Occasionally, I make a list of maxims and tips to remind myself of the actions and mindset I need to get better at adopting or the behaviors that I want to see in the world if I had my druthers. Here is my latest.
- Replace your lawn with native vegetation.
- Exercise your freedoms, accept your responsibilities, and anticipate the consequences of your actions simultaneously.
- Don’t “cancel” with drama; just quietly stop participating.
- Find ways to use renewable energy and keep more carbon in the ground year over year.
- Offer smiles and hugs, never demand them of others.
- Favor pedestrians over motorists.
- Plant more trees than a reasonable person should.
- Undermine fascists and authoritarians whenever possible.
- Be cheerfully petty if you must, but don’t be a jerk.
- Avoid idolizing billionaires. At ten million, people have won; hoarding everything after that tends to look gauche.
- Properly value individualism and collectivism without mixing up the appropriate time to demonstrate one or the other.
- Explore systemic flaws and experiment with ways to dismantle destructive practices that harm people who don’t look like you.
- Less “better” or “worse” and more “different.”
- There are both excellent and lousy leaders; most individuals know the difference, but many groups do not. Follow or be an outstanding leader.