Consumerism has a nasty tendency of sneaking up on us.
We just live in a world, we live in a culture, we live in a society that is constantly pushing
consumerism upon us.
And no matter how simple we want to live, how intentional we want to live, from time
to time, we need to evaluate our life, evaluate our consumeristic habits, and if they're healthy
or not.
And one of the best ways to do this is through a shopping ban, of some sort.
'm going to talk a little bit more about what a shopping ban might look like for you, but
before I do, let me just tell you, it's going to be exactly what you want it to be.
You're going to set the rules about what you can buy, and how long it's going to look like.
But what ever you take on, you'll find it to be beneficial for you.
Here's just five quick benefits of a shopping ban.
Number one: you'll always save money.
Like even if you take a shopping ban for one month, or three months, or six months, or
a year, whatever you decide to not buy something, you're going to be saving that money.
Number two, you're going to learn your consumeristic tendencies.
This is what happens when we remove something from our life.
We start to think "Why do I want this so bad?
What are the things that would normally trip me up?
What am I really compelled to buy during this time?"
And you start to learn what is that kept tripping you up over and over again.
Number three: any shopping ban that you take means that you have more time for other endeavors.
Whatever your passionate about.
I don't think most of us realize how much time we just waste shopping and buying stuff,
and so removing that, for even a period of 3-6 months, you'll be surprised by how much
free time you have to go for walks, exercise, write, whatever you want to do.
Number four: a shopping ban is environmentally friendly.
As I like to say, the most environmentally friendly product is the one you don't buy.
And so, here's a good chance to do that.
Number five: you will almost certainly buy less afterwards.
Because a shopping ban in any format resets our habits, and resets our thinking, and almost
everyone who tries it, (and I recommend it to everyone,) you end up buying a little bit
less afterwards.
So, how do we do this?
Um, a shopping ban can be whatever you want it to be.
Most often, the decision is to buy no non-essential items for a period of time.
So you're still buying food, you're still buying toiletries, you're still buying things
that you need, to live your life, but you're removing the non-essential purchases: clothes,
toys, books, technology, any of these sorts of items.
Now some people want to change it up if they have a family and they don't want to force
their to go trough it, or they still want to spend money on vacations, or some people
think to themselves I'm still going to buy books during this time frame.
Like, you get to choose what it is, but the more items you put in this "I'm not going
to buy" category, the better.
And then, you pick the time frame.
Some people go a full year, a lot of people start out with a month, or maybe three months.
Choose something that's going to be challenging for you.
But again, you get to make the rules.
Once you've set your rules for your shopping ban, pick the date that you're going to get
started.
It can be the first day of the month, it can be on your birthday, first day of a year,
an anniversary, I don't know.
Whatever it is that you want to pick, I think pick a memorable, symbolic day, that you're
going to mark this change in your life.
Number three: prepare for the shopping ban.
And I don't mean, buy a whole bunch of stuff so you don't have to buy anything for the
next three months, but, um, for example, track your spending for a month, or track your spending
for 3 months, and think to yourself, what do I want to learn about myself during this
process?
Because if you track your spending for a month and then you don't buy for a month, you'll
be able to think "hey, I just saved this much money."
Number four: once the shopping ban starts, embrace the tension, is probably the best
way for me to say this.
And by that I mean, it is going to be difficult at first, if you;re used to just buying coffee
on the way home, if you're used to shopping with your friends on the weekend, if you're
used to surfing Amazon late a night, it's gonna be difficult the first time you want
to go do that.
And that's what I mean by embrace this tension.
Know that it's going to happen.
Know that it's natural, and think to yourself "what am I learning through this?"
This is really difficult, why do I want to shop?
Why do I want to surf Amazon?
What can I learn?
Number five: find victory in defeat.
And by that I mean, there is a likelihood, there's a chance, that you're going to screw
up at some point, especially if you wanted to go a year or six months, you might fall
back into buying something at some point during this process.
Don't throw the whole thing away.
Instead, think to yourself, "Why did I buy that thing?
Why could I not resist that urge?
Was it a legitimate need or not?"
Find victory even in the mistake.
And then number six: reenter slowly after the shopping ban.
The whole point of this was to reset our consumeristic tendencies.
You saved some money, which is great, you don't want to go back the very next day and
spend all the money that you saved, and so think through - was there anything that I
really needed to buy that I held off?
You can make that purchase if you needed it.
But hopefully, almost certainly, your tendencies will have changed if you embrace the shopping
ban idea.