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NZ2100 and personal well-being
Creative Decisions has demonstrated that the NZ2100 Universal Health Model is consistent with current thinking on fundamentally-based models for personal well-being. The diversity of other applications of NZ2100 suggests that it does indeed provide a fundamental insight and a robust basis for investigating and managing personal well-being. As such it suggests how a science of well-being might be framed.
Ecological systems approaches have been applied for many years in the field of psychology. The individual is seen to be at the centre of an interacting ecosystem of individuals and groups, all of whom need to be considered as part of addressing health and well-being. Psychologists have even suggested that people can be viewed as "adaptive behavioural systems" that pursue pleasure, work, and meaning in life, within an environment or framework that is itself evolutionary. All of which suggests that modelling individuals as complex, adaptive, evolving entities could be fruitful.And so, the Common Sustainability Language ought to apply to people as well. Considering personal health and well-being as being fundamentally a fusion of physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual well-being leads to the NZ2100 framework:
NZ2100 model for personal health and well-being
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Intellectual |
Emotional |
Spiritual |
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| Contributing |
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| Responsive |
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| Directed |
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| Adaptive |
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NZ2100 therefore provides a seamless, structured model of the individual in the world. At the heart of the model is the idea of alignment, or harmony. Individuals align their lives with the needs of wider entities to which they belong and contribute - the family and the household, the neighbourhood, or community, workplace, and so on. In turn, these entities are also aligned to meet the needs of sustainable development, providing opportunities for individuals to contribute socially, economically, environmentally, and culturally. Example: Mature individual in a western society
Considering the definitions of the seven system qualities that make up the Common Sustainability Language, allows us to develop for ourselves, ideas about our own personal well-being. Just what do we need to be doing, in order to maximise and improve our own well-being. The table below presents some ideas about how a mature individual in a western society might start to frame ideas about their own well-being. You could construct a similar framework for yourself.
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Physical |
Intellectual |
Emotional |
Spiritual |
| Nurturing |
Minimises exposure to physical hazards. Fitness levels and age-related health risks are carefully managed. Time is allocated for physical relaxation and replenishment. |
Retrains and updates older skills. Consciously seeks out new intellectual stimuli, including social contact, and new types of literature. Allows time for intellectual relaxation and reflection. |
Allocates emotional re-charge time with spouse and family. Engages in pastimes that allow personal emotional recharge, such as walking, contact with the natural environment, and music. |
Provides secular or religious opportunities to nurture sense of belonging, and a sense of awareness of being part of something bigger than self. Consciously fosters positive, altruistic thoughts and actions. |
| Supportive |
Food and water, clothing, housing, sanitation and transport are adequate to support a productive, active lifestyle. Medical and related attention is accessed to counter disease, illness, or injury. |
Books, magazines, TV, internet, social network, work challenges and colleagues, family, and other linkages provide a supportive intellectual environment, that allows healthy thinking and decision-making. |
Maintains ongoing emotional oversight; manages relationships to fulfill normal emotional needs. Relationships underpinned by respect for self and others. |
Meets ongoing personal spiritual needs through membership of secular or religious groups, providing time for reflection, contemplation or meditation, and engaging in altruistic and self- or identity-affirming activities. |
| Stable |
Sudden changes to physical conditions are minimised, and parameters of physical well-being are kept within healthy limits. |
Currency of models, ideas, and skill-base are not declining to unsafe levels, and are grounded in a sound education and mature belief system. |
Maintains levels of change and stress levels to within healthy limits. Keeps emotional conflict to minimum through mature view of happiness and well-being. |
Explores spiritual questions, and builds robust spiritual belief system that is adequate for purpose and personality, and resilient to negative events and challenging life periods. Honours heritage. |
| Contributing |
Contributes positively to well-being of others, through physical and financial means. Minimises wasteful use of material and financial resources. Physical assets are not wasted. |
Contributes positively to well-being of others, through sound thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. Maximises utilisation of intellectual resources to benefit self and others. |
Generously contributes love, warmth, kindness, good humour, and compassion to contribute to well-being of others. Controls and minimises negative emotions that impact others. |
Contributes positively on a spiritual level to well-being of others - e.g. by enhancing individual or team spirit, faith, hope, and sense of meaning and purpose. |
| Responsive |
Responds physically or materially to threats and challenges, such as attack or injury, occupational risks, or financial shocks. |
Does not avoid intellectual challenges. Identifies need for re-training, upskilling, or any kind of work-related, personal or social challenge requiring a rational response. |
Rises to emotional challenges, including sudden changes, or loss, or threats. Sensitive to emotional needs of others. Takes care to maintain emotional reserves. |
Recognises and responds to changing needs of others for leadership, direction, or spiritual comfort and reassurance. |
| Directed |
Has clear long term aims for own physical and financial health and well-being, and is committed to materially contributing to well-being of others. Approaches goals tactically, maximising opportunities arising from short term events. |
Has clear long term aims for improving or maintaining intellectual well-being, and contributing to well-being of other entities, and commits to these. Approaches goals tactically, maximising opportunities arising from short term events. |
Has clear long term aims for maintaining and building emotional relationships, and contributing to well-being of other entities, and commits to these. Approaches goals tactically, maximising opportunities arising from short term events. |
Aspires and commits to advance, for self or others, any of: a sense of belonging, engagement in altruistic or spiritual activities, an increase spiritual knowledge and understanding, or coming to terms with a wider "presence" in the world. |
| Adaptive |
Adjusts diet and exercise to reflect trends in personal metabolism. Changes employment or spending/saving patterns to balance physical fitness and need for material support. |
Adjusts intellectual load to reflect physical limitations and other changes. Changes ideas about the world to reflect new realities. Learns new skills appropriate to changed circumstances. |
Adjusts emotionally to long term change, such as loss of friends, family, or vocational change, or to increased emotional demands of an extended family. |
Adjusts spiritually to new realities. Questions and revises cultural beliefs that demonstrably lead to negative impacts on well-being of self and others. |
Example: Healthy households.
