BECAUSE I DESERVE IT!

We all want to make good choices, the correct selection, the most righteous decision. It goes without saying.

But of course our impulsive, mammalian brains like to get in the way and muck it all up, don’t they? Which means that instead of relying on reason and data and facts, we seek to validate our bad decisions via any-means-necessary-type justification.

One of the worst forms of this kind of rationalization is Because I deserve it!

Unfortunately, we’ve gotten good at using this excuse to push aside logic and give grounds for our screw ups. This sense of entitlement is a slippery slope, though.

Sometimes the excuse is benign (at least initially): After my long day, I deserve an ice cream cone! Sure, most of us won’t experience negative effects from a single dessert. But this fact is quickly torpedoed when one cone turns into two, which turns into four, and so forth. After all, if you deserve one treat, why not more? Why not every day?

Even if you do deserve it, or even if the decision is the right one, there’re myriad good reasons—rationals based on sound reason, logical thought, or even personal intuition—to make the right decision. Because I deserve it! is never one of them.

[Read more at The Minimalists]

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Minimalism Is Not the Path

 

The path I’m walking down is not the minimalist path. No, I’m not headed toward some abstract thing called minimalism—never was, in fact.

Rather, the path I’m traversing is one that leads to happiness, growth, actual freedom (not the kind of “freedom” marketed to us on our TVs).

Hence, minimalism is simply the tool I used to clear that path, to make it easier to find and then easier to travel. If you’re having trouble finding your own minimalist path, stop looking. Instead, search for contentment. Find that path—discover what will make you happy—and then allow minimalism to help you clear the clutter that’s keeping you from moving forward. [Read more on The Minimalists]