Reflections on 30 days of nothing

As this 30 days comes to a close, I've realized that what started as an experiment and an opportunity to recalibrate my relationship with spending money has had an enormous impact on how I intend to spend money in the future. It's given me the motivation to think deeply about issues of ethics, giving, entitlement, expectation, competition, and sustainability.

When it comes right down to it, living a life of constant conspicuous consumption is not sustainable. Our earth has finite resources that are being stripped at an alarming rate, my house has a finite amount of space to store or display all of the things I could choose to purchase, and my bank account has a finite amount of money with which to finance those purchases.

Advertising is everywhere we look from tv spots to glossy magazine spreads to the clothes and accessories our friends and neighbors wear. The pressure to "keep up" with the latest trends and newest innovations is great. But this month, I've learned that saying no to those extraneous purchases doesn't cause depression or increased stress levels. If anything, I've been happier, less stressed out, and more able to be a present participant in life.

Wanting will never cease. There will always be things to desire, and I've come to believe that it is an innate human characteristic to always strive for more / better / higher levels of success. But that success does not have to be measured by the things we can accumulate. Instead of looking outward for a barometer of success, I'm choosing to focus on my own personal goals, and the goals of my family to define our success. And I think we'll all be a lot happier that way.

At the end of the book Not Buying It, the author speaks about how a natural disaster (the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia) put her experiment into perspective. It's interesting how the earthquake in Haiti has done the same for me. It's made me realize just how stark the differences are between the haves and the have nots. And while natural disasters tug at heartstrings and mobilize people quickly, I think it's important to remember that people in communities around the world are living in poverty, war zones, and any number of other devastating situations *all the time*.

It's easy to "forget" or to block those images out by changing the channel after the news stations stop their coverage, but I've always said that one of the biggest benefits of privilege is the ability to "look the other way" and not deal with the realities that others have no choice but to live with.

In a lot of ways, this year of challenges is designed to pursue what we've defined for ourselves as "the good life". Connected, intentional living practices that move toward sustainability on all fronts. Giving more, doing more, buying fewer things to clutter the landscape of our lives, but enjoying everything we do and buy even more. To me, this is really all an effort to pursue happiness in its purest form.

If you've participated in 30 days of nothing, I'm really looking forward to hearing how this month has impacted you.