Healthy families and households are crucial to our personal well-being. The well-being of these collective entities can be considered in terms of the original social-economic-environmental-cultural Universal Health Model. So, following the process we used for personal well-being, we can construct a picture of a healthy family or household. Once again, if you were to do it, the result would be different, but you would be covering the 28 important "bases" that make for a healthy family or household. Viewed together with the framework for personal well-being above, you start to get an idea of what healthy, sustainable living is all about. If we can just live our lives like this, we might have a chance of saving the planet and dealing successfully with climate change.
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Social |
Economic |
Environmental |
Cultural |
| Nurturing |
Household is safe, caring and regenerative for children, old people, and people who are vulnerable through sickness or injury. |
Household supports development of new ways of earning income, and obtaining goods and services from others. New ventures are encouraged. |
Household nurtures environmentally-supportive values and practices. Natural or quasi-natural vegetation elements are created or restored, to contribute to the household's functions as a healthy ecosystem. |
Household contributes to renewing and building the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, skills and traditions, that underpin making a positive cultural contribution. Valued but vulnerable traditions and skills are protected. |
| Supportive |
Household provides the food, shelter, means of transport, socialisation, and other elements of a physically healthy environment to allow the members to grow, develop, and contribute positively to communities and ecosystems. |
Household supports activities which earn income, and encourages ongoing development of income-earning capacities, such as skill levels, education, and acquisition or upgrading and replacement of tools and other equipment and resources. |
Household supports constituent environmental systems such as gardens, fields, and areas of bush or forest. Sound environmental management practices help to minimise resource use, recycle waste, and minimise polluting discharges to land, air or water. |
Household supports development of knowledge, skills, the arts and crafts, and belief systems that underpin abilities to function healthily as a unit and to contribute positively. |
| Stable |
Household is stable socially. Partnerships are stable, and relationships are well-maintained. |
Household is a stable economic unit. Threats to income-earning are anticipated and managed. Other financial risks are managed through appropriate means. |
Household is stable environmentally. Weed and pest populations are controlled, and constituent natural ecosystems are maintained within healthy limits. |
Household is stable culturally. Cultural adaptation occurs while retaining the most highly valued knowledge, beliefs, skills, and traditions. |
| Contributing |
Household contributes positively socially, providing healthy well-adjusted children and young people and adults, who participate effectively and knowledgeably in the life of the community. |
Household contributes positively to the local economy, through paid work, operating a family business, or other enterprise. Waste of economic potential is minimised through appropriate employment. |
Household minimises pollution or toxic emissions, does not function as a source of weeds or pests, soil erosion or excessive water runoff. Energy, land, and water are used efficiently, and waste is recycled. |
Household contributes knowledge, skills, and traditions, that enrich and empower the community. |
| Responsive |
Household responds to threats to its existence or security, and maximises benefit from opportunities to enhance it as a healthy, supportive home and living environment. |
Household responds to economic opportunities and threats, through training, upskilling, changing nature of the family business, or pursuing just solutions to disputes. |
Household responds to environmental issues, whether global, such as the need to reduce emissions of CO2, or local, such as the need to avoid runoff pollution that has effects downstream. |
Household responds to cultural threats and opportunities. |
| Directed |
Household has a clear sense of it social purpose, and has healthy aspirations for improving living conditions for its members, and for contributing socially to the wider community. |
Household has clear economic goals, and works purposefully to achieve these. |
Household is resolved not to impact negatively on the environment and to make positive improvements and contributions where possible. |
The household is committed to contributing to the cultural enrichment of society, and to a healthy cultural life at home. |
| Adapative |
Household adjusts its needs and lifestyles to fit changing circumstances, whether improving or more constraining. Members are aware of and understand the nature of long term change. |
Household adjusts its means of livelihood to changing economies and economic fortunes. .Members are aware of and understand the nature of long term change. |
Household adjusts its environmental and resource management practices to reflect new realities and fortunes. .Members are aware of and understand the nature of long term change. |
Household adjusts culturally to new realities, seeking out knowledge and being well-informed of changes with implications for knowledge levels, communication skills, beliefs and traditions. |
If you've ever felt bewildered and overwhelmed by the endless demands for change to achieve a sustainable, healthy lifestyle, these models or frameworks can help get you started. You'll see different cells within the frameworks as being the most appropriate places for you to start out on your own journey to greater well-being and sustainability. And as you progress your attention will shift to other areas for improvement. What's more, you will be able to assess all kinds of events and opportunities in your life, much more systematically, from the perspective of how they will impact your own well-being and the well-being of your family or household. Happiness and well-being
