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~ Watch Yourself ~
by Bill Brent
Watch the momentum of how problem solving creates more problems as we go about accumulating our lives. Watch how accumulation asserts its cute little head as the solution to a problem. We all tend to do this. We've been trained to do this in our culture. Got a problem? Buy a solution!
Do you tend, for instance, to suffer from "crappe creep"? (tm) Are there piles of stuff lying around your place that you haven't dealt with for a while? How about stacks of papers? Many of us are stackers.
So, as you move forward, watch the tendency to go, "Oh, I'm gonna be a musician," or "Oh, I'm gonna buy a new car, buy some land, build a house." The huger the goal, the more money it takes. The more stacks it can create.
Especially watch how your problem-solving process creates more problems.
Watch how anything that takes too much of your money creates grief for you. Going back to school in a bad economy, for instance, to retrain for a new profession, also creates new debt and obligations, and with that comes a whole new set of problems.
So watch out for accumulation as a solution. Spend as little money as possible, for a while, and see how that feels. How much do you really want or need to learn, for instance, in order to enjoy your life as it stands?
Watch out for the grandiose thinking of, "I'm going to start a whole new life." This is a form of ambition. It takes a heaping helping of money.
So what do you accumulate, and is it doing for you what you expected it to? Does it take more time than you really have, to engage with your stuff?
Meanwhile, how much are you willing to pay for storage, and for how long? There is no good in paying for unrealized potential if it remains unrealized.
So watch out for the opportunity cost of ownership:
- Even if you store something in your house for free, you may still be paying for it in terms of maintenance -- time, energy, or simply how much grunge it accumulates.
- In the case of devices, such as electronics, that "something" may stop working, or become too obsolete to be useful to you.
Try not to buy that "something" until you are truly ready to use it.
Anxiety is painful to watch and stressful to be around.
When you have a choice to make, can you make a choice in the direction of...
- Less stress?
- Less stuff?
- Both?
How can you solve the problem without spending money?
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page last updated: 2011.05.06, 10:23 a.m. Hawaii time | photo credit: Bill Brent]
[and it's OUTTA HERE! Thanks, Mr. K, and it's on the way! My eBay alternative works! Etsy rides again, w00t! I will have more cool vintage music and bowling gear available shortly -- no admin assistant here in the far-flung reaches of Hawaii, so it's a one-man shop 'n' ship! --Bill]
I'm moving my action over to the Etsy store. First up: ~THIS FUN!~
I'll spare you my full-on rant about WHY I'm ditching eBay again, when others have already done a great job of it.
Long story, short version:
I got the rate hike memo 30 days in advance of April 19, it took me half that time to gear up, and then I sold off all the heaviest stuff first, but I have felt stressed ever since. In any case, shipping isn't free, sometimes bad things happen to nice things enroute, and it is disingenuous of eBay (and its flawed, self-serving logic) to tell us we should eat it.
eBay has raised rates in many ways for many "reasons" over the years, but this new policy represents a fundamental shift in the way that it charges sellers to list. All of which is geared toward rising oil prices and shipping rates that only ever increase.
Of the various online stores I've run to supplement my income as a poor person, Etsy has been the fairest deal for small sellers overall.
But overall, I've been opting out for some time now. (Search the "eBay alternative" tab on this blog if you're curious; I'm too tired now to code the supporting links.)
Once I vote with my feet, my head and heart do follow. It's only doubt that slows one down. And life's too sweet to grow bitter.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page originally posted: 2011.05.12, 6:30 a.m. Hawaii time | updated 2011.05.23, 5:40 p.m. Hawaii time | photo credit: Bill Brent]
I am tired of being marketed at. Isn't everyone?
I understand that somehow the toll must be paid for all this world wide warbling, but some days, honestly, I pray that we humans die off as a species, and soon, to leave our sorry remains to the great, unwashed, un-marketed-at, non-texting birds and beasts, to do with as they will. At this point, it may be the only way to save the place.
Even here on the relatively isolated island of Hawaii, evidence of man's ruin grows increasingly grim. Invasive species run amok due to our cluelessness. Here, at least, it could all be taken away by a big, blasting belch of the volcanic belly. Maybe that helps keep us humble. (Hmmm, nope, locals still trash the landscape. So we're just as self-centered and self-disrespecting as the rest of you. Now how do we manage to embody both of those traits at once?)
But really, telling me that I should lighten up about this stuff is just telling me that you're looking at the deal through rose-colored glasses. Like we should all be on a quest for renewal and self-actualization, or at least a few good laughs, when largely this is the kind of nonsense we should stop in order to deal with our very real set of problems.
At the moment I am in rant mode, so you would not know it, but according to this theory, I meet most if not all of the traits that define the self-actualized person, and I know that this does not bring happiness, only an ever-increasing awareness of our hazy, pervasive misery. That's misery, not mystery. If "higher power" exists, and has any genuine mercy, s/he'll kill us off before the next reel kicks in.
As Tom Petty once put it, waiting is the hardest part.
Meanwhile, we all market ourselves, whether we intend it or not.
On that note, then, here are some of the ways I have been deceptive, i.e., less than truthful or direct with others:
-- I have acted dumber and more boring than I really was, as a means to put off others whom I didn't trust or respect, or had simply grown tired of. So I guess that's a kind of self-defensive anti-marketing.
-- I have stolen from others for things I thought I needed (okay, drugs and money) that I'd decided they wouldn't give me if I just asked for them. Several layers of delusion there.
-- I have said less than truthful things to others, in order to avoid hurting their feelings or incurring their Bill-directed wrath. Same difference.
-- On the other hand, I have been very generous with and supportive of others even when I was envious of their accomplishments. I didn't begrudge them their successes.
This stupid soap opera that we're all stuck in is going to be over in about fifteen minutes anyhow, so why not commit random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty instead? Once we're worm-food, or sea-slug-food, that's what we'll be doing anyhow. So, see, we end up leaving our remains to the rest in any case. Might as well practice for the big-time!
Now here are some qualities I wish I had more of:
-- Nonchalance. The primary ingredient to being cool. I just can't fake this one. I think I want it more for the sheer ability to say "fuck it" and mean it, than I do for any perceived social currency, i.e., interpersonal marketability. (Whoo, Google search, now choke on THAT buzz-phrase!)
On the other hand, I knew one person who literally died of terminal coolness. So that's no solution to our little problems either. The only way to deal with stuff is to deal with it. Sometimes you really do need to worry a problem to death, so that you don't cool yourself to death.
-- Sweetness and light. Show me more and I'll give you more. And without a trace of saccharine aftertaste, please. Yes, I can tell the difference. See the bit above about my acting dumb and boring.
-- Courage. More than the other Oz-like traits. See deception and delusion, above.
-- Hmmm. No matter how I boil down the rest (not many), all seem to be some kind of cure for pain. Ignorance is bliss, that sort of thing. And nonchalance already covers that one, more or less. And I know that doesn't really work.
So maybe we wouldn't be warming ourselves to death if we weren't so busy "cooling" ourselves to death. We'd be busy figuring out how to destroy markets instead of creating fresh hells.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page last updated: 2010.04.08, 10:00 p.m. Hawaii time]
