What Not to Do If You Want Your Family Involved in Energy Savings

hand opens door of microwave oven for cooking food

It can be hard with certain family members. You may have long standing friction in your relationships that makes getting everyone on the same page difficult.

But ultimately, you’ve learned many methods for turning those challenging situations into positive ones.

Like anything, however, there are things you should never do under any circumstances.

Here’s what to avoid so you don’t turn your family off from energy savings:

1. Make Yourself the Only Decision Maker

No one likes it when rules come down from on high from a single decision maker.

Do you?

Remember past cases where your boss, parents, or any other authority figure always had the,”My way or the highway,” attitude.

No one really likes to be around that, including you.

Yes. You may know the best way to do things.

But if you want everyone in your family to participate with energy savings, you’re much more likely to get that participation if you involve everyone in decision making.

2. Don’t Preach and Make Everything Negative

This is what most humans in authority positions seem to do by default. You can probably remember at least one, and perhaps many more, authority figures who turned every situation into a negative.

“Don’t do this!” “Not like that!” “You’re wrong!”

And then absolutely no praise is heard when things have been done right.

Do you see how that turns anything into a negative situation?

It arouses everyone’s anxiety and disdain because they know all they’ll ever hear is what they did wrong.

Instead, lead with a carrot. Reward others in your family with your gratitude and praise when energy savings has been done correctly.

Ignore the small wrong stuff. And selectively point out the majorly wrong stuff, along with saying,”You’ll save more energy, and I’ll be much happier, when you turn the lights off every time.”

Focus on rewarding the behavior you want rather than chastising the behavior you don’t want.

3. Don’t be a Hypocrite

There’s no worse way to undermine your family’s belief in energy savings than by being a hypocrite.

Of course, you’ll never be perfect.

You might find yourself doing things that you’ve asked your family to not do many times.

That’s okay!

The problem comes in if you keep doing those things, don’t admit where you’re wrong, and make no real effort to change.

So if you have a family member who catches you in less-than-ideal energy savings behavior, simply admit you’re wrong and that you’ll do everything you can to improve going forward.

…And then follow through and make it happen!

Leading your family into more energy savings isn’t necessarily easy. But if you can avoid these 3 mistakes, you’ll experience much less resistance to it.

Enjoy the additional money you save!