As I minimize possessions, how do I overcome
the money spent on things in the past? As part of my online 12 week course called
Uncluttered, I have helped over 50,000 families from all over the world minimize their possessions,
own less stuff, and live more life. And one of the most common obstacles, one
of the most common roadblocks is, "What do I do about all the money that I wasted on
things?" "How do I get rid of things that I spent so
much money on?" So I want to try to answer that question for
you today. And I want to do it by number one, by introducing
you to an accounting principle, and then, number two, just reminding you of two truths
about life that are important in overcoming this question. First, the accounting principle. Uh, banking and finance is actually my college
degree, and during college, I learned about the sunk cost fallacy, or the sunk cost trap. It's an accounting term that actually has
a lot of application to the way that we live our lives. The accounting principle is this: just because
my business spent a lot of money on something in the past doesn't mean I need to keep using
it in the future. And it looks a little something like this. Let's say I spent $10,000 on a machine to
do something. Well now, there's a new machine that only
costs $5,000. It does the work better, faster, more efficiently
and higher quality. It would be foolish, it would actually be
wrong, in business thinking, to think to myself, I'm not going to buy the new machine, because
I spent so much money on the old machine. In life, it looks a little bit something like
this. Just because I wasted a lot of time, and energy,
and money on things in the past, doesn't mean I need to hold onto them if they're not contributing
to living my best life today. So then I want to remind you of two thoughts
or two truths about life that will help you overcome this obstacle. Number one, You cannot change the past. You cannot go back and relive anything from
your past. Unless the tags are still on the item, you
can't go back and unpurchase the thing. It is done, it is over, it happened, and that's
the truth. However, the second truth is even more important. I can't change the past, but I can learn from
the past. I can take the lessons learned from those
items that I'm removing, learn a lesson from them, decide that I'm not going to make that
same mistake in the future. And in that way, we begin to redeem the past. We learn lessons from those mistakes. And so it's not entirely wasted money. There is not a doubt in my mind that you will
love owning less stuff. You'll find more money and more time and more
energy, and more focus. You will live a more fulfilled life focused
on things that actually matter, rather than physical possessions. To get there, we're going to have to overcome
the money that we wasted on things in the past. I had to overcome it. We got rid of about 60-70% of our things as
we began pursuing minimalism. And all I could do is just say, "Okay. I need to learn not to repeat this mistake
in the future." You will love owning less stuff. It will lead to a far better, more meaningful
life than you ever imagined. And, I know that you can do it.
