I was listening to the 10% Happier podcast and the guest was James Altucher,  An exchange happened that helped me clarify the idea that has been brewing in my head. Basically the exchange was started when James Altucher talked about having a friend get rid of all of the contents of his house. He wanted them to do this and their pay was that they could keep the proceeds or donate them or dispose of them as they saw fit.

In the conversation that followed, the podcast host seemed to try to get Altucher to admit that it was crazy to rid himself of ALL his stuff and that he regretted it. Altucher admitted that he missed some of his things and that living in air B and Bs had gotten a little tiring but he would not admit what the host wanted him to admit. As I listened to this, I realized that this man had done what I am trying to do. He had totally de-cluttered his life. He was also capable of not necessarily defending his reasons for clearing everything out, but talking about the positive that had happened since he had done it.  He was now renting a much smaller apartment and the things that entered his new space had purpose and he was mindful about what those things were.  He also said that his new apartment was cleaner than anywhere else he had lived and he felt that this was because  he appreciated the things that he now had more than he used to in his old life.  Very rarely have I felt that someone got the ideas that flow in my head like I did while I listened to this conversation.

I have questioned for a while now, what having so many things does to my freedom and my sanity. I think that we have been taught by society to value things way too much. I have been questioning the value of things for a while now. Some of my questions have been about why people live in such large houses. Sometimes there are rooms in peoples houses that they don’t enter for months. Why put things in these rooms and heat and cool these rooms. What would happen if you saved all of the money that you would have spent on these extras and put that money into investments that made money for you? I am not going to talk about the investments but I will say that I have discovered in my own life that it is not how much I make but how much extra I have at the end of the month that brings me contentment. To watch this figure get larger month after month brings me a sense of peace.

With the way I feel about things, I feel that I am assaulted every day by sales and marketing that try to convince me that I am not content and that I am worth less as a person because I don’t have certain possessions or spend money on things. For quite a while seeing these marketing ploys caused me to feel anger.  I am getting past the point where I feel angry when I watch a TV commercial but these presentations still rub me the wrong way.

I feel there is a better way to live,  The first thing that you need to do to have a wonderful life is to unlearn much of what you have been taught.  Think About It!

If you were going to pay an organization to brainwash you, and you were going to spend 100 minutes a day listening and watching what that organization prepared for you, how much time would you spend investigating what this organization was going to brainwash you to do? If you are a thinker you would probably want to hear many stories about how other people’s lives were changed by this brainwashing. Maybe you would want to try it in small doses to see what it did to you. Maybe you would just say no because you don’t want to be brainwashed by anyone. I mean brainwashing is a scary thing. If you saw “The Manchurian Candidate” you know that brainwashing can make you do anything. I mean look at what the whacked out religions do with brainwashing.

The average American has already made this deal and they have done no research to find out about the organizations that prepare the content. If you look at the waking hours of most Americans you would find out that most of them actually spend more than 100 minutes a day.

I will quit browbeating the idea and just say it. The organizations that I am talking about are the companies that make commercials. You all knew that this is what I was getting at.

What are we doing? I MEAN, WHAT ARE WE DOING?  Would we really choose to let advertisers inside our heads and program us?

Some of the info that I found is that the average american spends 5 hrs a day watching TV.   Take this with 20 minutes an hour spent on commercials (actually more) and you get the 100 minutes.  Advertisers spend huge amounts of money making the commercials resonate with us. The music and images are created and edited to get you to buy products. Their makers don’t consider what these creations are doing to our self image. Did anyone you know get their significant other a brand new car for Christmas?  What percentage of americans could afford this?

How do you feel about yourself knowing that you can’t do this for your loved ones?

Think about it.