Real happiness - not the momentary happiness you get from fortuitously meeting up with an old friend, for example - is sometimes called "life satisfaction". People evaluate it in different ways - for example as the overall net effect of the "pleasures and pains" of life, or an evaluation of where we have got to in life, in relation to our aspirations. We may also evaluate it in terms of how life has affected our current overall mental disposition. Perhaps it is now very contented and benign, or perhaps it has become more unsettled and ambitious, despite various achievements. Different ways of assessing happiness mean that, even if we are happy, it's often difficult to say why. This is where personal well-being comes in. Because we aren't clear on what makes us happy, we are not clear on the basis of personal well-being. If we could have a good grasp of personal well-being, then we would understand what it is that is or isn't making us happy, and therefore be well on the way to improving the situation. Happiness, the state, is achieved through personal well-being, which is something deeper and quite fundamental. Well-being is much more about what we can control or manage, while happiness, or the lack of it, is the result. So if we look at the NZ2100 model for personal well-being above, we can learn a lot about what is going to makes us happier. Healthy spirituality
We are all spiritual in some sense. Some of us are more so than others. But we all have a need to belong, we all need to have a sense of purpose or meaning in our lives, most of us have a sense of belonging to some wider connected reality, and we all feel the need to care for our "companions in life", whether our immediate family and friends, or more distant people and communities, or the natural world. And most of us seem to accept that we are all accountable in some way, to something greater than ourselves - whether a set of natural laws, a god, or the greater social good, or whatever. And this sense that there is this order to things keeps us humble, and allows us to stay sane, be accepting (to a degree) despite the nonsense that goes on, and to get on with our own part in it without destroying ourselves believing there is no point to life, and nobody cares anyway. All of us give out spiritually by helping others with these things. It is another way that we make our contribution to the world, and that is why there is a spiritual dimension to personal well-being.
NZ2100 actually goes a little further than that. The whole idea of NZ2100 is that life on earth is this mosaic of nested, interconnected ecosystems, ranging from individual living organisms, such as ourselves, to the largest transnational or global ecosystem. And the well-being of each one of these is governed by the same set of seven rules, embodied in the Common Sustainability Language. So you are part of that interconnected whole, and we are all doing the same thing, constantly adapting, and evolving, as we strive to maximise our own well-being.
So, if we try to live by and respect the rules inherent in NZ2100, we will strengthen or develop a healthy spirituality. If we are religious, we are sure to find that the values or rules of NZ2100 align pretty well with the most fundamental beliefs of our religion about how we should live. The mythology of religion is another matter. We need these mythologies, or stories, because - first - they may be true, and secondly, they show the rules of life in action. Personal KiwiGrow
Above, we have described an NZ2100 model of personal health and well-being, and a whole set of ideas around that, that you will be able to elaborate on yourself. Anyone can use NZ2100, write about it, write about their experiences in testing or using it, and so on. It is totally in the public domain. KiwiGrow™,  on the other hand, is the brand that Creative Decisions is using to highlight and help differentiate particular products and services that we believe especially encapsulate the ideals and values of NZ2100 in terms of the realities of life in New Zealand today, and how New Zealanders experience the world. We would like to see it develop into a local code for New Zealanders living in the 21st century, dealing with the unique problems we face living in a modern multicultural society on the edge of the world, and very conscious of the vulnerability of our location and status in world affairs, but still desiring to contribute positively to the well-being of people and ecosystems elsewhere in the world. Personal KiwiGrow™ is reserved as a brand for products and services that we believe especially reflect Creative Decisions' own personal ideals and can contribute to helping others to realise those ideals also. So, look out for the KiwiGrow™ sticker! Taking it further
If you want to learn more, the first thing you can do is read our article  "Pursuing Happiness in the 21st Century - the KiwiGrow Well-being Model". In this article, we suggest, among other things, that:
- We can usefully think of ourselves as being dynamic ecosystems
- Components of our being are, then, also ecosystems
- Well-being must be approached holistically
- Commonalities exist between KiwiGrow, NZ2100, and the major religions
- Religions can advance NZ2100 (and KiwiGrow), both implicitly and explicitly
We believe that NZ2100 provides a simple, usable formula for well-being, oriented to the demands of a changing world that demands sustainability. None of the changes to thinking embodied in the model is particularly radical. All that is new is the way it is presented - easily communicated, understood, and applied. Because we can now convincingly measure personal well-being, we can devote resources from business and government, and science, to systematically advancing it. All of these agencies should be assessing, evaluating, and prioritising their efforts using the NZ2100 model.
The second thing you can do is have a look at Annie Leonard's excellent video "The Story of Stuff" at http://www.storyofstuff.com/. There you'll find someone who's joined the dots and worked out what needs to be done! With a lot of very practical messages, too. |
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