Designing Your Life Based on Permaculture Principles (Part 3): Harvesting the Results
In the next part of this series, we will apply permaculture principles to harvest results in the lifestyle you desire.
Are you living a healthy, balanced life, or do you need to redesign certain aspects, such as your work, your time, the food you eat, your finances, or the way you take care of your own health?
In the natural world, everything has a purpose. This is the basic rule for designing a garden based on permaculture principles. Each part of the system should serve at least one purpose, and any parts that do not serve multiple purposes should be removed.
1. Work
An average person works 40 hours a week. If you wake up at 7 a.m., go to bed at 11 p.m., and work 8 hours, then 50% of your day is spent on work. Ask yourself, “What is the return I gain from investing in this resource?” Time is a non-renewable resource, whereas money can be regenerated. We should be very cautious when trading something non-renewable for something renewable. If the profit you pursue is simply to earn money, that is fine, there is nothing wrong with it, as long as the other principles in your life are also observed. What matters is to determine what you wish to gain from trading your time, so that you can focus on harvesting the appropriate results.
2. Time
If you are using up all of your precious time, are you gaining any benefit from it? Throughout our lives, we do many things out of habit. When you step back and observe these things, you will see that they sometimes do not bring much value to our lives. In addition, if those activities do add value for you, could they be carried out more productively? Observe how you use your time throughout a day or a week, and identify the benefits that time brings. Try to save your time as much as possible.
3. Food
Look at the quality of the food you are eating. Are you receiving abundant nutrients and vitamins from that food? If you are eating junk food, you will certainly receive fewer nutrients than if you eat healthy food. For this reason, consider the nutrients and vitamins you can take into your body before choosing your food.
4. Finances
Do not be afraid to ask for payment for the work you do. Most of the time, when doing work you are passionate about, you may easily agree to do it for free or at a low cost, because the time you spend seems less wasted than on work you do not enjoy. This has happened to many permaculture practitioners. This is a good thing, but you need to understand that you can absolutely earn a profit based on your passion, and it can even become your main source of income. Do not hesitate to earn financial profit from the things you love!
5. Exercise
We often have the habit of exercising without fully designing the way we do it. In running, there is a term called “junk miles,” when you do not gain much fitness because of your pace and the distance you run. If you put more effort into your workout, whatever type it may be, you can gain even more from the same amount of time invested.
Reference: Designing Your Life with Permaculture, Josh David [online], available at: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/Designing-Your-Life-Permaculture?fbclid=IwAR3o5P5yfJ09U-9CzclJTi5lmiJKgaLxIMjguGJbuEDn_Gb4jsjIyXBsHfI
This article belongs to the Permaculture category – sharing methods for designing lifestyles and practicing sustainable agriculture according to Permaculture principles.
