Have Faith in your Community

When I first started my sustainable behavior challenge, I was overwhelmed with the new responsibility I was taking on. As time went on and the weeks passed, I became more and more adapted to the system, learned about the barriers surrounding food waste, and acted on them. The main issue I was dealing with was myself believing that my overall input was so minuscule that it was almost insignificant.  When we formed communities however, this feeling I had went away.

The communities (class groups) were formed based on your behavior change. This way, people with the same behavior changes could communicate with each other and have people to turn to when the going gets tough. It can be very reassuring when you read about someone going through the same struggles you are and how they are coping with those struggles. Having a community can spark new ideas and provide extra motivation to stick with your SBC.

Reading up on my community’s posts regarding food waste, I realized that we were all dealing with some of the same barriers, and using related tactics to attain our ultimate goal of reducing food waste. Overall, the barrier we all had in common I thought, was in one way shape or form, being forgetful. This did not surprise me because it can be difficult, I’ve found out, to remember to act in a different way than you have your whole life instantly. Behavior change is a slow process. A tactic I thought most of us shared was the concept of only putting food you know you can eat on your plate, and then returning for more if needed. This could have been popular because, in my opinion, one of the first things a person thinks about if they are trying to reduce their food waste is the amount of food on their plate and whether or not they can finish it. The idea behind this tactic is, less food on plate=less food waste.

One of the major differences I saw between my posts and some of the members in my group were the differences in barriers. One of my barriers of food waste is my friends. The reason behind this is because friends, or other people can distract you from your goal through conversation. However, through reading the posts of my group, I came to realize that friends could also help to smash through barriers. If you let your friends in on what your goal is, and how important it is to you, then they can help keep you in line. This was surprising to me and provided me with a way to not see my friends as barriers.

The feeling I was talking about at the beginning of this post was one of uncertainty. Knowing that there were other people in my class that wanted to change the same behavior as I did and make a difference in the world was a very uplifting feeling. If people can rally and find a behavior to change, they should know that they are not alone. They should know that making a difference in this world is not something that someone just gets out of bed one day and accomplishes. It takes time, and a collaborative effort, which is what I believe I have begun to find through our ephemeral and formal community.

 

Image reference:

http://relevance.com/blog/5-steps-to-grow-your-online-community/