We Can’t Deprive Ourselves of Something We Don’t Need
By: Sam Dixon Brown
Tags: Self-awareness, Minimalism, Mindfulness, Money, Self

More is better, right? More money. More comfort. More convenience.

What if we were better at living with less? Less stuff. Less comfort. Less convenience.

If we learned what is ‘enough’, we would need to earn less money and would have more time. More time to spend on the people and experiences that matter.

Being content with ‘enough’ is not about deprivation. It’s not about lack of ambition. It’s certainly not about settling.

Being content with ‘enough’ is learning that we do not need the things other people tell us we are depriving ourselves of.

Why do we struggle so much with the concept of ‘enough’?

We want more comfort

In US homes, 82% of clothing items have not been worn in the last year. We buy 10 different coats for every conceivable type of weather or social occasion, even though most of them will never see the light of day. We have a different duvet for every season. We fly Business Class and stay in 4* hotels.

We all need comfort but we don’t always need MORE comfort. I’m not suggesting that we all sleep on the floor. But here’s the thing: Four duvets don’t mean more comfort than one. It’s an illusion.

Now that I perpetually travel, one of the only things I miss from our old home was the duvet we nicknamed “The Cloud”. Damn, that was a comfortable duvet.

But do I sleep just as well in whatever duvet is on the Airbnb bed? Of course, because it is plenty comfortable enough and I am less anxious in my simpler, less cluttered, life.

We want more convenience

We always need the perfect tool for the job. The average UK household has £822 of unused kitchen gadgets. We have a garden shed full of tools we use once in a blue moon. We have smartwatches, phones, tablets, kindles, laptops, smart TVs…

But could having one good quality knife mean you could do without a mandolin, spiralizer, vegetable dicer, pizza cutter, orange peeler, and apple corer? Undoubtedly. My Joel Black knife travels everywhere with me and I’d rather only have that one thing than a suitcase full of gadgets.

Convenience will not bring happiness. A University of Chicago study found that excessive choice and convenience actually contributes to depression and anxiety.

We need to keep up with the Joneses

We feel the need to buy (or more likely, lease) that fancy new car. We cannot bear to be seen in the same outfit twice. We cannot bear the idea of not being able to satisfy our guest’s every whim.

Each year, my mother hosted our family Christmas. She would spend weeks beforehand making sure she had every conceivable type of food or drink in the cupboard, waiting for our guests, just in case.

When she offered tea or coffee she would make sure she had skimmed milk, semi-skimmed, full-fat, and cream in the fridge. She’d buy a Christmas cake and a Christmas pudding, even though no human is capable of eating both. So every year one of them went to waste.

She is not unusual. Every year, 5 million Christmas puddings are thrown away in the UK.

Instead of trying to cater to their every whim, would your dinner party guests be just as happy if you prepared a small but thoughtfully chosen menu? Yes.

And if not, they’re not really your friends.

Why is not being contented with ‘enough’ a problem?

All the stuff we bring into our lives without considering whether we already have enough has got to be paid for. We put ourselves on a never-ending treadmill at work, always reaching for the next promotion to earn more money. Or we take on ever more debt, mortgages, car plans, and credit cards.

Whereas if we were a little more mindful and intentional, we could have realized that we already had enough a long time ago.

As we go through life accumulating more stuff, we need more and more space to accommodate everything. We buy bigger houses. When we run out of space at home we fill our garages. Then when the garage is full we rent storage units.

The global self-storage industry is worth more than $37,000,000,000 of which the US makes up more than 90%.

It’s time we all learned what is enough.

‘Enough’ gives you freedom

So much more happiness and freedom can be gained from what we choose to do without.

By learning to be more content with less and to appreciate the things we have more.

By un-training ourselves to need excessive levels of comfort and appreciating the incredibly fortunate position we in the developed world are all in.

By un-learning our need to conform to societal pressures and being more intentional about our decisions.

For those who are on the path to Financial Independence this is life-changing important because (a) if you need less money to live, your FI target will be lower and (b) every penny you spend now rather than investing for the future does not have the opportunity to grow exponentially due to compounding, thus delaying your retirement further.

For those who are in debt or living paycheck-to-paycheck, it is even more critical. Every penny you spend now is not being used to pay off debt which is spiraling faster than a zucchini in that useless kitchen gadget that’s gathering dust in your pantry.

Freedom from debt is the most important step in sorting out your finances and giving yourself more freedom and options.

A life without stuff does not have to be a life of deprivation. A simple life does not have to be a small life.

By learning what enough truly means to you and by learning to live with occasional discomfort or inconvenience you could have a lot more time, money, and freedom to spend on the things that are really important.