Needs
Needs. What are yours?
Here is an easy two-year, in-and-out-of-home experiment, boys and girls 🙂
This will be SO MUCH FUN! The older you are, the more challenging this will be. If you’re young, understand that many of the things that are lost later in life are not voluntary. Deciding what you really need now can be a lot easier than it is for someone who thinks they had a lot, later in life.
When you can truly accept all that has been lost, a baseline for a great new beginning is established.
Note: The actual experience of the items below is not needed. Do not actually do any of this. Use your imagination.
Needs. What are yours?
Take your cellphone and drop it in the toilet. Leave it there and flush. Watch it disappear.
Remove the cash from your wallet and give it to a friend in need.
Take your wallet and place it where your cellphone was just swallowed. Flush again.
Walk to a pay-phone, call the phone company, and have your home phone disconnected.
Wear one outfit for an entire day—maybe two, three, or more.
Pay the gas attendant and your heating-fuel provider double the going rate as a friendly tip. Smile, even if you don’t want to.
Get sued—this isn’t hard these days. Infringe on a trademark or something; that usually gets prompt attention.
Wrap Christmas gifts in paper bags, but draw something thoughtful on them. Give them to friends and family.
Quit your job. Burn a bridge. Refer someone to replace you, shake their hand, and walk away. Leave your final paycheck behind as a “thank-you” gift to the company that treated you so well.
Get punched in the face. Back up. Do nothing. Lose the fight.
Do something unforgivable. Deal with it.
If you own a business, close it. Lock the door, keep the key safe, and tell your employees you’re sorry. Smile, and hope for the best.
At home at night, when you need to use the bathroom, get up, put on shower slippers, a jacket, mittens, a hat, and earmuffs. Take toilet paper if necessary. Walk into the freezing night and go in the farthest corner of your yard. Enjoy the cold reality of your need.
When you come back inside, throw your shower slippers into the yard along with every pair of shoes you own except one. Keep your jacket. Proceed to the bathroom. The porcelain telephone is calling again—feed it. Then drop in your earmuffs, hat, mittens, glasses, and watch that no longer fits. Flush.
Create something great.
Wake up with less cash in your pocket than you went to sleep with.
Super-glue a deep cut together.
Stop contacting your family. There is no time—there is more that needs to be done.
Get rid of your house, yard, driveway, and garage—dog too. Stop paying the mortgage. Walk away.
Hold a lawn sale. Sell everything cheap. Whatever remains, pay to store until you realize you need something from the pile.
If you own your car outright, drive it to Goodwill and donate it. Say you don’t want to drive anymore. Give them the keys. If you need a receipt, ask for one.
If the bank owns your car, go to the nearest branch drive-through, put the keys in the tube, send them, get out, and walk away. Do not take anything from the car.
Buy a snack using bottle-return money. Wave and smile at friends on the way.
Take your clothes to a laundromat—or wash them in the sink.
Buy your next meal with pocket change at a fast-food restaurant. Apologize to the impatient people behind you. Smile. They’re hungry—they need food, and could bite at any moment.
Place half of your most valuable family possessions and photos on the back of a slow-moving vehicle. Watch them blow away until they’re gone. Walk away and forget about it.
Cancel cable. Break your TV. Throw it away. Carry it to the dump on foot.
Fail at something. Rebuild. Try again. Fail again. Repeat.
Stop shaving and throw away your old dull razors.
Wear the same old hat, or wear your hair messy, in public.
Spill coffee on your favorite white shirt. Wear it all day.
Get rid of your bed. Sleep on the floor or couch. If you want to go wild, sleep on your neighbor’s lawn.
Fit all your possessions into about 60 square feet or less. Live with only what you need.
Run out of toilet paper once and find a creative solution.
Destroy something beautiful.
Try a major holiday or two giving only thoughts instead of gifts. If the spirit of giving is the thought, then give thought alone. You can do this with everyone.
Now, after all of this is imagined, and you appreciate the great things you already do have, log off Facebook, shut down the laptop, turn off Pandora, turn off everything. Go outside and verify the power meter has completely stopped. Come back inside, light a candle, and ask yourself:
What do you really need?
(c) Jeremy Abram
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