I was enjoying out walking my dog this morning, relishing the cool change that was blowing through and our record-smashing heat wave to an end.

With the breeze came an unmistakeable scent : bushfires.

Anyone who lived through the 2003 Canberra bushfires tends to have the same reaction : all our
senses prick up. We sniff the air and scan the sky. We are immediately alert to determine the source of the fire.

This is our animal survival instinct reminding us of our biology : that the goal of life is survival of the species. If the species is to survive, we must survive and pass our genes (and wisdom) on to the next generation.

We are in times that are very dangerous for the future of our planet’s ability to support life. Because of built-in lag times, our children and grandchildren are already facing a very different world to previous generations. They will experience much more extreme weather and worse food and water shortages than we have experienced to date.

And – if we continue to dig up, export and burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas – that will only get worse…to the extent that planet Earth will be uninhabitable for humans and most other species. 🙁

That’s why it’s so important to have survival as your primary focus.

Now, you may think that you already have survival as your primary focus. Maybe that’s why you work so hard trying to make a living, or just trying to get through the day. 😉

But, unless you are facing a life-and-death situation, when we talk about ‘survival’ in day-to-day conversation we don’t usually mean it in a literal sense.

Yet, that’s what we all need to focus on : survival in the literal sense.

Once we do that, how we go about our lives, the choices we make every day, are so much clearer.

And that’s because we have focus.

When we view things through the lens of survival, it becomes much easier to make choices we need to make to live sustainably and to create a sustainable world.

As one of the work’s leading authorities on achieving success, Brian Tracy, says:

Decide upon your major definite purpose in life
and then organise all your activities around it.

If we all did that (including the people leading our governments, businesses and other organisations), then the future survival of the human race would be assured…and we could get on with life and thrive. 😉

If you’d like some help making those choices, just contact me…or send me a voice message by clicking on the tab on the right. I work with individuals, organisations and businesses to help transition to sustainability – especially moving from dependence on fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) and increasing resiliency to climate change.

Till next time…be gentle to yourself and our world!

Image credit: gjermund / 123RF Stock Photo