Wow! It’s been a year already. A year of no retail shopping. It started off as a year of no retail shopping, however it ended up as a year of so much more than that. It would be impossible to sum up the year in one blog post, but I can say this. It’s changed the way I think, not only when it comes to shopping, but how I live my life.
I could write many of the things I learned here, and I started to do that, but it sounded like a way-too-serious, silly infomercial for life transformation. The truth of the matter is, I’m human and I struggle with all of the same things everyone else does, I’ve just chosen to take a few of those struggles a step further. I’m not going to go back to retail shopping like I shopped before this year started. Yes, I will probably start again at some point, but it will be a much different process. Shopping won’t be a hobby, it won’t be something I do when I’m bored, it won’t be buying on impulse and it won’t be something I do very often. It will be well thought out when I do make a purchase, always applying the skills and knowledge I’ve acquired through the process.
This might be the last day of the challenge, but it’s the first day of something much bigger. It’s the first day of whatever I want it to be. I might do another challenge of some sort because I just do stuff like that. There are a few things that I plan to do now though.
I’m not going to start shopping or run to the store, but I am going to take a short break from blogging. I will continue using rethinkgood.com to do post-challenge updates, including telling you what I have purchased retail. I can’t even imagine shopping now. How uncomfortable will that be?!?
I need to take some time to regroup. One part of that is making my blog into a resource for living differently than the way society says we should. I also need to take some time and think about moving forward out of the challenge. I already feel like I’m in some sort of directionless limbo. I know where I’m not going, but where am I going?
I’ve talked about writing a book, and along with that, I have many other ideas of what I can do with this year of online journaling. It’s time to seriously ponder that, make some plans and implement them! This will all be a waste if I don’t take some action on it.
This is not the end of something really great, it’s the beginning of something even greater! Now that I think about it, this has been my identity over the past year. It’s been a rare occasion that I would meet someone, or be introduced to someone without the “…she’s doing a year of no retail shopping…” Explain. Answer questions. Give them my blog name. But now what? If this has truly been my identity, then in this case, I hope someone steals my identity. A good case of identity theft? Redefine bad, rethink good. :)
