THE LEAFLET

It’s that time of year again. We greet 2024 with excitement and thoughts of change for the coming year. We often commit to these thoughts of change by making new year’s resolutions. We may or may not have officially made new year’s resolutions, but at minimum, we mused on changes we’d like to make, goals we want to achieve, new hobbies we’d like to begin, or bad habits we’d prefer to quit.

We have great intentions – but studies show that anywhere from 80% to 90% of people fail to complete their new year’s resolutions. In fact, research shows that roughly a quarter of people abandon their resolutions in the first week, and almost half have quit by the end of January.

So in the spirit of positive change and personal growth for the new year – here are some tree-inspired tips that can help us keep our new year’s resolutions this year and turn over a new leaf for 2024.

New Year, New Me Tree!

Many resolutions fail because we’re too ambitious with our goal-setting. We optimistically set goals we are unlikely to achieve. We eventually fall behind or become overwhelmed, and we give up altogether.

So at first, do the minimum. Make the goal so small and easily achieved that there is no reasonable excuse not to act on it. This isn’t giving up – it’s actually optimal. Completing a small goal leads us to complete another, and another. Researchers at the Stanford Behavior Design Lab have proven this idea and it is why they encourage things like starting with just walking one block if you have a fitness goal, or even just committing to flossing just one tooth if you want to start a flossing habit. We may start small, but a kind of inertia takes over and before you know it, we’re knocking out that to-do list or moving on to completing even larger goals.

Likewise, if you’ve been meaning to make a change that leads to a more positive impact on your community and local environment – start now by signing up to plant a free tree on your property. It’s easy, takes less than 5 minutes, is 100% free, and is one of the best things you can do for the health of our planet and your community.

And who knows, starting with this small change may kick off a chain of achievements that carry you on to bigger and better things in 2024!

Garden Your Way to Good Health.

There has been a lot of press lately about “Blue Zones” – geographic areas with lower rates of chronic diseases and a longer life expectancy. They include places like Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), and Loma Linda (California, USA), among others. Although their lifestyles slightly differ, people in these regions all generally have similar habits that include eating a plant-based diet, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and having good spiritual, family, and social networks.

But here’s the thing – these people don’t exercise purposefully by going to the gym. Instead, exercise is built into their daily lives through gardening, walking, cooking, and other daily chores.

So if you are having trouble sticking to a new year’s resolution around exercise, try gardening or taking care of the landscape in the immediate area around your home. You could care for and water the young street trees around your home, remove invasive plants and vines, plant native plants and trees, or just pick up litter when you go out for a walk.

Doing the light work of taking care of a landscape not only helps the environment but will improve your health! If you need help getting a garden started, set up an ecological garden consultation today with our Casey Trees horticulturalist!

Stop the Scrolling…Or Scroll, but with Purpose.

A common bad habit most people would like to kick is the amount of time they spend on screens or scrolling their social feeds. We habitually scroll through the infinite social stream of ads, news, tik tok dances, social media “challenges”, memes, and more. It often becomes a huge unproductive chunk of our day, and at worst, it can lead to depression and anxiety (see “doomscrolling”).

There are lots of tools and tricks to stop the scroll, but when we try to quit cold turkey or tell ourselves we won’t spend as much time on social media, we often fall short. Instead, research shows us that to quit a bad habit, we need to replace it with a good habit. Or otherwise manipulate our environment to make the bad habit less desirable or have a less negative impact on our well-being.

A simple and easy step to make your social scrolling more productive? Search right now for the social links of just 5 impactful organizations you care about and follow them. This will ensure that posts for movements and initiatives you care about pop up in your feed. It’s a small step, but it is one way to make your scrolling time a little more productive and meaningful.

Might we recommend following your favorite local urban forestry nonprofit? Here are links to our Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Connect and Commit to a Tree-Filled Future

One of the surest ways to enact change in your personal life and keep new year’s resolutions is to increase your accountability through friends or by using a trick to increase your commitment.

You can tell a friend about your goals, and even try to achieve goals together. This is commonly known as an “accountability buddy” – a relationship in which each person helps the other stay accountable for the change they would like to make. This is one of many commitment devices, or ways that we can plan to stick to our goals by planning for the times when we think we might fall short.

If you have been searching for ways to give back to your community, volunteer, learn, or just connect with others passionate about enacting positive change to our environment – start now by signing up for one of our January events.

This includes opportunities like a clean-up at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for the National MLK Day of Service, and a community tree care at Elesavetgrad Cemetery.

Spend on Your Values – Support Trees all Year Long

Lastly, why not make a change today that supports DC’s tree canopy all year long? By starting a membership with Casey Trees, you become part of a community that stands up for trees and works every day to restore, enhance, and protect the tree canopy of our nation’s capital.

A gift of $5/month is less than your Netflix or HelloFresh subscription, news outlet paywall, or gym membership – but is far more impactful to your community and your own well-being. Become a Casey Trees member today!