- The takeaway from this episode is … you will know the difference between need and want.
- Here’s what this will do for you … you will be conscious of what your needs are so you can control your wants.
- Here’s what I want you to do with it … write down what you want before you buy it. Review what you wrote a day, or a week later to see how much you still want it. This will save you a lot of time and money while minimizing your lessons.
NOTE: The “italic text” within this post is channeled from Linda’s Spirit Guides and Angels
What’s the difference between need and want?
Need brings experiences. Want brings lessons.
Let’s look at holiday shopping. What exactly are you shopping for? Who are you shopping for? Everyone has their own holiday gift list and knows what they would like to receive. But the disconnect with the whole holiday gift-giving season is why you are going out and spending money that you may not have on things you already have?
What makes people desire to have more of what they already possess and probably don’t even utilize? How is going out and spending a lot of money on someone else going to improve their life? Like most people, they ask for things they already have and don’t even use. This yearly distraction doesn’t make good sense.
If you feel compelled to buy something for somebody else as a holiday gift, making the choice for them is usually not the right answer. Wouldn’t it be better if you gave them money so they could spend it on something they need and are ashamed to ask for? Maybe they will buy something with it that they really do need like food, or a book, or some school clothes for the kids. Doesn’t this make more sense than buying something they don’t want or need?
How about you? What is this feeling of lack in your life that makes you desire more of what you already have? This is part of the big distraction in life where the media and society bombard you with advertising things you already own but tell you that you need more like a new car, more clothes, another vacation, and of course another credit card so you can get these things immediately.
This habit of over-consumption is a mental illness.
You need to take an inventory of all the things you want in life and then see if you already have them. Next, look at the things you want and seriously decide if you need them. Are they relevant and important to your survival or are they something that would be purchased with money you don’t have and possibly never get used? Is it an insult to buy someone something you think they need?
Wanting and needing are two very different things and approaches to life.
You will find that if you clean out your house and garage you will find many things you thought you needed and just wasted money you didn’t have on them. What would solve this relentless spending on holiday gifts would be, right before Thanksgiving and Black-Friday sales, you should spend an entire month of cleaning out the garage, the closets, under the bed, and everywhere else you have stored away those things you thought you needed but only wanted from the past.
CALL TO ACTION: Start your Self-Examination
- There’s a big difference between wanting and needing, so be mindful of this.
- You want something because you think it will bring you happiness. This is usually false, so write it down because you won’t be able to see it when you are wanting it so much.
- Your desire to buy things you don’t need would be suppressed if you spent at least a few weeks before the holiday gift season cleaning out all the things you don’t use or need.
HOW IT WORKS: Buying holiday gifts is a tradition, societal conditioning. It reminds you of happy times when you gave and received. That’s what you are attempting to replicate when following that tradition. A lot has changed since then. As you got older you discovered that most of the things you want can’t be purchased. What you want are experiences and not more lessons. So, take the Spirit Guides‘ suggestion mentioned above, clean out all the stuff (the lessons) you don’t need or use. Let the joy of giving those perfectly good items to someone who needs them and will appreciate them. That will be the gift you give to yourself. The feeling of really helping someone who needs it and deserves it. This is caring and cannot be bought. That is the meaning you have been searching for in your life. ~ Linda Deir
RELATED ARTICLES:
