Category Archives: Lifestyle
My other real, everyday drug.
It happens as soon as I wake up. What do I want to listen to this morning?
Sometimes I know right away – I instinctively know. Sometimes I dwell on it while making coffee before getting a shower.
Whatever choice I make… it is made for one reason. Either Do I feel like listening to [xyz] band/artist/playlist? Or, perhaps…
How do I feel?
Music can invoke emotions in a very individual way.
Feeling good, I might play comfort music or what I would consider fun, rocky or playful music (Weezer is a good example). That decision pretty much sits somewhere within me and – God knows how – just springs out. Sometimes it may be due to a dream I’ve had, it may be due to something that happened the day before or maybe something which is coming up that day. Or it is just random.
Sadness or general sulkiness brings out The Smiths. The Cure’s “Disintegration”.
Introspection…. perhaps I’ll turn to more rootsier music. Think Ryan Adams.
When I’m annoyed, I drift into a very different range. It will still be rock and pop, but it will shift to bands or artists like Oasis. A rebellion takes over the inside of my head.
When I feel even worse and drift into “I hate the world” mode…. why hello The Sex Pistols, Nirvana and goth bands from the 80’s. Luckily this mood is pretty rare.
Paul McCartney or John Lennon?
The above remains generally true, even today.
But for a while in my life, I suffered from what I guess I can now describe as a slightly Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde approach to a particular day: was I going to be Paul McCartney or John Lennon?
Maybe that’s bizarre, I don’t know. I grew up listening to The Beatles, and still do, and I listen to both of the solo output of Lennon and McCartney.
Paul is the fun loving, the cheeky Beatle. John is the rebel, the indifferent Beatle.
(c) Getty Images – Robert Whitaker
For the longest time, I actually used to think every morning…. which Beatle will I be today? Lennon? McCartney?
It became a musical obsession, waking up each morning. Not listening to their music, but figuring out perhaps how I’d approach my day.
Paul: “What’s the use of worrying? No use”.
John: “All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth”.
It would reflect on little things on how I’d spend time and do things each day. Crossing the road – I’d be John perhaps and do it with more bravado. I’d act more sarcastically to colleagues. Brittle. It wouldn’t be too hard to make me annoyed. I’d hide away in my office.
And with McCartney, I’d be gleeful, more likely to wander about to chat. My wife would joke that I’d even take on a sort of “Paul” accent. A kind of ‘hiya matey what are we gonna do today?’ type approach to every day. My door open.
It all depended on the morning, how I felt. The music. Whatever it was. Where was it going to lead me that day?
Am I George?
For a while, I started to just think that deciding whether I was John or Paul while putting on my cuff links every day was stupid.
Maybe I could be George?
George wasn’t really cheeky. He wasn’t aggressive. He was – or at least very much became – the spiritual Beatle. The one who wrote The Inner Light. All Things Must Pass
So, I became obsessed with George.
No, I didn’t turn religious. I didn’t even become spiritual. The thing with George was he was happy with himself. He seemed to display an inner peace, a tranquility – a belief that we are here, we live and then we move on.
In his case, that might have been a belief that we moved on to somewhere else, I don’t know. I don’t share that but it doesn’t matter.
So… for a while I tried, no matter what music I listened to in the morning, I’d be George that day. Appreciate each day while living in it, take pleasure from the simple things in life. I started to take on the philosophy of minimalism. To not let so much interfere with the things that matter to me.
You can learn how to be you in time
So as a summary, for a while, I went through a period in life when I thought, every day: am I going to be John or Paul? And then I decided to just be George… because that was the better option.
I can’t remember what caused it. I just can’t. But one day, I woke up and it just kind of hit me like a ton of bricks. What I am f**king doing?
Don’t be any of them.
Just be you. Not John, Paul or George. You.
I still listen to music every morning. And yes, I still will pick music depending on my mood. All of that is completely normal. Music is, outside of my family and work, probably one of the biggest components of my life. There is rarely a moment I don’t think of or want to play music. As corny as it sounds, it is indeed the soundtrack to my life.
Every Friday morning I wake up with relish to see/hear what new music has been released on Spotify. On YouTube, I can mindlessly wander around watching and listening to music either by artists I know or YouTube recommended ones. When alone in a city, I’ll prefer to try to see a concert than go to a movie.
That’s just me.
I am me. I’m not Paul, I’m not John and I’m not George. I’m not perfect. I still get angry, I get frustrated, but I’m cheeky, I’m stupid and can be fun loving. But I also appreciate what I have. And, hey, I want to try to be a minimalist at the least.
So it will always be: morning, coffee, music, me.
And sorry Ringo.
Chris Garrod – May 2018
2018: The year I will become a minimalist. Just like 2017.
So, in late 2016, I just got tired, and then inspired. Like so, so many people, I made a New Year’s resolution. I’d become a minimalist.
I had too much stuff. Too many clothes, clutter, gadgets, cables, accessories for various things, etc, etc. Just…. stuff. Both at home and at work.
So I started reading Joshua Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus’ “The Minimalists” website, bought one of their books, watched their movie and then moved onto Joshua Becker’s “Becoming Minimalist” website, bought his book. All highly recommended, if minimalism is an area you are moving into.
And I did. And I like to think I sort of still am. Just not as good as I should be. And now… 2018.
The starting point
So, early 2017, and I dove straight in initially. As usually recommended, I looked at the things I owned which I really hadn’t used for over a year.
I had too much stuff which I had been storing up for ages, because I have a lot of storage space both at home and work to do so. When you have lots of storage space, the tendency is to use it. And to hoard. Your thinking becomes “One day, I might just use this… badminton set”. But the thing is – you’ve had it for six years and you haven’t even opened the box it came in when you got it as a Christmas present.
So, it is kept, along with other items, in an area underneath, say, a stairwell. Hey, maybe one day, I’ll use it.
And you keep all those items organised. Whether it is underneath that stairwell, or in a desk drawer, or a closet. You might trick yourself thinking “There, everything is neat again.” But organisation isn’t minimalising. It is just moving your stuff around.
I initially dove in and tried to go through items I hadn’t used for over a year, giving away or throwing away clothes, gadgets and all sorts of things. I announced to my wife, and even some of my friends and colleagues, I had become a minimalist… and I was basically met with extreme bemusement. Uh-huh.
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
One handy recommendation I read (and I cannot remember if it was from the Minimalists or from Josh Becker – they probably both make it) was to take photos of old items which you perhaps had been hoarding onto for no good reason but hold sentimental value. Old toys from your childhood perhaps, or things your grandparents had passed down to you which were just taking up unnecessary space. Doilies. Take a photo/photos of those items as keepsakes and then give/throw away swiftly. It was a great idea. I did it a bit. A little bit.
What happened?
I tried at one point to do what I thought was good after the initial purge. Aim to get rid of one item a day. Just one, and gradually chip away at the rest. I thought it was a great idea. And I started to do it.
But I then faced five things which I ended up struggling with throughout the year:
Kids. It isn’t easy minimalising when you have a 7 and 9 year old to contend with. I had to basically accept the fact that while I could minimalise my own stuff, it was next to impossible to handle their stuff, particularly by daughter, who is the ultimate hoarder. 
[This is hers to handle…….]
Re-usage. I found stuff which I had forgotten about and then found ways of actually using them. This, on the face of it, might sound good. But in reality, while in a very few minor cases it worked out great, in a lot of cases, it really ended up being an exercise of complete futility. I was just trying to find ways of using stuff I didn’t actually need and to justify their existence as opposed to sending to the dump or elsewhere. Examples: Free backpacks which had been given to me at work conferences, for instance… “Hey, maybe one of my kids could find this handy one day!”. Or where I discovered, for instance, I suddenly thought… “Hey, I’m going to start drinking tea again!” because I found an old teapot in my office. But I don’t really like tea – I like coffee. So why?
“Overwhelm-itis”. Even with the mentality of “Just one item per day”, it is easy to slip back into the realm of “Let’s get rid of everything!!” and then you end of getting completely overwhelmed again… very, very easily. An example: I still have a ton of old DVD’s – mostly old TV shows. I want to keep a small collection of a few shows I really, really do love. But there was a stage in my life, prior to Netflix, when I used to buy DVD’s a lot. A long time ago, I “minimalised” by putting those DVD’s into special binders and throwing away the actual boxes, so they would take up less space. But I figured that now, I didn’t really need all of these shows. I then made a fatal mistake. I went through the process of trying to figure out: “Which of these TV shows are on Netflix, which aren’t, which ones can I download and add to my iTunes library, which ones can I not, should I rip some of them into my iTunes library, or should I just keep them because otherwise, I will never be able to watch them again….. etc”. As things currently stand, I still have all of those DVD’s, because I tried to plunge in and rather than chip away gradually (“Do I need every season of “Friends”?), I’m surrounded by tons of TV shows with no clue. And the sad truth is that I don’t think I have even watched a DVD in over two years. So…….
Digitalisation. I still hoard. Music, movies, TV shows and games. Just not physically – but digitally. Whether within my iTunes library, through Spotify or on my consoles and iPhone, I spend/download tons of stuff – often, particularly in the case of apps and games, when they are on sale. I now basically need to remind myself of this: when something is on sale and it has been reduced from $60 to $50, I haven’t saved myself $10 – I’ve spent $50. I would say approximately seventy percent of the items I’ve spent money on digitally in the last few years, I haven’t even used/watched etc. Digitalising my life is simply a new form of clutter.
Plain old temptation. Why do I have so many wireless headphones? I think whenever I walk through an airport, I practically buy a pair, primarily out of sheer boredom. I love music, so I feel like it is all very justified in the back of my mind, but when I get home, I then struggle to find somewhere to fit all this stuff. And don’t get me started on all of my Nintendo Switch accessories and Amiibos.
Where I have succeeded
I’ve started and tried. And I recognise the need to do it. I have fewer T-shirts and have bought fewer. Fewer shoes. I generally buy fewer clothes. In my head, I recognise I want to be a minimalist.
I’m a lot more ruthless about getting rid of replacement items. Where I ‘upgrade’ to a newer model of something, eg a camera for instance, I’ll quickly try to give away the older model to someone. The question of whether I actually need to upgrade is really subjective. I personally think it is largely based on one’s real “likes”. I like photography and recently went on a trip to Antarctica. I wanted to upgrade my camera. That was an important upgrade which I was happy with and it felt justified.
And I’ve accepted that, yes, we all have weaknesses. Or alternatively – I do think there is an argument to be said that, despite trying to be a “minimalist”, that doesn’t mean you should shun things you either genuinely enjoy or indeed, want. So, ok, I have a few Ryan Adams T-shirts, a Paul McCartney signed lithograph, an Art Pepper jazz alto saxophone, a Fender Stratocaster – items ranging from the cheap to the fairly expensive. Do I need them? No. But I’m happy to have them.
So now – 2018
It’s a New Year of course. Will I buy a new iPhone? Probably, if I had to guess, though I can’t say for sure. I like to think not, and the existing model is enough I need despite all of its annoyances. I’ll probably still buy stuff digitally but I’m going to try to exercise greater discretion. I don’t need new jeans. Or new ties for work. And I’ll continue to chip away at the stuff I have to reduce it all down to less.
Because I’m pretty sure I don’t need all these backpacks.