So, many of you know that I work a business/office-type job by day helping out family as I make shifts and transitions in my own life. An interesting aspect is that one of those businesses is run out of my home and the other business is less than a 1/4 mile from my home. Therefore, hopping in my car and driving to work seems silly, right? Yet I sometimes find my car parked in the parking lot. Every morning on my way into work, I ride my bike. Then on my lunch break, I ride back home (I timed it... it takes me 43 seconds on the "uphill" way.) However, after my 30 minute lunch break is up, I go to the post office and bank to drop the mail and make the daily deposit.
Picture this: The post office is about 1/2 mile from my home and the bank, another 1-1.5 miles... so I have about a 2 mile radius of where I have to travel any given day -- yet I use my car for 50% of it. Why? Multiple reasons factor into this. One is that in the world of business, time is money -- get done what needs to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible and then get back to work to continue the next task. This is an aspect of our society and in the corporate/business world that I understand and follow suit, yet have a really difficult time wrapping my brain around in regards to quality of life. You know, in many other countries outside of the United States, businesses close down for an hour or two in the middle of the day to allow employees time to take NAPS! Their core structure is built on the belief that employee wellness = business productivity. Wow, what a concept and I believe they are 100% getting it right. The second reason I'm in my situation is simply this: I made a choice to inject myself into a career that doesn't have wellness as a part of their fundamental core and therefore have just accepted what I perceive to be "the rule" and fell in line with the current practices of business, rather than standing up and taking a non-traditional approach. I could attempt to implement an employee wellness program - to encourage the other 3 employees who live just as close as I do, to not use their cars but to walk or ride their bike. I could suggest having a lunch hour vs. a lunch 30 minutes, and I could certainly implement a wellness program that encouraged and motivated employees to get up and moving around throughout the day rather than being married to their desks and computer screens -- can you see a group stretch routine at the office? Meet me at the copier for 5 minutes at 1:35 every afternoon and I'll lead a group stretch routine. Good stuff right here!
I'm writing this because part of me connects to how much power I have to make change -- but also how complacent I have become to just follow the rules and get back to the daily grind. Another part of me connects to how incredibly silly it is that I even HAVE a car because everything is so close in proximity to where I live. I make a car payment every single month for a car that is driven less than 150 miles week which includes my 90 mile round trip to teach at Rowan once per week. Most of those other miles are driving the 2.5 miles it takes to get to the beach with my dog, Abbey. To make a shift in not having the burden of maintaining a vehicle, I would simply have to coordinate borrowing someone's car one day per week for a couple of hours which I'm sure that if I had to, I could easily figure out since 90% of my entire family (I'm including 2nd and 3rd cousins here) live within a 5 mile radius of me. Yet I still choose to have my own and feel the financial burden and physical burden I face by having it.
See, cars are a convenience in today's world -- they are no longer seen as a luxury, rather a necessity. My situation is one of the more extreme cases as most people don't work within a 1/4 mile of their home, don't have a grocery store 1/2 mile away, etc. However, many people live close enough to some of these things where walking or riding a bike could easily become a main form of transportation, or at least an alternative on SOME days. Making this simple shift into riding your bike when just going up the street, or choosing to ride your bike to work a few days per week instead of driving -- well, not only does it help cut down on the pollutants in our environment, help save gas and help cut down on traffic that crowds the streets, it is a built in way to ensure that you are getting some kind of physical activity into your life without even having to think about it -- a two for one kind of deal -- which for my multi-tasking Type A personality, makes me super excited for!
My goals this upcoming week are to ride more and drive less. Here's to implementing change!
Picture this: The post office is about 1/2 mile from my home and the bank, another 1-1.5 miles... so I have about a 2 mile radius of where I have to travel any given day -- yet I use my car for 50% of it. Why? Multiple reasons factor into this. One is that in the world of business, time is money -- get done what needs to get done as quickly and efficiently as possible and then get back to work to continue the next task. This is an aspect of our society and in the corporate/business world that I understand and follow suit, yet have a really difficult time wrapping my brain around in regards to quality of life. You know, in many other countries outside of the United States, businesses close down for an hour or two in the middle of the day to allow employees time to take NAPS! Their core structure is built on the belief that employee wellness = business productivity. Wow, what a concept and I believe they are 100% getting it right. The second reason I'm in my situation is simply this: I made a choice to inject myself into a career that doesn't have wellness as a part of their fundamental core and therefore have just accepted what I perceive to be "the rule" and fell in line with the current practices of business, rather than standing up and taking a non-traditional approach. I could attempt to implement an employee wellness program - to encourage the other 3 employees who live just as close as I do, to not use their cars but to walk or ride their bike. I could suggest having a lunch hour vs. a lunch 30 minutes, and I could certainly implement a wellness program that encouraged and motivated employees to get up and moving around throughout the day rather than being married to their desks and computer screens -- can you see a group stretch routine at the office? Meet me at the copier for 5 minutes at 1:35 every afternoon and I'll lead a group stretch routine. Good stuff right here!
I'm writing this because part of me connects to how much power I have to make change -- but also how complacent I have become to just follow the rules and get back to the daily grind. Another part of me connects to how incredibly silly it is that I even HAVE a car because everything is so close in proximity to where I live. I make a car payment every single month for a car that is driven less than 150 miles week which includes my 90 mile round trip to teach at Rowan once per week. Most of those other miles are driving the 2.5 miles it takes to get to the beach with my dog, Abbey. To make a shift in not having the burden of maintaining a vehicle, I would simply have to coordinate borrowing someone's car one day per week for a couple of hours which I'm sure that if I had to, I could easily figure out since 90% of my entire family (I'm including 2nd and 3rd cousins here) live within a 5 mile radius of me. Yet I still choose to have my own and feel the financial burden and physical burden I face by having it.
See, cars are a convenience in today's world -- they are no longer seen as a luxury, rather a necessity. My situation is one of the more extreme cases as most people don't work within a 1/4 mile of their home, don't have a grocery store 1/2 mile away, etc. However, many people live close enough to some of these things where walking or riding a bike could easily become a main form of transportation, or at least an alternative on SOME days. Making this simple shift into riding your bike when just going up the street, or choosing to ride your bike to work a few days per week instead of driving -- well, not only does it help cut down on the pollutants in our environment, help save gas and help cut down on traffic that crowds the streets, it is a built in way to ensure that you are getting some kind of physical activity into your life without even having to think about it -- a two for one kind of deal -- which for my multi-tasking Type A personality, makes me super excited for!
My goals this upcoming week are to ride more and drive less. Here's to implementing change!