Identity shift

Think yourself as someone who is trying to get rid of the clutter in your house. Honestly you love shopping. But now the space in your closets is packed with not an inch left to spare. You decide to declutter your house within a month. You donate significant amount of stuff to "goodwill" or similar donation company. At the end of the month you are feeling good about yourself and you even enjoy a good shopping outing to celebrate your success. However, after six months down the line things do start to fill in. Oh no..it's declutter time again. Now whenever you go to store and see something attractive, you start this dialogue of negotiation in your head about buying vs not buying. With lot of willpower you end up sticking to your plan.. You declutter again... And six months down the road- Deja Vu ... you keep finding yourself in this clutter-declutter phenomena ..tiring right. Well that was me in the past.

Now here is just a minor shift in this story. You change your identity. You think yourself as someone who doesn't like unnecessary shopping. That's it. Its very easy for you now to keep your home tidy with only necessary things. And now staying declutter becomes so much effortless.   

 I have used this "identity shift" strategy successfully for most part now.  I can effortlessly say "no" to things . Just like I won't smoke as that is not my identity, I won't buy unnecessary things as that is not my identity.. I still admire beauty in materialistic things around me . But desire to have those things in my home just because someone else has it or is going to have it is totally gone. Have you heard of the phenomena "FOMO". FOMO means feeling of missing out. We feel this when our friend has something or is buying something that we don't have. I think this FOMO runs high during Thanksgiving time.

There is nothing wrong in exploring different items that will add real value to our life. And there are some of those items that are worth buying. But assessing true worth is so crucial as each new thing has some value to it. Thats when this self identity comes in handy. Now, lot of times, I just question my buying decision and cautiously lean towards I really don't need it as an answer. Sometimes I give few days before coming to any conclusion. This time calms my adrenalin rush. I also see myself living life where I feel I am more in control when it comes to shopping as no advertisement /marketing scheme can deceit me. I have also seen myself coming from feeling more "full "than "empty" as I feel I have everything I need.

Identity shift can do a lot of good if we need significant change.  

Now here is that typical riddle. There is a glass ( half full of water) thinking about its identity. What will glass say:  half full? half empty? Or maybe all full with half water and half air? Well that depends on how glass feels about his identity. -praj101