Do you suffer from the Must Have, Lovingly Owned, But Unused Habit? I have probably had this habit for most of my life and in certain aspects, despite my awareness, I still do.

When I look around my office and home I don’t have to search hard to identify items I’ve purchased over the years that fall firmly into this description. I can probably find things around the place going back decades in my history.

I believe our desire to acquire these things is frequently driven by clever marketing, advertising or recommendations. It would be easy for us to place the responsibility or blame for the accumulation of these Must Have items at someone else’s door.

But we’re all grown-up people and one thing I have certainly come to learn and accept over the years is that we all have choice to do or not to do. Therefore we must take responsibility for our own actions.

I am going to break down the Must Have situation into three phases.

1. Tangible Must Have’s

In the good old days we would only have been talking about tangible things, that were a Must Have.

They could fall into just about any category:

Something to improve the efficiency of your business. Perhaps to improve a current hobby or start a completely new one. Maybe to make you a better sports person. To make your house more comfortable. Or to make life generally more comfortable. The latest fashion item. The latest gadget. And so on.

Once these Must Have’s were in our possession then life seemed to be just about perfect. They were Lovingly Owned and put in a safe place ready to be enjoyed as and when.

But time slipped by and before you knew it they became Unused as you pursued the next, latest Must Have.

Time progresses and we move into the technology phase of life and then Must Have’s seem to be endless.

2. Technology Must Have’s

The computer, the laptop, the mobile phone and more recently the tablet.

Here the news is better as in most cases this equipment is well used by us all before being upgraded to the next generation of speed and capability.

But what if we look deeper inside these pieces of technology? Then it’s a different story.

There you come across the Must Have latest piece of software, the most recommended app.

How frequently have these important additions to the technology slipped into the Unused category?

Then they are superseded, perhaps only in your mind, by the next Must Have version or upgrade, and then the next

Then you notice the basic equipment is slowing down. Why?

Most likely because it’s overloaded with software and apps?

When you check you realize much of this software has been Lovingly Owned but definitely Unused.

So you start to delete the Lovingly Owned but Unused in order to make way for the next Must Have.

But that’s OK because unlike the tangible items of yesteryear which took up real space these technology add-ons are only virtual in terms of the space they require and once deleted they often leave no trace to remind you of past expenditure.

Now we move to the final and most challenging phase, Information.

3. Information Must Have’s

Information is the domain of non-fiction publications.

Have you been on the same treadmill as me with the quest for information?

Initially it was real books and seminars, then with the arrival and growth of the Internet, we saw the progressive addition of ebooks, videos, podcast and webinars.

The availability of information was spellbinding and it comes right into your life via whatever is your piece of technology of choice.

This area of Must Have is driven by the belief that within the words or images of any one of these publications is the holy grail, the answer to your dream of future success in terms of happiness, health and wealth – the three cornerstones of life.

But it’s a treadmill you can’t get off.

Unknowingly and at an ever increasing rate you are drawn into the easy access to information by constant, clever, targeted advertising to buy into the next Must Have.

But this time it isn’t just the fact that it is Lovingly Owned and frequently Unused and sitting gathering dust on a shelf or in a cupboard.

No, on this occasion it is Lovingly Owned and Unused but cluttering up your internal subconscious storage system.

Valuable information? Most likely it is.

And if just one piece of it was to be, or had been used, acted on and proven one way or another then it could have had the effect you thought it would have when you saw it as a Must Have.

But in so many cases it is Lovingly Owned and Unused because it was, once again superseded by the version 2 or a completely different Must Have all together.

But wait a minute – is it a different version or recycling of the same basic valuable information with a slightly different slant on it?

There comes time with Tangible Must Have’s when it has to stop as there is no more space on the shelf, in the study, in the cupboard under the stairs, in the cellar, in the garage.

And because you can see it all around you decide adding more has to come to a halt.

With Technology Must Have’s it’s a similar situation as the system you’ve been loading them into gets overloaded and ultimately begins to slow down. And that’s frustrating so you are motivated to call a halt.

But with Information Must Have’s it’s different. We can’t see it, or in most cases, even feel it.

But it also has to stop because ultimately your subconscious store gets overloaded and the effect is an inner confusion as to which way to turn next and you slow down and run the risk of your journey of life coming to a halt.

The reason being that when you want to bring one piece, of what was undoubtedly, valuable information to your awareness you will struggle to sort through it all.

It becomes a vast inner database and to decide which bits were of the most benefit when they were taken onboard and which bits are possibly a repetition of some other piece from and early Must Have purchase becomes very difficult.

Conclusion

The only way is to realize that now is the time to change the habit from I Must Have to – I Must Already Have – the information that holds the secret to my future.

It’s within you already and now it needs to be drawn out, focused on and USED.

No More. Change the habit!

Everything you need for your future success is already within you and you just need to slow down, focus.

Just like your own internal search engine ask yourself the right questions and the answers will come to your awareness from all the knowledge and information you already hold within you.

Have faith in your own knowledge database. Believe in yourself and everything you have already learned. Use what you have Lovingly Owned, probably for much longer than you realize.

Start today and look out for the results that will undoubtedly come. You will be amazed.

I would love to hear you thoughts in the comments below

“Your Habits Control Your Life – But You Control Your Habits
You Can Take Back Control of Your Life”