Hi I’m Ariel, Sci-Fi fan, geography/urban studies/sustainability nerd, and financial educator.
For years I struggled with figuring out what I wanted and how to get it. My search started early because while I loved my family and they were good people, they weren’t happy, in fact they were unhappy a lot of the time – fights were frequent, pretty much daily – often it was money, or it was my mom’s house (we didn’t have the term hoarding yet, otherwise, we might have understood and gotten help).
Fortunately, I was a quiet kid who loved to read, so I turned to books – especially personal development. The things I read gave me hope. I kept reading, kept learning, kept trying.
Overcoming fear was one of my biggest challenges. But I also wanted to be happy. Through books of the same title, I learned to “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” (Susan Jeffers) and that, “Happiness is a Choice” (Barry Neil Kaufman).
I know what it’s like to want a better life and to struggle to create it. But, in the last few years, things started to come together and I believe that the following are important pieces of living better and creating a better world:
Happiness – rather than coming from achievement or outside conditions, it’s a feeling that comes from within us and it can help us to not only feel better but also to do better. Knowing that we’re enough is an essential piece which is also foundational to figuring out what is essential to us. Without the knowledge that we are enough, we tend to look outside of ourselves and try to prove our worthiness by accomplishments or status symbols. This is why some who seem to ‘have made it’ can actually feel unworthy, unhappy and wonder if this is all there is. Without happiness, including the knowledge that we are enough, we spend time, money and energy on things that later become clutter and debt.
Financial education and a better relationship with money – When people are more financially literate and change their relationship with money, they make better and more empowering decisions. They’re quicker to realize that it’s better to put their money into assets instead of ‘things’ to impress others. The challenge is social influence and that we don’t see people saving money and growing wealth, we see people spending money and accumulating things and get the misperception that they are wealthy (we don’t see their bills or their debt would be more visible to us and we might think twice about following their example).
Health – Our health is the foundation of our lives. Many have already written about the benefits of walking or biking instead of driving and eating more plant based meals. It’s important to recognize the key role that health and wellbeing plays in our lives, and our happiness.
Relationships and Experiences – When it comes to our lives, relationships and experiences are ‘the good stuff’. Ironically, we spend a great deal of time chasing a lifestyle that we believe our family wants, but too often it costs our time away from our family and likewise takes us from them. Does your family really want that lifestyle? I believe that most families would choose more time with us instead of a fancier home or fancier car.
In short, now that I’ve learned how to enjoy a great life – I want to share it with others. It’s taken me years to figure these things out and I want to shorten the learning curve for you.
Along the way, I made a surprising discovery that contrary to the story that we have to give up living well to help the environment – the changes we make to live happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives are not only better for us but also better for the environment.
One of the wonderful things about this is that this happens whether the person cares about the environment or not. This is important because there are many people who either don’t feel concerned about the environment or they’re overwhelmed and don’t believe they can make a difference.
While concern for the environment is part of the mission of Better Living Better World, my primary mission is to help people live better, happier, and healthier lives by helping people to get clear on what’s really important to them and develop better habits and strategies to get there.
While just living better alone won’t solve all of our environmental problems, I believe that every little bit is important. What’s more, I believe that when we’re better equipped to solve our individual problems, we’ll find that we’re also better equipped to solve our collective problems.
Better Living, Better World – Intentionally Happy, Incidentally Green