My volume
Why I want to document how much I have, of what, and why
I found this video yesterday and I really want all of you to watch it. Please
It’s an awesome video, right?
Two things from the clip stand out for me.
One, when you know, you can’t unknow and your behaviour instantly changes.
Two, knowing that the “right” time is super critical. Here, knowing at the time of almost purchase had an impact (most likely, also, the desired impact). The knowing, therefore, has to be at the front of the decision making part of your brain.
NOTE: FASHION REVOLUTION WEEK IS AT THE END OF THIS MONTH (22-27 APRIL). MORE ON THAT IN ANOTHER EDITION.
The importance of knowing brings me back to my volume, and my post on Tuesday about how my kids (especially the moody 18 year old) have to get better (so much better) about connecting the dots - from what we do to the impact it has.
Let’s be real here though. It’s hard to do, especially when you’re in the fortunate few (and getting fewer) to live in a house in a relatively wealthy country, with running water, mostly clean air and easy access to green spaces. The impacts are just too far away.
It’s also hard because, sometimes, it feels futile as most of us know (including the super smart younger generations) that there ius a much bigger system that needs changing.
Lately, I’ve been finding it hard to sleep. I could blame it on the unseasonable heat and the subsequent constant battle with husband over whether the the window can or cannot be open but, mostly, its guilt related. I worry that I am not living up to what I write about and that I have zero credibility because I d, occasionally, buy clothes. I don’t think I buy a lot but I purchase.
My New Years Resolution was to live a more authentic life. Authetic to me, not to someone else. It’s four months in and I am finding it hard because I have still failed to define exactly what is authentic to me.
That only comes from some seriously deep work about who you want to be. I have some ideas but I’m still working that through, and also identifying what that then means in practice.
For example. I claim to love nature. I believe that I do, really, love nature (and I feel, deeply, that I need nature). But, what does that - love - mean if it’s put into practice? Does the translation of the love mean that I should join the volunteer weeders who meet in my mountain once a week? Does it mean I should be meditating on my mountain every morning, sitting in solitude by the dam (that is fast running out of water)? Or should I go horse riding?
I’ve just started horse riding.
And I love it.
More on that later.
For now, back to clothes.
The Or Foundation (oh my goodness, let me name all the ways I love this organisation - there are so many ways) are running what I think is a genius campaign, connected to their #Speak Volumes work. Called ‘I Can Count, Why Can’t You’, the campaign asks all of us to show brands just how easy it is to #SpeakVolumes by counting, and publicly sharing, how many items we have in our wardrobes.
Slightly radical but also very, very good.
I’m on board, to the point that I may be taking the ask to a whole new level.
After investigating a whole host of options, I’m now deep in the process of setting up an extremely detailed table on Notion.
Categories in the table include:
What it is;
What it goes with;
When, and how often, I wear it; and
What it is is made from.
Seems retty standard for a wardrobe spreadsheet.
But, I’m including two columns that I think might be of interest to you (and, just happen to be, super relevant for this article).
The columns are:
Value, not in terms of cost but in terms of my value, and I am expressing this by asking me to record the reason why I thought I needed to buy it in the first place; and
Emotional feeling either when purchased or when wearing.
Filling out these two columns might require some guess work as some items in my wardrobe are super old but I’m going to give it a go.
I am aiming to complete the table this week. Let me know if you are interested in its contents and/or how I have gone about setting it up!
Given I am all about exploring who I really am atm, I am a little surprised that it’s taken me so long to set something like this up.
I’m a huge fan of data. The love affair began around seven years ago, when I was working in government and spent a very long time pulling together data on the Sustainable Development Goals, I discovered that there is a lot of hidden power in knowing numbers. (If you are interested in how Australia was progressing on the SDGs in 2018, see this (it was the output of a very hectic few month’s work)). My love (and work on data) has continued to intensify since then. I find it fascinating.
I like data for more than just the numbers (the number collection is not the end point). As I discovered with SDG data, it is one thing to know the number, it is quite another thing to act on it, ie by taking different decisions because of it. And it is a whole other thing altogether to use that data to tell a story.
This - the story - is what I am hoping the data capturing exercise will lead to: the story is about me (obviously) and it is specifically about what it is that I really like to wear. My plan is that this may then help me answer the much bigger question, (perhaps the biggest question of all), what is my eudaimonia, described by Aristotle, as the highest human good.
Eudaimonia is achieved by living virtuously, which is not the same thing as being good or happy. Instead, it is a life is that focuses intently developing the excellences of being human.
For Aristotle, this meant practicing virtues like courage, wisdom, good humour, moderation, kindness, and more.
The Ethics Centre
A spreadsheet of my clothes is, therefore, the start (weird as it might seem). Especially if the spreadsheet is used by me when I am thinking about shopping (re the need for timeliness, seeing the video at the “right” moment). If I access the spreadsheet at the time I am considering shopping - and I reassert to myself what my values are - then the data will have served its purpose; help me live the life that I say I want to live.
This is way too deep for a Friday morning. But, then again, isn’t that the point? There really is no time like the present to start examining what this life is about!
jb
soundtrack
Frank Sinatra, “My Way”, seems so appropriate here. It is. Please listen. I was also going to include Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”, but, upon listening, it is, surprisingly, more of a ‘please leave’ song and not a ’reclaim your power’ song. But, there is one standout, and it is from one of my absolute favourite bands, Gang of Youths. Their 2017 song, “Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane”, is perfection. Turn it up (but not too loud).
Lyrics from the song that will give you chills.
Do not let this thing you got go to waste
Do not let your heart be dismayed
It's here by some random disclosure of grace
From some vascular, great thing
ok! I will plan to publish it in a few weeks...exciting times.
love to see the spreadsheet!