The resistance is strong within me today.

I sat at my desk for a few hours brainstorming topics and thinking about what I was going to write about today.

Nothing was getting me overly fired up. I wrote a couple of business related posts, but I found myself constantly drifting away from those topics. But then, as I starred out my office window, I began to think about how happy I am to be here. This morning I arrived at my office around 7:30am, with an extra large cup of coffee in hand, and got down to business.

It felt great to be here after a great weekend.

When I went to bed last night, I was a happy camper looking forward to the week ahead.

How about you?

I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people went to bed last night miserable. A lot of people woke up this morning with a case of the Monday’s. They woke up just downright angry and pissed off about the week ahead.

Can’t blame em right? Duty calls. They’ve got bills to pay.

As Hugh MacLeod says, “They hate their work, but they love their “stuff”.” deathbystuff.jpg

We’re a society of people caught up in the trap of believing we have to keep slaving away with an end-goal of acquiring more and more “stuff”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m challenged every day. We all are. Do you think I want to pre-order an iPad today and just put it on the credit card? Of course I do.

Check out Seth’s riff on debt. It’s an endless loop. We’re attracted to stuff which gets us further and further into debt and requires us to go to jobs we hate and drudge through the week.

The problem with the endless pursuit of stuff, and getting yourself further into debt, is that it comes at the expense of your life and overall happiness.

So here’s my question for you.

If you went to bed with an uneasy feeling about the week ahead, or if you’re at work and suffering from a case of the Monday’s, take a couple of minutes and truly ask yourself why.

What’s the root cause of your feelings?

Try and pin it down and be honest with yourself.

Each day I realize, more and more, just how little stuff I actually need. The key is to actually realizing you need a lot less than what you originally thought. When that happens, all sorts of doors begin to open.

Check out Hugh’s post called “Death by Stuff.

Hugh is right-on here.

Stuff is killing you, and I don’t want you to die like that.