Stop and Think

In the one-minute tip that was written by Coach Philip Humbert recently, he says, “In the Age of Distraction, the key to success is being able to resist the evolutionary desire to grab hold of every new thing. This is hard and goes against our natural tendencies. It takes determination and uncommon discipline to simplify life, choose one or two priorities and stick with them. High achievers know this! So should you.”

This is a key lesson whether we are in the process of buying Christmas presents or furniture shopping or just grazing through catalogues or checking out the latest electronic gadgets.  Learning how to say “no” and “enough is enough,” is one of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn. 

It doesn’t matter what you call us collectors or hoarders, saying “no” to our obsession or resisting to “upgrade” is hard.  We all want the latest and greatest because we don’t want to be “left behind.”

For those of us who want to experience a greater sense of financial freedom, we need to remember the words “never invest in something depreciable.”  Great advise if you can “afford” it.  In looking around my environment, there isn’t anything that is appreciating in value.  The more I looked at this, the more I realized that this is something that I haven’t paid much attention to in the past.

The key to this, is the past.  Having moved recently and combining households with a new life partner, the word “treasure” takes on a whole new meaning.  Treasures are only treasures if in the “value” someone else thinks it’s a treasure too.  In other words, your hand crafted hand imprinted ceramic tile is only valuable if someone else wants it.  Let me give you a clue here…when you are gone…what’s valuable in your heart is junk to someone else.  JUNK!  I know, I know, hard to believe that “they” cannot see the value in all of it. 

There are only a small select few who think that the rusted “dead” bike fender is valuable and you only see them on television when there is nothing else to watch.  How do you get in touch with them when you want to downsize or rightsize or want to simplify life? 

Whatever the process involved in simplifying life, simple, fun and easy doesn’t want to lend itself into my mental gymnastics.  Simplify, I must.