Month: April 2013

Who would have ever thought that How I Met Your Mother’s most hysterical character would be so wise?

His go-to line: “it’s going to be legendary!”

I was feeling kind of down, and one of my best friends quoted him today to cheer me up. Which is just positive reinforcement of the idea that I am who I want to be. He said “Barney said something that I really agree with:

When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.”

Which is, really, all you ever need to keep in mind. We can all get bogged down by unhappy things – and that’s okay. But it’s also important to remember that you can change that. You are in charge of how you deal with your emotions. Most of the time, we can’t stop our feeling a certain way – but we can try and focus on how we get by.

Abraham Lincoln got it right, too.

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

So here’s to making ourselves happy, creating our own luck, and always remembering that we have to believe it to achieve it (my personal mantra, most of the time).

So back to being legendary. I have to believe I am. I have to embody it. I have to just be everything I want to be. I have to let it seep into my soul and intertwine with my DNA and just live it.

I think we all do.

For awhile now, I’ve felt stagnant. What am I doing? I’ve been the New SUB Sustainability Coordinator for the AMS since October and recently signed on for a new term.

And I can list off some of the projects that I’ve been working on implementing.

Solid Waste Accounting – we’ve completed the research, now is time for ensuring it’s presence for years to come in the building. Buying the technology, ensuring it’s proper operation, integrating it into our building monitoring system. This is proving to be the most time-sensitive issue as it’s idea coming late into the game. This will most definitely be important for waste reduction in the future.

Eco-to-Go Program – research portion is also completed. Now is time for it’s official acceptance into the New SUB/AMS food and beverage facilities. This is a program geared towards reducing container wastage. Students can pay a $5 deposit for a lunchbox/container that they can use in participating food outlets. These outlets will accept dirty containers or your membership card and serve your food in a new, clean container. It will be a huge asset in AMS’s operations and I hope to see it through!

The Palate Restaurant – concept restaurant for the AMS – can a outlet be viable if it does not make containers or cutlery available at all? Research from an LFS 450 group has been completed and we are in a review phase.

Sustainability Atrium, Pocket Lounge, Wall Art – Two projects from Applied Science have received funding and I am very excited to seem them implemented! We are also initiating several SEEDS project on “sustainable art” that will measure about 9ft by 9ft. These projects are also very exciting as the student groups will have a lot of artistic freedom to express their interpretation of “sustainability”.

However, for this second term, I really want to own it. I spent the majority of my term learning, settling and finishing from my predecessors. But I want to put my own personal touch to this position. To this building!

But I feel like I should be inspired. I feel like I am going through the motions. How can I get bored with a position that I want to make my life into?!?

I talked to a friend, who graduated from UBC in History last summer. He always likes to reassure me that no matter where I go with my degree, it’s who I am and my experiences that matter. And I should never lose sight of the opportunity I have right in front of me. He told me something that I feel everyone should know.

Don’t let yourself get bored. If it’s something you love, go get it. If you’re getting too comfortable, find every way you can to get uncomfortable. You aren’t driven if you aren’t uncomfortable. You’re not striving if you’re not uncomfortable. Get comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable.

Because at the end of the day, it’s up to you. To do the work that you want to do. To take the opportunity that is in front of you and make it worth it.

And I want it. I want it so much – I want to work every day to get better at it. To do better at this thing that I feel so in over my head with. Because it’s okay. It should motivate me. That’s what this is about. Being over my head and climbing that cliff to get over it.

That’s what my life is about – what sustainability is about.

It’s about constantly, relentlessly, persistently striving to be better. To be more sustainable.

—

I end with two things written on my white board at work.

“At the heart of sustainability is innovation.” I tell myself this every day. Because if we’re not trying, we’re not getting better. We aren’t going to achieve the “impossible” of today.

“Persistence is key.” Left to me from my predecessor, Andy Longhurst. His words of wisdom. And I thank him every day for it. When it comes to this, if I want to make this my life, this is the key. Never stop pushing for the better. Because sooner or later, they’ll have to meet you there.

 

 

I’m looking into doing a Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) project in the summer. I think mainly I want to focus on a successful building monitoring system for the New Student Union Building (SUB). I have been looking for a project that I feel like I could put my heart researching into…and I think this might be it.

The building monitoring system not only will help track metrics for the AMS Lighter Footprint Strategy, but also have a user interface component meant to promote behaviour change for those who walk into the building and use the building on a daily basis. This is the part I’m most excited for.

Regenerative sustainability…it’s about positive motivation, right? Instead of doing less bad, how do we all do more good? How do we do this correctly? What is the best way?

Can this be an ongoing project for the New SUB? I don’t know if this is possible, but I hope so.

In one of the sustainability themed pocket lounges, there’s going to be a huge screen that students can interact with. Touch screen. Click on certain metrics to read more into certain parts of the building. In addition, there will be E-signage displayed across the building.

Some things I dream about: if in real time, we know how much water is being saved, compost is being utilized, waste is being reduced by the building – can these facts change behaviour?

Sometimes I just want to know. I just want to know I can do this. But I guess all I can do is dive head first into this unknown.

I was watching Amy Cuddy on TedTalks. Her story is amazing. After her accident, they said that she would never make it through college, but she did. They said it again and again. And she pushed back. Because it’s about if you believe in yourself. You just got to fake it.

Fake it until you become it.

I just want it to stop feeling like I’m faking it. I just want to be there already.

 

I think it happens to everyone – once we set on a path towards what we truly think we want to do….we get lost and lose the passion of why we truly did it in the first place.

I feel it’s been happening in more than one part of my life recently. Firstly in dragon boat. Our team has had our eyes set on both personal and two-year team goals. And I feel that those personal goals are taking over. And we’ve lost sight of what dragon boat is truly meant to be – passion, dedication, working together. As a team, for a team.

I suppose the same can be said for me and this career path I’m on. I think it might have to do with the courses I am currently taking. 3/5 of them are required courses and I’m just not feeling the life that I’ve been dreaming about.

I remember very clearly when sustainable living and inspiration through action became a passion. I remember how I spoke about sustaining our resources, and that the heart of the problem was not in the fact that we were using resources – but that we are using too much. That we were using too many unnecessary resources. That we can all live with a little less. But I spoke it with such ease. With positivity – with – I don’t know…with something that made others want to do it as well.

They say it’s not about what you say – not about how much logic you make – not how much effort you give. At the end of the day, it’s about how you make others feel when you speak. What is your presence? What is your drive? If your whole self is inspiring, then you will be. Because that’s what other people will remember.

When I say I want to rekindle the fire, I mean I want to feel consumed. Consumed by an unending burn that is within me. So immersed in it that it becomes me. I want that presence. I want to be that presence. I want the whole world to make sense. And try as I might, I can’t seem to find it right now.