Path

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.
― Victor Frankl

This is part of my series on Decluttering Mental Models.

Many Americans work unfulfilling jobs and resort to entertainment to escape the alienation they feel. Or they retreat to social media. Either way, media bombards them with advertisements for stuff that promises to fill the void. Buy this luxury car or these stretchy socks or that surround sound system, and the emptiness will dissipate.

Now the standard advice is to stay away from social media and television ads, limiting our wants and consumption. And it’s not terrible advice. But it’s not great advice either because it doesn’t address the root problem. It doesn’t fill the gaping hole inside us.

A better approach is to fill the hole with a long-term goal. Choose some ambition or aspiration to work toward. Maybe it’s learning how to play guitar, tutoring kids, or writing a book. (My Uncle Jim was a successful employment attorney but found meaning and purpose in painting.) It doesn’t matter what you choose. Just choose something.

Once you have your goal, join a community of folks with similar a goal. Guitar players can join an amateur band for weekly jam sessions. The Internet hosts numerous writing groups. (I’m part of one.) Whatever you’re into, find a community of like-minded people.

When you have an important goal and a community, mediocre TV loses its allure. You’ll get bored with Facebook doom scrolling. Because life is so much more interesting than watching other people live their lives.

When you have a long-term goal that gives your life meaning and purpose, you’ll lose interest in endlessly consuming stuff. Because life is so much more exciting than filling your house with things you don’t need.

More Decluttering Mental Models:

Top 10 Favorites

  1. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  2. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  3. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you earn $15/hour)
  4. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff
  5. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  6. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  7. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  8. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  9. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  10. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo

Get started

  1. Clear clutter by zoning your home
  2. How I answer the question: “What if I need this later?”
  3. “The Container strategy” will simplify your decluttering
  4. Hold each item and ask, “Does this spark joy?”
  5. When the “Does this Spark Joy?” fails you, ask these 6 questions
  6. Create your “Discard by Feb. 2022” box
  7. Decluttering yearbooks? Ask these 8 questions first

Shopping

  1. 21 questions to ask before you buy
  2. Wait 48 hours before buying stuff - version 1 and version 2
  3. How a grocery shopping list saves me time, money, and pounds

Manage your clothes

  1. Selling clothes is for suckers (unless you can earn $15/hour)
  2. Dear Dude with too many T-shirts: no one wants to buy them—just recycle/trash them
  3. Don't be like my friend Giorgio with his 400 Hawaiian shirts
  4. None of my clothes "spark joy"—so what do i get rid of?

Happiness & satisfaction

  1. Limit pleasurable things so they don’t lose their novelty
  2. We’re trained to be dissatisfied with what we have (and how to fix this)
  3. Craving never stops and my potato chip addiction
  4. Reminder: happiness levels stay consistent

Get motivated

  1. Want to boost your motivation to declutter? Immerse yourself in decluttering videos, podcasts, & books!
  2. How screen time kills your motivation to declutter
  3. Imagine your ideal home… Imagine all the clutter is gone…
  4. Feeling unmotivated? Declutter with a 5-minute time box

Manage your money

  1. The radical way to measure wealth, part 1 and part 2
  2. Save money by controlling aspirational identities
  3. I wasted so much money starting projects (and how I fixed it)

Manage consumption spirals

  1. How consumption spirals work
  2. Buying a house led to an enormous consumption spiral
  3. How craving completeness drives my consumption

Shift your Paradigm

  1. Change your environment, change your consumption
  2. 3 thought experiments to adopt a decluttering mindset
  3. Your home is not a storage unit for other people's crap!
  4. Before you buy stuff, do this little mental exercise
  5. Less space, less stuff
  6. That’s right, you and I pay for the privilege of seeing viagra ads
  7. Your home is an expensive container for your stuff. What’s your cost per sqft?

Manage your emotions

  1. Can you tolerate boredom?
  2. Fill the void with a long term goal

Control the Clutter

  1. Dear car dealers: I don't want a "free" T-shirt with your logo