The Fate We All Fear- Or Should.

Walking through a Sussex town on a summer evening, crowds hovering moth-like outside the pubs, their cigarette smoke marring my refreshing walk, something struck me.

It was something I had considered earlier that day, eating a sandwich on a bench which faced the glass front of a supermarket. During the 15 or so minutes I was there, I did a few things to pass the time. I looked around the square. I checked my phone. But the supermarket cashier through the glass drew my attention from time to time. Perhaps it was because she had just sold me a sandwich, in such an overtly polite manner it was almost obsequious, but I began to wonder how she came to be behind that counter and how she, if she was sitting on a bench watching herself work, would feel about her place in the world.

This is the point at which I begin to feel that I should justify myself. Say something like- ‘Of course being a check-out girl is a noble profession.’ But that is not the purpose of this post. The purpose of it, the thing that struck me as I walked through the hazy evening, that which I had ruminated on over my egg mayo at lunch, is to acknowledge that statistically speaking, the majority of the population cannot have a career that fully stimulates them. The overwhelming majority must inhabit the menial jobs or the manual labour. This is a fact that we have perhaps acknowledged- and rebutted with platitudes “Work isn’t everything” “Whatever pays the bills”etc. But this goes a lot further than whether or not you enjoy your job.

The fact is, most people in those clouds of cigarette smoke, slowly earning their £7.50 an hour and then casually spending it on pints and club entry fees, will never achieve their brain’s full potential. They will never push hard enough, run fast enough, swim against the current of the tide that is bills and rent and laziness to do something truly creative with their minds. This is because the world we live in is a machine that needs humans, incredible, malleable, inspired creatures that we are, to do things like serve french fries or enter data. And where there is demand for something in exchange for money, that thing will inevitably be supplied.

Careers where money is not easily given, where years of dedication and study are required before you can break even, tend to eventually offer more scope for creativity and originality. But most of us live in the short term, as long as we break even on our payments, tread water so to speak, we put our attention on other, easier to develop pastimes, we concern ourselves with our relationships or our facebook pages.

Most people will probably die with one or two things they are truly proud of. Raising kids or running a marathon, whatever it may be. But I look at people treading water, people working meaningless jobs to keep this machine running for those people canny enough to go against the current and do something they care about, and what I see is an immense and saddening waste. Sure we need bin men, and factory workers and everybody else. But by laws of economics, or nature, these jobs will always be filled. I am talking to you, and asking whether you are treading water, or are you doing something that is pushing your grey matter to it’s limits? To make new discoveries, you must first understand those that went before. To write a symphony, you must know the depths of music theory. To build a successful business you must have a network, and relevant experience. These things might not pay right away. It might start out as a voluntary thing, you might need to pay tuition fees. Do it. You are your biggest investment, and your time is your currency. Think about where you’re spending it.

“The trouble is, you think you have time.”

Why You Should Sell Everything You Own

Possessions have a funny way of accumulating over time. I encourage you to try this right now. Stand up, take a look around your room. Open up the drawers and rifle through. Peek under the bed, and on the highest shelves. Now ask yourself- how much of that stuff do I use regularly?

I’ll let you in on a secret- I’m a bit of a hoarder. This is a label that I would never have associated with myself before this week, but the second hand glove fits. Looking through my cupboards this week I realised that I was storing winter coats from 7 years ago, that no longer fit and I never wore, countless ill fitting hand-me-downs from my 3 sisters, old walking boots so caked in mud they probably count as an ecosystem and reams of filled up notebooks with jottings such as “Remember to go to the gym!” filling the crumpled pages.

The epiphany that changed the way I looked at these possessions was simply saying “Is this essential? If I didn’t have this would I even notice?” I shifted around 20 kilos of clothes and sold £70 worth of ‘old tat’ on Ebay (don’t worry, I worded it more enticingly in the listing). I realised, as I threw ancient T Shirts and broken pens in the bin, that after a while, possessions take more energy than they give. I often the phrase, ‘cluttered room, cluttered mind’, and having completed my Possession Purge, I can testify that it is true. There’s something about simplicity, minimalism, and space, that is calming, and having a house full of nick nacks that you don’t use conflicts with that.

Religions have always had something to say about possessions. For Jesus it was “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” In Buddhism, Vireka and Viraaga are concepts meaning ‘detachment’- it is well established that a Monk cannot reach true Enlightenment if distracted by Possessions. Looking over several religions, it becomes clear that a whole lot of people thought getting too bogged down by possessions is a bad idea. This lead me to my next question-

Is This A Capitalist Phenomenon?

Consumerism is the heady oil in the Capitalist machine. The average American household is in $7,000 of credit card debt. Chuck Palanhuick wrote in ‘Lullaby’, a satirical novel- “Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?” Since the Henry Ford assembly lines upped production efficiency to supply and demand skewing levels, advertisers have been working hard to increase demand any way possible. The ‘I Need It’ mentality that we have towards the new iPhone, or a new dress for this weekend, a bigger car, it’s all benefiting companies- but not necessarily you. Sitting Bull, a Native American Chief, said of the American settlers-”They have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.”

If you view all your incoming money as un-invested capital, and your outgoings as your investments, what would you be investing in? World travel, education, savings or a business idea? Or, realistically, coffees at Starbucks, mobile phone bills, new laptops, and a stream of new clothes and accessories? That is one easy way to stay ’tilling the soil’, working the 9-5 to pay your bills, and never being satisfied that what you have is enough. In Consumerism, More is More. Cutting that association saves a lot of space, and a lot of money.

Where Do I Start?

There is something savagely satisfying, once you realise how little possessions really matter, in getting rid of them. Something of that small thrill of acquisition repeats itself when an item is wholeheartedly disposed of. I encourage you to start by picturing a simple, minimal existence, filled with only the items you use and need. If it helps, remember the guy (Ian Usher) who sold his life (a.k.a all his possessions) on Ebay and went to live on a Carribbean Island. He seems pretty happy these days. Now clear out anything that you don’t use really frequently, using the mantra- “Can I live without it?” Be ruthless, it’ll pay off.

You Can Be Sentimental When You’re Old

I know someone who keeps every letter she gets, every cinema ticket, every festival wristband, as if someday somebody will knock on her door and say, “What have you been doing all these years? Can you prove it?” Let me tell you something. The past is the past. The only time that it is permissible to be stuck in it is on your deathbed, in which case, pull out the old photo albums and have a good cry. Certainly, keep a few key items or photos, but cinema tickets? Really? You were there, you won’t forget being there, and your friends won’t forget you were there. Now chuck it out and make some new memories.

What’s The Benefit?

By cutting the emotional attachment to ‘things’ and relishing a minimal lifestyle you will see straight through advertising, save money, and keep your house de-cluttered. I remember reading ‘Heidi’ as a child, and am still awed by the idea of sleeping on a bale of hay under moonlight, and living off the milk of your pet goat. Perhaps that sounds strange, but it’s also conveniently frugal in comparison to the fantasy of ‘having it all’. Old clothes can be sold to companies that resell them in African or Eastern European markets, things can be sold online and those last few items can always go to the charity shop. Plenty of people can benefit from your clutter- just not you!

In researching this article, and planning my own purge, I read a lot of stories online of people selling everything they own and travelling the world. They speak as if their possessions were the only thing holding them back from achieving their dreams. If this is the case, just think what you can achieve when unburdened by a need for constant ‘things’. Perhaps you can invest the money into becoming what you really want to be.

*The only things worth possessing are good memories and an intention to make many more.*