Making the most of what you've got

I sometimes feel I get drawn into the consumerism trap. I am a fitness aficionado and there always seems to be a new book, DVD or product which can help me attain new levels of strength, conditioning or whatnot. I've been mulling over this for a long time, trying to get my buyer impulses into check. It's nothing serious (I would not consider myself a compulsive buyer) but it makes me uncomfortable to feel so compelled to buy something.

After some consideration, I realized this applies to other areas of my life. Besides my engineering studies at college, I've always had a lot of different interests. Of course, making time for them all is quite hard and one of the main issues I deal with in my quest for balance. I tend to buy lots and lots of books and I sometimes get the feeling that this book will be defining in me studying some philosophy/linguistics/political theory/etc. Same thing goes for the engineering books I buy for college. In my mind, buying things seems to be a sort of crutch for actually spending the time and effort required to get results, or a way to ignore the fact that I have limited time.

A new motto I've been bouncing in my head lately is this post's title: "make the most of what you've got". That is, get every drop out of what I currently own (books, DVDs, equipment of all sorts) before thinking of buying something new. For example, have I tried every routine in my fitness books? Have I exhausted my extensive personal library when looking for a particular subject? Have I watched every DVD I own? This could be tied to the notion of frugality, but perhaps that'ssomething better left for another post.

All is all, it's a nice mantra and it has helped me avoid some impulsive purchasing moods. We'll see how I deal with this issue in the following months. In the meanwhile, do tell your story. How do you deal with compulsive buying behaviors?