3271: Shifting Our Mindset: Challenge, Not Sacrifice by Celena Carr-Thomas with NoSidebar

[00:00:00] J'ai une paille par France. And hop! With the new foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. No matter if it's business talk or vacation, you'll be able to stay up to date with Galaxy A.I. Just set the Galaxy Z Flip 6 up in the Flex mode

[00:00:17] and follow the translation on the main display while you're reading it on the front display. So easy! Galaxy A.I. is here. Erfare ich jetzt mehr über das neue Galaxy Z Flip 6 auf Samsung.de This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3271 Shifting Our Mindset

[00:00:36] Challenge, Not Sacrifice by Celena Carr-Thomas with NoSidebar.com Every narrator, Justin Malik, reading you articles every single day of the year, including holidays, so that you and I can both take a step in the right direction and have just a bit more positivity in our day.

[00:00:53] It really does add up. And with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life. Shifting Our Mindset Challenge, Not Sacrifice by Celena Carr-Thomas with NoSidebar.com It was a Friday morning and I was looking at our bank accounts

[00:01:13] feeling that special anxiety known to freelancers everywhere waiting for project payments to arrive. Blinked slowly. Nope, still not there. Looked like we wouldn't get paid until Monday. Hasn't always been this way. 18 months ago, I left a profitable, exhausting, corporate communications career

[00:01:34] to strike out on my own and travel the country with my husband in our Airstream trailer. While working for myself is wonderful in so many ways, fewer meetings and more mental space are just a few benefits, it's hard not to miss that regular paycheck.

[00:01:50] Cash Now comes in waves instead of a predictable flowing river. Mulling it over, I realized we didn't really need anything so there was no sense in stressing over that low balance. We had food in the fridge, wine in the cupboard, books to read and feet to walk on.

[00:02:10] As long as we didn't spend mindlessly over the weekend, we'd be fine. But I didn't want to be the household nag or to feel like a marlboro weekend. All this required was a simple shift from the mindset of sacrifice to one of a challenge,

[00:02:26] from the feeling of lacking what we don't have to one of appreciating what we already own. While we'd be doing the exact same thing, not spending any money, positioning it as a kind of game, immediately felt fun and full of potential.

[00:02:44] So I proposed the buy nothing weekend challenge to my husband and after only a little haggling in a few, but what will we do questions? He agreed, shifting our mindset. By Sunday evening, the weekend had sped by, we'd used zero dollars and we felt more relaxed

[00:03:04] than we have in months. Here's what we did and didn't do. Number one, we caught up on work. That project we were waiting to get a deposit for had a Monday deadline. Normally we try to keep us somewhat normal

[00:03:19] but we do have a weekday work schedule to avoid burnout. But sometimes it's nice to just work when we have work and then take off a weekday once we've met our deadlines. Number two, we went outside. Instead of going out to a movie or a restaurant,

[00:03:36] we took our dog out for short walks and a hike in the nearby national forest. On Sunday, we set up our camp chairs outside and watched the sunset. We had a show where the sky puts on a free show every night.

[00:03:50] We hadn't watched it for more than a minute and weeks but that night we lingered for hours. Number three, we celebrated with family. My mother-in-law just moved to the town we're staying in. Saturday night, we brought some supplies over to her place and cooked Pollock style.

[00:04:08] I dug out a bottle of champagne we'd bought a while back and all of a sudden, a simple meal of sauteed veggies, rice and chicken, felt like a full-on fate for her move, our being together and life in general. No fancy restaurant needed.

[00:04:25] Number four, we ate our leftovers. Over the weekend, we did run out of things like cheese, yogurt and chocolate that would typically inspire an impromptu store run. But instead of racing out to restock or going out to eat

[00:04:41] because we didn't feel like having what was in the fridge, we lived without and used what we had. Our meals were simple but nothing went to waste and it was a great reminder of what we need, nourishment versus what we want, cheese, always cheese.

[00:04:59] Number five, we drank less. Because we knew that we only had what was already in the house, we drank less and savored it more. It turns out the weekend can feel complete without that Saturday afternoon brewery visit. The one that always somehow tallies up to at least $40

[00:05:19] when one beer turns into two and we just can't resist the siren song of those truffle fries. And number six, we made things. I love decorating for holidays and Halloween is my absolute favorite but every year I battle an internal conflict

[00:05:36] between the joy I get from decking out our small home and the feeling that it's a waste to spend money and storage space on things that only get used once a year. Usually my practical side wins but this year instead of passing up the quick hit of happiness,

[00:05:52] I dug out my yarn stash. Lo and behold there was a ball of bright orange cotton and one of flecked black wool that had been sitting neglected. By Sunday night, I had crafted a small army of crocheted fuzzy-legged spiders and a nubby pumpkin patch.

[00:06:10] They make me smile each morning and because they're so small, they carry zero storage qualms for our 188 square foot living space. Plus I used up something we were storing and turned it into something I really enjoy. We remembered our values.

[00:06:28] While we strive to live simply year round this weekend has been a much needed reset. It was a reminder for us to pause for a moment and give ourselves the space to consider what we want versus what we need. And that chocolate is not necessity.

[00:06:44] That experiences will always hold more value than anything we could purchase and that we already have plenty. And how fortunate we truly are for that. You just listened to the post titled, Shifting Our Mindset. Challenge Not Sacrifice by SelenaKarThomas with nosidebar.com

[00:07:08] and I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Selena, a guest writer on No Sidebar. Maybe you're not looking to live in an airstream or live the nomadic lifestyle and save money wherever you can. The nice thing about this article is that

[00:07:24] I think it applies to many other areas of life as well. Really probably all the areas that we cover in the optimal family of podcasts. So if you didn't know already, we have this show but also optimal finance daily, optimal health daily, optimal relationships daily

[00:07:42] and optimal work daily. And I think this idea of going from sacrifice to challenge works for pretty much all these areas. For example with health, it could be fitness goals or challenges of trying new recipes. With work, it could be challenging ourselves

[00:08:02] to learn new skills as opposed to sacrificing familiarity or stability. In relationships, could be simply reframing conflict as an opportunity for growth. And for this show, optimal living daily when it comes to personal development, maybe it's challenges related to habits or hobbies moving our minds towards curiosity

[00:08:28] and self-improvement instead of sacrifice. So a nice one to think about as we go about our day and our weekend, sorry Friday. So with that have a great rest of your day and start to your weekend and I'll see you tomorrow. Where your optimal life awaits.