The Sustainability Burpee

I’ve been going to a CrossFit gym. Now, while I’m an active person by nature over the years I’ve not been much of a person to go to a gym in the first place, and less likely to go to a group class at a gym where squats, wall balls, kettle bell swings, and burpees are accompanied by sweaty classmates, grunting and breathing hard. All at 6am. It’s not particularly pleasant, nor comfortable, but I feel better after, and in a twisted sort of way, now that I’ve gotten into it, it’s kind of fun. The data supports this feeling. These types of exercises — when done regularly, with good form and an appropriate amount of weight — are good for the mind and body.

On my bookshelf behind me now at work are some of the most compelling books on sustainability in the world. I pride myself on my scholarship and this is the cream of the crop chosen from literally hundreds if not thousands of books and periodicals on this fascinating, if somewhat esoteric, subject. Together, the facts and figures these books draw upon make a pretty compelling case for a radically different economy, society and human behavior set. After 20+ years pondering this stuff I’ve come to realize that it’s not rocket science. Sustainability is actually simple, but not easy.

Ok. What do CrossFit and sustainability have in common?

First, it isn’t for lack of information that people don’t act in accord with their own individual and collective best interests. The numbers of books on sustainable development, business and economy are only exceeded by prolific amounts of health and nutrition books stuffing Amazon’s distribution centers. Understanding ‘what is good for me’ is the booby prize when it comes to personal health, community and ecology. Action is required.

Second, on the topic of action, we tend to collapse the distinction between the effort needed to read a book — or understand something — and the effort needed to behave differently. This is especially noticeable in my work as a management consultant. Clients are often more interested in understanding a situation than they are in acting to make it better. But it can take a lot of effort to truly understand something. The health club business is premised under this reality — people will sign up for the membership, but a high percentage of them don’t actually come to the gym.

Third, we’re drawn by most of today’s marketed gadgetry into a warm cocoon of comfort and ease, which is in contradiction to the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of disciplined approach to behaving differently. Not only do we have books and TV on health and sustainability, we now have apps, educational video games and driverless cars that allow us to read our books, watch TV and play video games. Soon we won’t have to do much of anything; we’ll just blog about it (if it doesn’t take too much work or time). Also, just for the record, a lot of what gets measured, doesn’t actually get managed, at least very well. Generally, only the easy stuff gets managed. In my life, things I’ll be mostly doing anyway. In my business, those things that will obviously save or make money.

Fourth, disciplined and repetitive action is required for change. At the end of the day, if I want to get stronger, I must put in the time appropriately pushing myself. The same is true with all sorts of sustainability-related work in society and business. Any kind of effective action for ‘change’ requires controlled risk taking. In CrossFit, you might hurt yourself, or look bad in front of your peers; when leading sustainable innovation, you might have to do the same.

My recommendation: set the clock for 5:30am and get yourself to the gym, and then commit yourself to literally acting in a new way consistent with your sustainability beliefs. It’ll be a bit painful, but your feel happier and healthier in the end.