AN ATTEMPT AT A LESS MATERIALISTIC LIFE

Well my colleague at work told me i was tending towards being materialistic, I rolled my eyes, saying in pidgin English  'on-top how much salary'. When someone describes a person as materialistic, it is believed that such a person must be spending big bucks on designer clothes and all kinds of fancy things.
 I then went digging, out of curiousity, and i came up with some interesting findings.

  Ok....so what really is Materialism?

In lay man's terms, its spending money you don't have on crap you don't need.

 I saw a definition of materialism that i liked on lifehacker.com

It's best defined as an insatiable desire to own things and the belief that when 

those desires are fulfilled we'll achieve happiness. Basically, materialism suggest 

a yardstick for success: the more you own, the better your life will be. 

Let’s say it as it is, Materialism urges us to buy the coolest gadgets, designer clothes, hair and so on. Bigger is always better to the materialistic, even though Smaller would be just enough. we need to show off to some people that we are big and life is goooodd. 

It is cliche that purchases don’t buy us happiness. and as a quote i saw somewhere, 

‘by and large, money buys happiness but only for those who lack basic need’

Let's face it,  materialism doesn’t buy us happiness, real long-term happiness.....

Materialism is closely tied to shopping, so you I tried to avoid it by adopting some tricks;

•  spend more on experiences rather than objects, the buzz of a new object wears off after you use it repeatedly, but a fun experience lasts a longtime if not a lifetime.

• When buying expensive things I research the item, to make sure i am getting the right item for the right price at the right time.

• Also I try to equate the number of hours I had to put in at work, with the value of the item I am buying, and I can immediately know if its worth it.

• I tried to limit my exposure to the media to a specific period of the day and stick to it. Well, I feel like I’m a traitor here, shout out to my fellow communicators.

• Gave up magazines for books, it’s even a better use of my time.

• I did some house-cleaning and realized how useless shopping for extra things can be, since i had so much unused/ under-used stuff. I definitely thought twice before buying anything.

• I spent quality time with family and Friends.

• Spirituality gives meaning and purpose to my life.

No need to go home and break the i-Pad, kick down the 500 inch screen flat-screen or give out your designer wears, in fact its far from that. We just need to know and understand the difference between what we actually need and what we merely want.

The 1980 Mercedes Benz 350 series was 'The car' to own when i was much younger,fast forward to today, it was an historical monument of some sorts for my kids whom i showed with pride the cars i grew up seeing.

I admit  there are those that derive immense pleasure from shopping, however there will always be a newer model or improved technology of  your dream car, i-phone and whatever it is you want.Then you keep wanting to go bigger and better, and the cycle continues.

I doubt the War against Materialism can be won, but it definitely helps if we consciously make better spending decisions.