I just wrote a post on the co-op about selling out - you see everyone, absolutely everyone, is telling me we all sell out eventually, life becomes about convenience, becoming more like your neighbours, buying cheap and living easy. It was reflecting on this, which made me decide I’m going to set myself some little goals for this week, as a reminder to focus.
1. Make a list of the things I will try not going to compromise on {understanding we all have bad days!} and post it here for accountability!
2. Make meals from scratch - the above is a healthier alternative to nachos with cheese – whole grain nachos with salsa, broccoli, free range chicken, olives, red onion, seeds and currants, with a plum on the side!
3. Make at least one gluten free alternative
4. Join a food co-op
5. Finish my decluttering mammoth project
Five simple goals for a simple week! What are your goals for the coming week?
I really appreciated your post on the co-op blog. And truly, anyone who tells you that ‘everyone sells out eventually’ is trying to ease their own conscience.
I’m (happily) on a downwardly-mobile path. Left a very good, secure job for freelance work so I could spend a few months a year in Africa. Now, inexplicably, I’m on my way to northern Iraq to teach photography to kids in an orphanage. I’ve downsized to a wee three-room house, and have pretty simple wants to make this happen (though admittedly, I still have very far to go).
I think my point is that while it’s fine to change your mind later in life, and decide that your true priorities lie in a different place than you earlier thought… it’s soul killing to sell out.
As for 5 goals this week… if I can stop eating sugar, it will be a banner week!
Erin what you are doing is amazing! I think you are very right, sometimes to validate our own choices we want to “bring people down”, because if everyone is doing something, then we don’t need to self-examine our own motives. Thanks for the insight!
Absolutely! Your very life proves that what so many claim to be impossible is in fact very possible (though I didn’t say easy
I too really needed to read your co-op post.
My goal this week is to spend time at home. Sounds daft, but I spent long days travelling for work all last week, and had to take Friday as annual leave because I was so exhausted and ratty. I then drove for 4 hours on Saturday, and another 4 on Sunday, pah!
So an at home week it is. I need to go to work for 2 days (in another city), but other than that I’m working at home. And I have a lovely gardening project to work on – if it gets finished this week I’ll be able to have my breakfast outside next Sunday morning – what a luxury! I’ll work towards that.
That’s rather sad when people have the attitude that good can never be accomplished or sustained. Perfection – no – but good – definitely! I just read a post over at DOWN TO EARTH where she talks about why she will not continue selling soap. What! Stop a really lucrative product? She was only selling the things she enjoyed making rather than making to sell. You have to respect people who stick to their guns rather than undermine them. Good on you for perservering. Hoping all turns out with your blessings. Cherrie
Your coop post was really interesting, FT. People who opt for the fast life so they can have their material possessions just aren’t aware of what they are missing. I enjoy watching some reality TV and some of the time it is very interesting from a psychological standpoint. One show the Nat’l Geographic channel aired involved taking a suburban family who embraced all the modern conveniences and putting them with people from radically different cultures for 12 days- this ranged from African tribes to rural South American families living a subsistence lifestyle. It was sooo great to see how the experience changed the families, and it always followed the same pattern – first, curiousity and a certain amout of willingness to join in, then a complete rejection and at least one family member (lots of time the wife) melted down, and at the end, a real love for and appreciation of the simple life these people led. Nearly all the participants were struck by the sense of community, and the way these people were able to spend more time together as a family.
The american families were always changed by the experience, some drastically so, changing their lifestyles for a more family friendly one. People don’t knoww what they are missing. How lucky for you that you know that a simple lifestyle means riches utlimately.
Both my 2 older sisters are annoyed with my simpler lifestyle, and like to tell me how wrong I am. In fact my oldest sister was so offended when I told her that my life philosophy is live simply that others may simply life, that she hasn’t spoken to me since. 18 months ago. sometimes I wonder if it scares them, the idea that they may be wrong! It is not worth losing your sibling for, but it was her choice.
I don’t think everyone sells out. I do think people reach an equilibrium where they realize what they can, and cannot do. I’m taking a course in permaculture, and while I’m not too far into the class, one of the first things that struck me was the concept of zones. Zone 0-the self, Zone 1, places you go every day, Zone 2, places you go 1-2 times a week, etc. The goal is to make it so self-sufficient that everything is done in a way that you can manage everything that needs to be done. For example, don’t put your compost pile somewhere you typically go only 1-2 times a week because it will be a struggle for you to make an extra trip, find a way to do it in your zone 1. Have to do your compost in a zone 2 location? Design a system so it doesn’t need to be taken out more than 1-2 times a week. I’m just using examples with gardens, but it’s the same with everything else. If you find a way to make it a part of your life you’ll continue on in that path, but if you’re constantly fighting against other desires, you’ll find a place that your comfortable with, which will usually involve dropping something that you thought was important. Your friends aren’t really “selling-out” as they call it, they’re stuck in survival mode. Who knows if anything will pull them out of it or not, but my guess is that your strong example kind of freaks them out. They probably think the only way to change is to go full hog, when all they really need to do is start with zone-0, or zone-1 perhaps (since that’s a bit easier). People can do so much more than they think they can, if they just do one easy thing at a time. If they started anywhere, one loaf of bread a week, an evening one day a week with no TV, they would begin to figure it out.
Only one main focus, no colas of any sort, and only one cup of coffee a day ( if any ) on my way to cutting it out completely.
Left a post over at the Co-op, thanks again.
My goals are:
* to get more exercise
* to finish the quilt top I have been working on for far too long
* to keep track of our personal finances and review our spending (end of the month task)
* to make an appointment with the doctor for my annual flu vaccine
Goals this week
*each night look over my diary and plan for the next day
*the house is relatively tidy, so spend a few minutes each day keeping it that way (yesterday was not a good start but today could be better!!!)
*get out of bedby 7, any later and I am stressed and disorganised, don’t know why I keep doing this to myself
Have a good week!
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I’ve always lived a fairly frugal life as that was how I was brought up. Although I cannot claim to be as diligent as you, I am trying to live an increasingly simplified life. I think the people that sell out or in some way decry this way of living, do so because they see it as a life of sacrifice and deprivation. From my point of view it is a liberating, fulfiiling and joyous way to live.
That said, I would definitely live a more simple/frugal life if it was only myself to consider. I am married to a wonderful man, but he doesn’t always agree with my way of looking at things. I’m sure that there are very few marriages where both parties are in complete accord over lifestyle choices and compromises sometimes have to be made.
It was refreshing for us to hear recently of a friend who has decided to change jobs to improve his family life. He is giving up a prestigious and well paid job to work locally and avoid the expense and time spent commuting to the city. He has decided that tine with his beautiful family is worth much more than money and status!