A Simpler Life is a More Satisfying Life

I was reading an article by Wendy Koch from USA Today titled For Many, A Simpler Life Is Better. It’s about this new movement to limit the number of things you own. In fact, someone in San Diego, a man named Dave Bruno has launched a blog called the 100 Thing Challenge. His whole concept is to try to get people to limit the things they own down to 100 items. That is not that many things, but people that do it seem to feel free and less stressed than deprived. One of the trends in the article is that only half of all consumers say they already have what they need, meaning they don’t need to buy anything. In the American Dream Project I’ve often talked about where you commit for a month not to buy anything other than food or the current necessities that you use every month. Try it for a month, try it for 2 months, try it for 6 months and just see what happens. This is a whole movement called Voluntary Simplicity. Its got a lot of traction because people are finding a simpler, less cluttered life is actually a better more satisfying life. That is a civil lining. If it really takes hold however, our recession will undoubtedly last a little longer, there will be fewer stores and less consumption, but on balance that’s the only thing that’s sustainable.