Your Life: DON’T TOSS IT. REPURPOSE IT.
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We are littered with people trying to be somebody else. It takes a lot of effort to be yourself and the person you think you need to be. It takes a lot of effort to be what you fear other people, or organizations, want you to be. Some of these roles are imagined, some assigned, some trained but all are self-accepted. It’s a waste of effort.
It’s the waste problem no one’s really talking about.
Let’s take a cue from the recycle, reduce and reuse movement. A global reaction to mass consumption combined with a trained, we weren’t born this way we were taught it, disposable world-view.
It’s even transferred from products to people, this disposable mindset. Just look at how drastically companies layoff workers, by the thousands, when the companies failed to be flexible in their product design. Or how quickly companies relocate to more cost-effective countries without so much as a by-your-leave.
Even the 3 Rs (recycle, reduce and reuse) are flawed since recycling plays into our knee-jerk reaction to waste… toss it. And every time a product is broken down and rebuilt into its previous form, it takes chemicals, waste and loses a lot of its original strength.
This is why, in my eco-fab knitwear line, A Second Chance, I chose not to use recycled yarn. I use repurposed or reclaimed sweaters instead.
The difference?
Let’s take my yarn adventures as a breakdown of the difference in this environmental movement.
Recycled yarn has been broken down from the original yarn with chemicals. Then it is rebuilt, often attached to more virgin yarn to give it the stability lost in the process.
Reducing would mean not buying so many sweaters, yes? Easy to understand except when your Great-Aunt keeps gifting you that holiday sweater only appropriate for costume parties.
Reusing means sticking with your current sweater wardrobe. Learn to patch the moth holes, sew the loose buttons and routinely defuzz the wooly ones. Very good advice and luckily my great-grandma, grandma and mom taught me how to do this… They did not teach me how to stop gaining and losing weight in order to keep wearing the same awesome sweaters from college. But I’m working on that.
Repurposed yarn has been unraveled from a sweater and then knitted, sewn or crocheted into something new. Many people donated them for sentimental projects or I bought them at thrift stores to both benefit myself, the earth and the communities the thrift stores help.
Reclaimed would be the pieces of the sweater I don’t unravel and reclaim for a new project. I use the waistbands of sweaters to become hat bases. I use awesome sleeves to create shrugs. My goal is to utilize that which is already awesome, reclaim it and make it functional again.
So, what happen when we switch out the words yarn and sweater with people or employees?
Recycling people in the work force breaks them down and uses more employees to add stability to the original employee or position. The eye-opening documentary Waiting for Superman showed this in the form of the lemon dance, a swapping of ineffective, and sometime harmful, teachers from one school to the other in the American public school system.
Reducing – Keeping the company small and manageable.
Reusing – Sticking with your current staff, which requires a lot of flexibility and ingenuity on everyone’s part to stay fresh, competitive and inspired.
Reclaiming – altering one’s original function in a creative way in order to find a new, vibrant and unique life.
Repurposing – Utilizing what is still awesome in the person and creating a new function for that awesomeness. This is usually far removed from the person’s original use or passion.
People aren’t sweaters. They don’t have to rely on, require or be subject to someone else’s actions to keep them current, useful and full of life.
In fact you shouldn’t wait for someone else to repurpose or reclaim you! You can to do that all by yourself.
And if you do take that initiative, you’re guaranteed to repurpose or reclaiming yourself into a happier, more successful path. Solely because you chose it.