4. Gongoozler

A gongoozler is an idle spectator, anyone who likes to stare at some activity.

As I mind mapped the word to create associations that would help me remember it and wield it at the right time at the right place, it struck me! The word was unknown to me, but its essence was all too familiar.

I have been an avid consumer all my life: I have loved the novelty of things; so I bought and stored the cutes and the uniques. I have believed in the promise of information; so I downloaded, pinned, and saved the good-to-know, the interesting, and the important. And I have felt the unspoken messages around me; so I made them my own - the other truths.

I consumed even as my physical space, my online storage, and my mental fortitude got smaller and smaller. So that when I turned another decade, and I wanted to grow, needed to grow and was ready to grow, I had nowhere to go.

It was time to shed. I decided to stop being a gongoozler of the minimalist movement and make my way towards a minimalist life, one goodwill trip at a time, one delete at a time, one no-thank-you at a time. And it feels so darn good.

What about you?

Have you ever caught yourself being a gongoozler?