Hand lettering by Lisbet Boudens
When I told someone about my 30-day online shopping fast they said, “Good luck with all the temptation.”
My son spent six weeks off the grid in Ecuador and said he didn’t miss the Internet at all while he was there. But as soon as he returned to the States he found himself back on the net watching Youtube videos and playing games.
I can relate to the desire to spend time in a place where there’s no Internet and therefore no way to relapse.
Sometimes I think it’s necessary to take yourself out of an environment that working on you in a negative way. I prefer not to go this route because at some point I’m going to have to re-enter the world and deal with it.
On the other hand, there are usually things I can do to alter my current environment. I’m a big believer in creating environments that “work on me” in positive ways. This is something I learned from one of my coaching instructors, Thomas J. Leonard, that rather than rely on our own will power, why not change our environment to support the change we want to be?
It’s an intriguing idea and in most cases one that’s underutilized.
After writing yesterday’s blog post, I checked my email and found three holiday promotions. I don’t subscribe to many retailer updates because the most retailers send daily updates (I don’t get why anyone would want daily updates from any company let alone the Gap or Saks Fifth Avenue). But there’s a handful of retail newsletters that still find there way into my inbox.
So when those emails show up, I’m unsubscribing.
Retailers whose updates I canceled yesterday:
- Fancy
- Kate Spade Saturdays
- Blog Lovin
- IKEA
- Klury
- Marimekko
- House Industries (a typography studio which also happens to sell some really cool products…love the company and their products but at the moment it’s too easy to get lost on their website not to mention take off to visit partner sites).
- Cuyana (another retailer I appreciate but don’t need the temptation)
At one point I was setting my Gmail filter so emails from retailers went directly into the trash. But I found myself actually going to my trash folder and moving these emails to my inbox.
That’s why I need to stop getting the emails entirely.
One good question is why do I feel so compelled to shop online to begin with? Good topic to think about and perhaps address in a blog post.