It's been a minute since I've written anything here. Things are good in my life, growing and expanding. It's 11 days to Christmas, those days are short, less light and plenty of anxiety about what to buy for presents and even less pleasant, the thought of throwing myself into fits of shopping around stressed out and sometimes mean shoppers is pretty gross.
I heard a phrase a couple of weeks back that said "If you want to be successful at something you need to stop being such a consumer". Usually when I hear something like that I don't want to hear it and it upsets me a bit but this time I felt relief and a bit of joy right away.
I can see it in myself. That consumer is the ultimate procrastinator. He's slick. He's the lying, cheating addict embedded deep inside of me. He loves to distract me, keep me feeling inferior, keep me feeling competitive and keep me from actually doing anything about it. Shopping whether it be going to a department store, buying a bunch of stuff and returning it, or sitting online on Ebay, forums, Amazon, shopping consumes time before it consumes your savings account you worked so hard to create.
It is quite possible you already have everything you actually need to get your job done. It is quite possible you are already happy too. I can speak from experience, I am happy and getting my work done. I want things but overall, I want a real vacation and to maybe go on more dates. I have more than enough material things in my life, they also consume time and energy.
My consumer is a time bandit. He loves to rob me of time. I track my expenses and income every day, that has helped. It's really illuminating to see that I've spent $100 on fast food in a month. WHat did I learn from that? I'm running around too much (fast part of the phrase) not smelling the roses, not enjoying my life and perhaps living too much to please others and the expense is my soul and a future series of heart disease. Since summer of 2013 I've maybe spent $60 on fast food. That's about 18 months. I'm cooking more at home, taking my time, doing a better job of taking care of me. I'm not living as compulsively as I can and really, fast food places don't suit me. They are depressing so it says to me I'm putting a higher value on myself. I like that. And I feel better cooking.
We live in a country where we are rewarded for being passive consumers. We are bombarded with information daily, we are raised to compete with our neighbors and we live in the myth that if we made less money this year than last then our happiness is completely doomed. Can you see how absurd that is? I love earning money and having it around but I only started to do better when I saw there is no actual connection between money and happiness. Best to cultivate your garden of joy today rather than put it off for the day you are a fantasy millionaire. Stop putting your joy off right now. Go bowling with a friend or whatever you enjoy doing.
My favorite phrase when I was in retail was "I have to do more research". I would put a persons dream guitar in their hands, they would smile and be blown away then say "I have to do more research". Why? What does that mean? So you are going to read more forums full of blow hard experts and come back to me with some minute details about a tiny part that might make it harder to sell? You've killed the connection. You've killed your valuable time. Money is one thing, you can always make more, but time? This is all we got honey. One day it's over. Best to start that band right now or get that novel started or actually practice taking photos on your phone rather than spend a year researching the differences between a Nikon and a Canon. Like the Nike ad says, JUST F%*%&* DO IT!
I hear this phrase many times when something positive is right in front of our faces. It's the coolest manifestation of the fear of making a decision. Granted I know how difficult that can be and in this world full of unnecessary products, it's overwhelming. True story: I walked into Fred Meyer on Interstate Avenue in Portland needing dish soap, a road atlas and some paper towels. I hadn't fed myself properly so between the depressing fluorescent lighting, the bad state of attitude and health amongst the employees, the awful musak playing and the worst: 20 different dish detergents to choose from, 32 different types of paper towels and road atlas season being over, I got overwhelmed. I started shaking so I went home hands empty. I had a consumer mini meltdown! That's an hour I want back. But I'm not going to research paper towels, that may be 5 hours I want back. Instead I went to a smaller place with better vibes and made my purchases there. Somewhere where I could make a decision. Somewhere relatively sane.
So why was I happy to read hear the phrase mentioned above about being successful? I by no means have this problem licked in myself. I'm an Ebay addict. But I have come a long way in changing those old, bad habits. And I like to earn what I really want to buy, it feels good to not use a credit card and give Visa 2-3 times the original purchase price over time. My inner consumer doesn't like that. He doesn't want me to accept myself where I am in the present moment. He's mad at me for not participating in the holiday madness. He's mad at me for saving money and investing. He wants me to spend all of that so I can remain stuck and addicted to the idea that shopping for more stuff will improve my life. He's mad at me every time I work on my music. Let him be mad! I happen to love making music and I have all I need to get that done. I happen to love going on long walks or writing stories. I happen to love cooking at home and I happen to make better coffee than any coffee shop and I love to share it with friends.
