Homesteading Lifestyle

My Thoughts on Sustainable Living and Homesteading Part 2

Last week I talked about my thoughts on sustainability from the perspective of physical and emotional health and having the right mindset.  I shared some of the struggles I had in the past and some I’m still dealing with. If you missed it, you can find part 1 here.

 
Today I’m going to share my thoughts on sustainable living from the perspective of goal setting and setting up your homestead that will nurture financial health as well. 
As I mentioned in my last email when we hear the word “sustainable”, we often don’t think about it in a holistic sense. Sustainability is something you and I can achieve in every part of our lives. It really comes down to the idea that we build the life we want. We set in motion our dreams by setting intentions, plans and boundaries to make our dreams become a reality.
 
I am very fond of goal setting. I love writing down my goals and working little by little to achieve them. One of the most useful ways for me to be intentional about goal setting is to keep a journal. I will write my goals usually quarterly and reflect on them from time to time. I did this a lot when building our first homestead. I just used a simple composition notebook to keep all my thoughts in. 
 
While I did very well at putting my goals down on paper, I was not as good at setting realistic goals for the time frame, financial capabilities or spouse involvement abilities. My error wasn’t that I recorded all my dreams for our farm, it was that I expected things to get done sooner than they actually did. I expected progress to happen faster. I think we fall into this at certain times so I’m not being down on myself for doing it. However, if I had just had a more sustainable approach to goal setting it would have likely avoided a lot of frustrations. My point is, really evaluate your goals list. Put the high priority things first on the list and as you check them off, move on to the next item. Many of your projects will have to be done simultaneously and that’s ok too.
 
As far as the financial side of sustainability, it’s very much related to goal setting. Are you setting yourself up for financial success by diversifying your income sources or are you putting all your eggs in one basket (literally and figuratively :D)? Have you considered what will happen if things cost more money and time than you planned?  I’ll go more into our plan for financial sustainability in another email. We have really started thinking outside the box on this subject as we have found this lifestyle has some special challenges.

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