A very wise man once told me to never acquire more then will fit in a pickup truck. 

As I prepare to drastically downsize my life for a third time I am reminded that I am being penalized again for amassing too much stuff! It is really not the stuff but the choices I have made that is the cause. The choice to follow the paths of others instead of finding my own. The choice to do what everyone else is doing! The choice to play it safe by seeking security and not freedom!

It is how we are programmed. Buy a house! It is a great investment! It is a great tax break! Get more! Get more! God will bless you! Get more stuff! Heck, the church even plays an intricate part in this programming! If we don’t have a nice house, or a new car, we can’t be blessed! Can we?

Truth is a house is a liability – and a prison! It can take your freedom away! A new car is a liability – and a prison.  Credit Cards, clothes, toys, stuff – prison!

Serious change is coming and the LA Riots gave us a preview of the impending clash between rich and poor. Most if not all of the experts say in 8 to 10 years there will be no more middleclass! That is very scary unless you ALREADY have a few million is a Swiss Bank account! Most of us are in big trouble and the accumulation of stuff will just make it worse!

If you are a person who is ok with mediocrity chances are you might be able to live the white picket fence dream if you have already started on that path! Reality is, though, that if you are under 35 you will be changing careers every 2 – 3 years and over 35 every 5 – 8 years.  (read two great posts about job hopping here and here ) And if you are a “make things happen” type person you will change jobs often so you better prepare. The good news is at each jump life gets better! But if you truly want to be remarkable life is scary and filled with risks and uncertainty! Fight the fear – it is worth it!

If you are young, single, a couple with no kids or small child, assertive and really want more out of life – don’t buy a house. Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! I won’t say a word about today’s real-estate market except it is not going to get better anytime soon! It’s not!

Funny because I have been right here before!  I remember after first learning about existential psychology and existentialism sitting on a bench in Echo Park just laughing at the world of possibilities.  I could walk away from any path I was on and go create a whole new life. Wow! I daydreamed about what I really wanted to do with my life.  Each path that came out of my heart had freedom; the freedom to go after any dream I wanted! But like most of us I reverted back to my programming.

I don’t mean this to come across as Orwellian or negitive yet my point is we are missing the American Dream because society’s influence has changed the dream!  The American Dream was originally defined as having the opportunity and freedom that allows all citizens to achieve their goals in life through hard work and determination alone. Now to most people, and it was probably even changed by marketers, the dream is no more than the shallow pursuit of material possessions and doing the very best to fit in. We dream to only exist and that is not living!

I want more! I want to do more! But right now I feel like I am in prison. A prison I created because my choices were based on trying to establish security instead of trying to find freedom. I am not downsizing for financial reasons although with a recession around the corner having less will be very beneficial.  I am downsizing for freedom!

The whole point of this post is not to say one way is better than another. All I am trying to do is present a different outlook on what we believe to be normal. It is normal to go to school, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids and live happily ever after. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Regrettably very soon that life will no longer exist! Our new business, economic, technical and social environments won’t allow it so we have to find a new normal! Today young people are still being influenced by dreams that will not work even in the very near future. Instead of being taught to buy a house, get a nice car with a nice car payment – they should be taught about financial freedom!

An F-150 would have been paid off years ago!!!

5 steps to taming materialism, from an accidental expert

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Change, Just Me, Learning, Life's Lessons, My Big Mouth, Personal, Personal Growth, Remarkable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.