Introduction

Making decisions for sustainability is challenging because it requires a holistic view of changing circumstances and their impact on the environment, society, and the economy. In other words, sustainable behavior considers social, ecological, and economic dimensions, aiming to preserve natural, social, and economic resources for the long term and ensure future generations have comparable or better living conditions.

Technical knowledge is only one building block for adapting actions and processes. Sustainability should be understood as the sum of conscious and unconscious decisions and behaviors that contribute to preserving natural and social resources.

Adopting sustainable behavior often requires changing routines. The journey toward sustainability therefore also begins within ourselves. Honest reflection on personal needs, limitations, and desires often reveals motivational conflicts that hinder sustainable choices or make behavioral adjustments difficult. In a world driven by money, recognition, and career advancement, conflicts between these motivations and sustainable behavior are common.

Are our sustainable actions self-determined or externally imposed? If sustainability is perceived mainly as sacrifice and suppression of feelings, it relies on self-control and discipline—often leading to frustration and disengagement. In contrast, self-regulation draws motivation from a positive mindset, enabling flexible, authentic, and emotionally rewarding sustainable behavior that aligns life with environmental, social, and economic values.

Decision-Making

There are two types of decisions; fact-based decisions, where only right or wrong is considered, and decisions within a complex and dynamic environment, where outcomes are uncertain and right and wrong are hardly definable; - only time reveals whether a decision was good.

Personal dilemmas often arise from a lack of coherence between unconscious needs and rational considerations. The unconscious plays a major role, as it governs countless decisions in split seconds, shaping subsequent actions.

Take financial decisions, for example - often made rationally or outsourced to experts. Choices about residence for tax benefits, job searches for higher income, or coping with job loss are typically driven by financial logic. Yet these decisions also carry emotional weight and affect relationships, health, and overall quality of life. Also, financial dependencies, such as those within a family or partnership, clearly illustrate how strongly responsibility and interdependence influence these decisions.

While financial aspects often take center stage in decision-making, non-financial factors like relationships, friendships, health, leisure, sports, culture, or proximity to nature frequently remain hidden, even though they significantly contribute to quality of life.

A fulfilling life depends not only on income but on meeting inner needs such as love, freedom, belonging, and purpose. So, how can feelings be integrated into complex decisions? As the saying goes: “The mind provides facts, but the heart knows the way.”

Or in other words: How can we approach personal decisions in a complex and dynamic environment - such as sustainability - in a way that aligns our inner needs with the factual and action-oriented requirements of a “decision for sustainability” to ensure success?

The Zurich Resource Model (ZRM)

People make thousands of decisions daily, many automated through routines. While we cannot question every choice, we can learn which decisions truly serve us. Practicing mindfulness toward feelings helps us recognize somatic markers—the body’s signals from the unconscious.

Major decisions are often framed as right or wrong, privileging rationality. But ignoring discomfort—like a “gut feeling”—can sabotage implementation. Successful decisions engage both the mind and the unconscious.

The ZRM coaching method, developed by Maja Storch and Frank Krause at the University of Zurich in 2002, integrates cognitive and emotional systems through motivational psychology. The method has been continuously refined over the past 20 years (compare «Selbstmanagement-ressourcenorientiert», Grundlagen und Trainingsmanual für die Arbeit mit dem Zürcher Ressourcen Modell ZRM, 6. überarbeitet Auflage, 2017, hogrefe) und has been documented and verified through many scientific studies (compare the publication list at the ‘Institute of Self-management and Motivation, Zurich, https://ismz.ch/).

The ZRM coaching method helps individuals to understand better the interaction between the brain’s two systems - the unconscious (e.g. inner needs) and the conscious mind (reason). Paying attention to how the unconscious communicates through feelings and images fosters self-understanding and personal development.

To gain clarity about personal goals, needs, and values, the ZRM coaching method often uses so-called ‘affect balances’. An ‘affect balance’ is a simple tool that measures feelings at the threshold of consciousness on an ‘emotional’ scale. These feelings originate from negative and positive somatic markers, which are experience- and evolution-based mechanisms in our brain that trigger physically perceptible sensations, which in turn can lead to affective reactions in behavior.

Naming feelings brings unconscious content into awareness, enabling balanced decisions that combine facts with emotional resonance boosting implementation success.

Decisions for more Sustainability

Implementing a decision for sustainability becomes particularly challenging, when it requires adapting personal behavior and routines (automatic habits). This could be described, by analogy to business management, as “change management of one’s self”. As we know, organizational change management is based on ‘informed decision-making’, aiming to implement selected strategies together with management and employees. Yet, the implementation of the “new” or the “adaptation” often fails. The reasons are diverse but frequently linked to individuals who only partially identify with the decision on a personal and emotional level (compare «Changemanagement – so klappts!», Die vier ZRM-Innovationen für den erfolgreichen Wandel, G. Adlmaier-Herbst, M. Storch, et al, 2018, hogrefe). In implementing change management, various models are applied, most of which focus on results (what is to be achieved) and action (how it is to be achieved). However, motivational power relates more to attitude, which has a much stronger influence on the likelihood of successful implementation. The ZRM coaching method therefore works on the attitude level to support behavior and the execution of actions.

Team collaboration is equally vital. Shared principles, agility, and a positive mindset create openness to change. In other words, it’s the team mindsets that approach change with flexibility and a positive attitude—embracing it with enthusiasm (compare «Mit agilem Mindset zum Erfolg», Erfolgreiche Teamarbeit mit ZRM, R. Stopka, 2021, hogrefe).

ZRM helps align individual values (e.g. solidarity, honesty, fairness, patience, commitment) with team principles (e.g. achievement, communication, error culture, diversity), enabling collective progress toward sustainability with a fresh personal attitude open for change.

Closing Remark

Most economic decisions of people revolve around one criterion - money. Why should corporate decisions be different? Maximizing monetary benefits or profit and minimizing complexity and time without having to take responsibility for induced negative impacts, i.e. externalizing costs, has historically been called efficiency.

Today, businesses and individuals recognize that good decisions—not merely “right or wrong” ones - require foresight, responsibility, and integration of inner values alongside factual analysis. This approach reduces conflicts and enhances the chance for successful implementation.

Ultimately, cognitive and emotional processes are not opposites but complementary forces. Only by embracing both can we make decisions that are robust and meaningful.

Marco Semadeni, Dr. sc. nat. ETH

18. November 2025