sustainability.

Note that:

AURELIS is non-ideologically spiritual.

AURELIS is ethical: open, deep, free, respectful, trusty. [see: “Five Aurelian Values”]

AURELIS is a philosophy of growth: humanism including ecology. The ‘total human’ has nature inside. You cannot take care of one without the other.

Popular culture

creates a screen, primarily by shared values, beliefs, relationships, technological solutions…, in many tradeoffs, enabling information flow but also distorting it. Many elements together form an intricate self-perpetuating pattern. Changing only distinct elements hardly changes anything.

Thus, it’s important to place sustainability as a cultural norm, integrated into consumer expectations. Without attitudinal change, nothing changes durably. To accomplish this, social issues should be seen as part of the deal, in negative and positive ways, rather than as irrelevant obstacles.

We need to understand them. In order to understand them, we need to at least start positively.

For instance, sustainability is not easily reachable in austerity. People want to enjoy.

Positive messages are preferable.

Contrary to doom thinking, fear-mongering, trying to ‘scare into action’ as environmentalism sometimes does.

Note that:

AURELIS carries a very positive philosophy.

Moreover, good health frees up energy for participation. The message is indeed hopeful.

Needed for broad sustainability: rationality and depth

Without ethical depth, there is no durability in (reaching for) sustainability. Without values, there is no direction in which to be sustainable, nothing to be motivated towards.

Without rationality, even running in an ethical direction will not lead to much sustainability. Skepticism is necessary. Many idealistic environmentalists tend to overlook this. To them – as well as in much of popular culture – skepticism/rationality/objectivity appears cold and pointy-headed. This causes much wrong to the good cause, dividedness, aggression and loss of motivation.

Rationality and depth need to be brought together in other for sustainability to prevail.

Note that:

AURELIS is based on two principles: rationality and depth.

[see “AURELIS USP: ‘100% Rationality, 100% Depth’”]

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

AURELIS and the West

AURELIS is not an outsider to Western culture. It is part of its living thread — not as nostalgia, but as gentle remembering. By reconnecting with lost dimensions of introspection, dignity, and inner strength, AURELIS becomes the West becoming itself again. This is not critique. It is a breathing of what is ancient and vital. Read the full article…

Only Plants Themselves Are Able to Grow

The non-conscious is nature within you, the most natural part of your psyche. This is part of the series ‘A Journey through 12 AURELIS Metaphors.’ For an introduction to this series and a list of the 12 metaphors, click here. Imagine a garden. Within it, plants grow naturally, each one unique, shaped by its environment Read the full article…

AureliZEN: 5 – Open Leadership from the Inside Out

[For an introduction to the AureliZen series, goto AureliZEN: a Seminar Series for Deep Growth.] Leadership is poetry, not just management Many people think of leadership as a set of techniques — skills that can be learned and applied to manage people effectively. Real leadership is something much deeper. It is not just about what Read the full article…

Translate »