How many things have we purchased, done or said because we thought it was a comfortable thing to do?
I think that comfort is one of the biggest killers to a life we really have a deep desire to have. What we need to do is know what is a necessity and what is a comfort.
Let’s take an example.
Whenever I travel I see people with noise reduction headphones, a laptop, decompression socks and some sort of neck pillow (what the fuck is that anyway?!).
How many of these things is a necessity to our three-hour flight? Or are they just comfortable to bring with us?
What about the brand new car we have bought to drive the 10 km for work? Is that a necessity? Or couldn’t a 5.000 $ car done the job? Or what about biking that distance instead? Then we would save money, being healthier and we can skip that mandatory fitness membership, and spend that time by doing something that we really want to.
All the things that we really NEED is quiet easy to obtain in most part of the world. While the things we WANT can be quiet hard to get.
What about that carrier/car/house/flat/achievements we have this very day. They were once something that we only could dream of a couple of years ago.
And are we that much happier in this present moment than we were back then? I’m not.
We are doing all sort of things today that people in the 1900’s couldn’t even dream of. And do you think that we are happier today, than we were back then? I don’t think so.
What if we started to be grateful for those things that is easy to obtain here in life:
- Living wherever we want
- Wearing the clothes that we want
- Eating the food that we like
Imagine that we would leave for a one month trip. How much would you pack? There is often some sort of human logic when we are going for a long trip, we need to pack a lot of stuff!
But what if we just packed:
- another t-shirt
- a shirt
- two pairs of underwear
- two pairs of socks
- passport
- phone
- a charger for your phone
- cash
- toothbrush
At first that might seem intimidating. Because there is not much comfort in leaving your country with a lot less stuff than we initially would have packed.
I have not yet experienced to go with the minimum. Or what we would call the necessities. Without it felt more free.
What I thought would be inconvenient not to have, was actually awesome.
The feeling of being able to do things easier, and way simpler than ever thought possible is relieving. We can do so much more, with way less.
So whenever we make our next trip/purchase/decision we should ask our self the following:
And if you chose the “No” route. Give yourself a clap on the shoulder. We have now made room in our wallets and mind to start being happy about the stuff we already have and what really matters.