Mr. Consumer, take a long deserved break. You earned it. You work so hard. Just for today your services are not required. I'll give you a call when I want to switch brands of dish detergent. Thank you for trying to help, NOW GIT!
J
I heard a phrase a couple of weeks back that said "If you want to be successful at something you need to stop being such a consumer". Usually when I hear something like that I don't want to hear it and it upsets me a bit but this time I felt relief and a bit of joy right away.
I can see it in myself. That consumer is the ultimate procrastinator. He's slick. He's the lying, cheating addict embedded deep inside of me. He loves to distract me, keep me feeling inferior, keep me feeling competitive and keep me from actually doing anything about it. Shopping whether it be going to a department store, buying a bunch of stuff and returning it, or sitting online on Ebay, forums, Amazon, shopping consumes time before it consumes your savings account you worked so hard to create.
It is quite possible you already have everything you actually need to get your job done. It is quite possible you are already happy too. I can speak from experience, I am happy and getting my work done. I want things but overall, I want a real vacation and to maybe go on more dates. I have more than enough material things in my life, they also consume time and energy.
My consumer is a time bandit. He loves to rob me of time. I track my expenses and income every day, that has helped. It's really illuminating to see that I've spent $100 on fast food in a month. WHat did I learn from that? I'm running around too much (fast part of the phrase) not smelling the roses, not enjoying my life and perhaps living too much to please others and the expense is my soul and a future series of heart disease. Since summer of 2013 I've maybe spent $60 on fast food. That's about 18 months. I'm cooking more at home, taking my time, doing a better job of taking care of me. I'm not living as compulsively as I can and really, fast food places don't suit me. They are depressing so it says to me I'm putting a higher value on myself. I like that. And I feel better cooking.
We live in a country where we are rewarded for being passive consumers. We are bombarded with information daily, we are raised to compete with our neighbors and we live in the myth that if we made less money this year than last then our happiness is completely doomed. Can you see how absurd that is? I love earning money and having it around but I only started to do better when I saw there is no actual connection between money and happiness. Best to cultivate your garden of joy today rather than put it off for the day you are a fantasy millionaire. Stop putting your joy off right now. Go bowling with a friend or whatever you enjoy doing.
My favorite phrase when I was in retail was "I have to do more research". I would put a persons dream guitar in their hands, they would smile and be blown away then say "I have to do more research". Why? What does that mean? So you are going to read more forums full of blow hard experts and come back to me with some minute details about a tiny part that might make it harder to sell? You've killed the connection. You've killed your valuable time. Money is one thing, you can always make more, but time? This is all we got honey. One day it's over. Best to start that band right now or get that novel started or actually practice taking photos on your phone rather than spend a year researching the differences between a Nikon and a Canon. Like the Nike ad says, JUST F%*%&* DO IT!
I hear this phrase many times when something positive is right in front of our faces. It's the coolest manifestation of the fear of making a decision. Granted I know how difficult that can be and in this world full of unnecessary products, it's overwhelming. True story: I walked into Fred Meyer on Interstate Avenue in Portland needing dish soap, a road atlas and some paper towels. I hadn't fed myself properly so between the depressing fluorescent lighting, the bad state of attitude and health amongst the employees, the awful musak playing and the worst: 20 different dish detergents to choose from, 32 different types of paper towels and road atlas season being over, I got overwhelmed. I started shaking so I went home hands empty. I had a consumer mini meltdown! That's an hour I want back. But I'm not going to research paper towels, that may be 5 hours I want back. Instead I went to a smaller place with better vibes and made my purchases there. Somewhere where I could make a decision. Somewhere relatively sane.
So why was I happy to read hear the phrase mentioned above about being successful? I by no means have this problem licked in myself. I'm an Ebay addict. But I have come a long way in changing those old, bad habits. And I like to earn what I really want to buy, it feels good to not use a credit card and give Visa 2-3 times the original purchase price over time. My inner consumer doesn't like that. He doesn't want me to accept myself where I am in the present moment. He's mad at me for not participating in the holiday madness. He's mad at me for saving money and investing. He wants me to spend all of that so I can remain stuck and addicted to the idea that shopping for more stuff will improve my life. He's mad at me every time I work on my music. Let him be mad! I happen to love making music and I have all I need to get that done. I happen to love going on long walks or writing stories. I happen to love cooking at home and I happen to make better coffee than any coffee shop and I love to share it with friends.
Mr. Consumer, take a long deserved break. You earned it. You work so hard. Just for today your services are not required. I'll give you a call when I want to switch brands of dish detergent. Thank you for trying to help, NOW GIT!
J
