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As we have come to the end of the year, and basically every time throughout the year, it is usual to see so many advertisements about discounts of different products and services. They keep coming in different types of media, like TV, social media, or email, to make sure you get informed about them. This affects ourselves and the people that we stand with. We then tend to think that buying new things is the only solution to our problems.
Leo Babauta in his book “The Little Book of Contentment” puts it wisely:
“Advertising is highly effective — we might not realize it, but it works on our subconscious so that we want to buy things. It plants desires in our minds, and creates a mindset that, whatever our problem, buying something is the solution. It creates the mindset that buying is the norm, and there’s no other choice.”
Buying new things can actually make us feel sad that we do not have what is being advertised and tend to forget about every other great thing that we currently have. We forget to be content and grateful that we already have so many things in our lives that we use, which are only part of someone’s dreams. A comfortable bed where you sleep comfortably. A house that serves as a shelter for you and your family. A device that connects to the internet and makes it possible to do almost everything you want from your comfort zone. A car that you can use to go to a lot of different places. In fact, so many things that we might not even be able to count.
This new mindset of having to buy something only because it is being advertised does not have to be the one we use for the rest of our lives. We should constantly be conscious of our needs and not let the social pressure or the advertisements affect our decisions about buying new things. Simply because everybody is using the latest version of a smartphone, does not have to be the sufficient reason for you to buy the same expensive one, when your needs are already being fulfilled with the one that you have in possession. In fact, buying things we do not need might not only make us happy, but can also damage us financially. As the business magnate, Warren Buffet says, “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.”
