‘If’ thinking

Being climate conscious means not just deciding what to buy, but also if to buy.

Not just how to travel, but if to travel.

Not just what car to drive, but if you should even own a car.

Not just which supplier to use, but if you really need the things that supplier offers.

Not just what kind of packaging your product needs, but if it actually even needs packaging.

It’s opposite to how our brains have been trained to think – ads are designed to get you to buy more things, do more stuff. Choose; Decide; Pick one… Pick none is not really an option.

“If” thinking is retraining your brain, and it can be hard.

Try this

When you’re standing in front of a potential new purchase, look past the immediate promise it’s offering you and picture yourself at some point after the purchase, when it’s just another thing you own.

Are you still as excited to own it as you were just before you owned it? Do you use it as much as you thought you would? Would your life have been drastically worse if you just kept walking that day?

We rush to which one before we consider if we even really need one.

If the answer to the “if” really is yes…

…then ask which one.

Try it once.