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I challenged myself to go a year without flying for climate reasons. I thought I would hate it. Work, family, and lifestyle depended on it. It turns out it was
by spodek 7y ago
I challenged myself to go a year without flying for climate reasons. I thought I would hate it. Work, family, and lifestyle depended on it.
It turns out it was one of the best things I've done. Experience taught me what I never could have imagined -- how much my life improved. Like dropping Facebook on steroids. What I expected to miss I got more without flying, plus improved relationships, community, and connection.
A few months in I decided to go for a second year. I'm 4.5 years in now. I may fly again, I don't know, but I want to less and less.
EDIT: Amazingly, my TEDx talk on this experience went live minutes ago: https://youtu.be/sTYiHr1lu10 https://youtu.be/sTYiHr1lu10.
- mhb 7y agoThis doesn't seem very hard to believe. Flying is a miserable experience.
- jml7c5 7y agoIf you're a die-hard reader and always have a book in hand, it's actually not that bad. You just happen to stand in line to read, rather than lounge or lie down to do so. Granted, obtaining and arranging accessories (pillows etc.) so as to sit comfortably in the seats does take some trial and error.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoOr I could just stay home, and read in a more comfortable seat...
- trianglem 7y agoI try to avoid flying as much as possible but purely because I love driving across long distances. I don't particularly dislike flying and for international trips there really is no other alternative.
- spodek 7y agoI found not flying a better alternative. Everybody tells me what I would have said before, that it's impossible to avoid, which is why I pointed out how the experience changed everything. It turns out many things were possible I didn't think were.