The Slow Movement and “Creative Living”
posted in Considering goals, Creative living |I got some of my ideas about time, money and energy form the burgeoning Slow Movement. There are people all over the world who are consciously working on slowing down life, being less work-obsessed and money-centered. People who are trying to spend extra time and energy on the food they eat and the way they spend their days.
There were many people in the beginning of the last century who saw all the new technological advances as (keys) to building a life that was centered around leisure instead of work. What happened, though, was that instead of letting the technology serve us and make our lives easier and more comfortable, we let the devices drive us to have more and more. People spend more and more time working so that they can earn the money to buy the devices that make their lives easier.
What if we cut out the middle person and just made our lives easier? I try to ride my bike everywhere I need to go. It takes much longer, but I use less gas, buy less stuff (because I have to get everything home on little baskets attached to my bike) and feel much more relaxed all the time because I’ve had a nice long bike ride. I don’t need most of the stress-reducers that others do.
Sometimes creating our dreams requires creativity. I was moving forward attempting to create a part-time writing career while doing two other jobs and feeling stressed out. For some reason, it just occurred to me one day to try writing out a budget with just my part-time job. I was able to eliminate day care and a variety of conveniences, such as paying for a gym, which created a very doable budget.
I have my budget all written out in Excel and I go over it an over it cehckgin to make sure that my assumptions are correct. I think I am amazed that downsizing my epxenses could make such a difference in my daily life. I also felt guilty in the beginning. I felt like I was cheating, off riding my bike during the day, hanging out in cafes instead of working at a “regular” job. Over time I realized that there are many creative ways to set up your life and others could choose my way as well.
I like to call it “creative living.” Think of your ultimate goal, your perfect daily routine and then try to brainstorm many different ways to get there. Some people want to travel. There are many ways to travel on the cheap. Some people want to live in a certain place. There are ways to live in places without renting. What about working in exchange for a room? There are often alternatives to ways of getting what you want. Is there something you want that you could get in a different way than you think?
