Your Biggest Dreams Do Not Include a House Full of Stuff
We’ve never met. But I’m going to make an assumption:
Your greatest dream in life is not to own a house full of stuff you don’t use.
Nobody, sitting across the table from you drinking a cup of coffee, would ever say that their greatest goal in life is to own a house full of boxes crammed into closets and cabinets.
We all dream bigger dreams for our lives than material possessions.
When we dig deep into our heart and soul, we want to live a life that mattered.
We speak of family, faith, relationships, or making a difference in the world. These are the motivations that inspire us.
But somewhere along the way, the world hijacks our passions and directs it toward things that don’t matter.
We slowly and subtly begin to waste the one life we’ve been given. We spend our money on things we don’t need. We spend our time cleaning and organizing things we don’t use. And we direct our focus on acquiring more and more of the “latest and greatest.”
Marketers and advertisers promise their newest trinket will lead to a better life. But for the most part, we regret the purchase in the long run. The things we buy may provide a short hit of happiness, but that happiness fades quickly.
It’s not long until we look around our homes filled to the brim with unused possessions, or open the next credit card statement, and regret the purchases that we made.
But rather than breaking free, we too often repeat the cycle, only adding to the clutter in our home.
It is time to break free.
It is time to return to the bigger dreams for your life.
It is time to stop wasting your life pursuing and accumulating material possessions. You were designed for greater pursuits.
It is time to become more intentional with the items you allow into your home and life.
It is time to take back control.
It is time to remember that your biggest dream does not include a house full of stuff.
But how?
1. We get clear on what we want to accomplish and who we want to become.
Find time alone, away from the noise of this world and make a list of the three most important things you want to accomplish with your life. For me, my list consists of growing in faith, excelling in my relationships, and making a difference in the world.
Your list will look different. But I can virtually guarantee, “owning a house full of stuff I don’t use” won’t be on that list.
Write your list. And get clear on the plan you wish to design for your life.
2 Remind yourself that you have a choice in how you live.
Nobody can take away your right to make decisions for yourself. You can give it away or you can forget that you have agency, but you always have a choice. That may not mean you get to control every aspect, but you can still decide what pursuits are going to be important to you.
You have control and you have a choice. You don’t have to live exactly the same as everyone around you. You can choose to live for those pursuits that mean the most to you.
3. We remove distractions.
Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. It forces us to get clear on our priorities and then reorient our life around those pursuits.
Minimalism can be applied in countless ways: possessions, commitments, habits, relationships, even the work that we do. Removing the distractions may not be easy in a world that constantly clamors and screams for our attention and resources, but it is required to live an intentional life focused on the things that matter.
You can do it.
Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” I like to add a third, “The day you remove everything that distracts you from that purpose.”
Your greatest dream in life is not to own a house full of stuff. Live for something greater.
