Taming Materialism
A theme I love to go on about is how the things you own end up owning you. Material possessions can serve a purpose, but more and more they becomes suffocating.
Naturally, I took an interest in this Penelope Trunk’s recent entry at the Brazen Careerist, in which she offers five steps to taming materialism, including:
3. Understand the concept of aspirational clutter. Get reality and throw stuff out.
So much of what we hold on to is what we wish we were using — objects that commemorate a life we aspire to but do not have. The six books we bought a year ago and haven’t read, for example. We don’t want to admit that we’re not making time to read, so we save them. The treadmill is another object that is loaded because if you throw it out you’re admitting to yourself that you’re never going to use it. Keeping it, even unused, maintains your dream of getting into shape.
This is something I try to do often in my life. I take an inventory of the things around me and ask myself “am I really using that, or am I just holding on to an idea?” When I’m honest with myself (as I try to be) the reality of the answer is sometimes surprising.
