My phone client told me about her large magazine collection that was taking up space on her bookshelf. She wasn't reading the magazines. But she didn't want to throw them out because, "What if there's something important in them that I need to read?" There was anxiety in her voice.
I said that it's important to see how we actually live. There's what we tell ourselves what we'd like to do. And there's what we actually do. Our life as we live it is a great guidepost. We're going to enjoy our lives more if we live with the things we love and use, undistracted by all the things we don't truly care about.
My client began looking through the magazines. She told me she was starting to realize how much energy having these magazines in her home was draining from her. Every time she walked past the bookshelf, she was reminded of something she wasn't doing and it was making her feel guilty. She said, "I'm seeing what got me here. Enough is enough!"
She tossed the magazines in the recycling bin.