Weekly Wellness News

May 21, 2007

Feature: Do I Really Need to Keep This?

As I mentioned last week, I had a hard drive in my laptop fail, and I lost a week's worth of work. What I didn't lose was my photo albums and many other things I keep on my computer, specifically because these were all backed up on a remote hard drive. I started wondering, though, about the cost of keeping these things.

I'll admit it: I'm a pack-rat, or at least I was. It has always been hard for me to throw anything away. Sure, if something was broken, then I could get rid of it easily, but if it worked, even if I never used it, it was kept. I move a lot, and with every move I discover the piles of stuff that haven't been touched since the last move, that are still in the boxes they were put in for the move before that.

In the physical world, I was finally able to unload and let go of everything. Well, not quite everything, but I did purge about 90% of my belongings. I used a simple rule of thumb: if I haven't touched it in three months, it goes. A few exceptions were made for seasonal clothing, certain kinds of fall-back items like the last couple years' tax records and recent contracts and tools, a few pieces of art and other valuables that I've acquired over the years, and for spiritually enriching books and books pertaining to my career field. Other than that, it is all gone.

And it feels great! Getting rid of all the 'stuff' has lightened my workload. I'm no longer maintaining things that never get used. I'm no longer having to sift through things I don't need trying to find something I do. I no longer have piles that need to be sorted. I just let it all go. There are items that I've kept for years (decades, in some cases) thinking all along that one day I'll use them; now I feel a level of freedom because I am not tied to that expectation any more.

So why don't I do the same with my user directory on my computer. I mean, really, when am I ever going to go back and refer to homework I did in college? When am I going to re-read that email from a co-worker about whatever?

If you're like me, the first thing you think is, "There's a difference... computer files don't take space or energy to keep. As long as your hard drive is big enough, what's the difference?" That's been my claim historically, that there is no cost to keeping it, so there is no reason to throw it away.

But there is a cost. It's not a physical one (space), nor is it an economic one (other than purchasing a large enough hard drive when I build a new computer, but that's only a few dollars every few years). Rather, it's a spiritual one.

Everything you keep needs attention. You won't notice on a day-to-day basis, because it's invisible to you during your normal actions. Rather, you invest yourself in the choice to keep it. You are attaching your ego to the data. You are tying your self-image and identity to something external and ultimately out of your control. Instead of focusing on the present, the here-and-now, you're maintaining focus on the past.

Normally, it seems there is nothing wrong with this. However, the cost becomes obvious when something bad happens, like a hard drive failure or loss due to theft or loss due to an internet hack. Suddenly something important has been taken away, and you feel the exact emotions you would experience if your house were to burn down. Because you have chosen to attach yourself to the data, loss of the data becomes loss of self.

You have a choice to make: lug it through life, protect it, defend it... or let it go. The data you're keeping in order to share (pictures, for instance) can be posted on the web where your friends and family can all get to it. Personal creations can be at least compressed (have a folder of published work, portfolio style) or reduced (make a DVD of your home movie clips and then get rid of the raw footage) or simply erased (years-old email).

It can be hard. It took me 20 years to be comfortable throwing out old correspondence. I'm still figuring out which pictures should go online and which should just be erased. Just take small steps to begin, by getting rid of the obvious junk.

What it ultimately comes down to is beautifully stated in Fight Club when Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) says, "What you own ends up owning you." Choose to let go, to detach from your 'stuff'. You'll be glad you did.

Other news

• Problems with the 'fix-by-scalpel' mentality: Report: U.S. health care expensive, inefficient [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• Side effects of the 'fix-by-scalpel' mentality: Doctors busted in $30 million surgery scam [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• Alternatives to the 'fix-by-scalpel' mentality: Using the Mind to Cure the Body [healthday.com]

From the editor

Do you hear the little voice in your head trying to justify keeping your data? That, right there, is proof you have invested yourself emotionally in it. That little voice has one job: protect you from change; when you hear it, you know you're doing something that threatens the status-quo. We'll talk about that more next week. In the meantime, think about what you are keeping in the physical world or on your computer that you can let go of. Start building the habit of getting rid of things, and it will develop over time into a habit of not keeping things in the first place.

Last week's issue on dehydration was an eye-opener for me. As a runner, hiker, and general enthusiast of outdoor activities, I find myself mildly dehydrated often and am also commonly around people who are somewhat dehydrated. I now have a much better understanding of what care should be taken in the rehydration process.

For some strange reason, that particular issue didn't get mailed out to many people last week. It did, however, post to the archives page. Rather than repost it, I have decided to simply acknowledge the issue here and give you a link to follow to find it: http://archives.zinester.com/2034/130171.html. If you are active or spend time in warm or humid areas, this is a must-read.

Of course, all past issues are available on the archives pages. There are now over 50 issues, and the count is growing weekly. Since we're coming in to summer, it might be a good idea to peruse issues from last spring on sun care, hydration, and other summer safety and wellness issues.

Please tell your friends about Weekly Wellness News. I grow my subscription base by word-of-mouth, I don't use paid advertising anywhere to get the word out. If you like what you're reading, pass it on!

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

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Copyright 2007, Jeffrey Eliasen.
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