How Do I Unsubscribe from Constant Consumer Culture?

Is your phone blowing up with hot deals and can't miss sales?

Feels harmless, right?

That's until your bank account starts bleeding.

What if those nonstop buzz isn't just noise, but it's really a sinister trap?

Well stick around because I'm about to hand you the secret to shutting it

down and shutting it down for good.

That's what I'm gonna talk about on today's show.

Hey there and welcome back to your Daily, financially Confident Christian.

I'm Ralph and it's always great to be with you, and I just thank you

again for honoring me with just a little bit of your time each day.

We're still in pursuit of answering that big question, how can I become

a financially confident Christian?

And we're deep in our series beyond the budget, really working to find

that financial freedom through what I call intentional living.

And if you've been following along, you know, yesterday we talked about

the power of delayed gratification.

Hey, we called it your superpower.

If you missed it, I'm gonna encourage you to go check it out.

Today we're gonna talk about how to unsubscribe from that constant

consumer culture that might be making your bank account bleed.

Hey, that's no joke.

Think about it for a second.

You open up your email and then flash sale.

Listen, I'm just gonna go on a rant right now for a second.

' cause as I was preparing for this episode.

The truth is, in many ways our email has just become that new junk mail.

I remember when I was a kid, my mom would get home from work and there'd be a stack

of mail, and it seemed like half of the mail just went right in a trash can.

Well, our email's becoming that as well, but I get off my ran now.

But maybe you're scrolling Instagram, you see those targeted ads, or

maybe you're like me, you're just reading the news or you're checking

out what's going on around you.

You've got what I call the sidebar of temptation, mean

just add after, add after add.

This is just a constant barrage coming at you from all directions.

And what is it doing?

If you really think about what it's doing, if you, if you pull up

the hood on that, look under the hood, it's just slowly training

us to want more and more and more.

And there's a couple of big things.

It does three things.

It really does right away it steals our focus.

If you're out there looking at the news, you wanna focus on what you're looking at,

and then you got this sidebar temptation.

Or maybe you're trying to go through your email, you got some

important emails that get packing.

Now you got these popups from Amazon and Target and all the other retailers.

That's the first thing.

It does it.

It steals your focus.

And then over time, that bleeding, it's just draining your budget.

And as your budget gets drained, what is really happening behind the scenes,

it just absolutely sabotages the peace that you're working so hard to get to.

And see, here's the thing.

You gotta understand.

This is like a Ralph truism.

This is the truth bomb of all truth bombs.

This is the megaton bomb.

The digital world is engineered for consumption.

That's the whole point of it.

It's engineered for consumption.

So we have a choice.

We can either accept that consumption and let it slowly drain us and train us into

spending all of our hard earned money.

Or we can draw some boundaries.

'cause if we don't.

We're just gonna get drowned in that noise.

Well, let's look to the word for some assistance here.

Let's go to the book of Romans.

You know, I mentioned on the show, Romans is probably my favorite verse

of the Bible, but this particular one is chapter 12, verse two.

It says this, do not conform to the pattern of this world.

It's, it's pretty straightforward, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

What are two things that say there do not conform to the pattern of this world.

Well, I, I've said it.

The pattern of this world is more, more, more.

If you've been listening for the last couple days, more and more and

more consumption, buy now, pay later.

But scripture is warning us about something very sinister in that, but be

transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We've got to make that a profitable verse for us.

Look at first John chapter two, verse 16.

The lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

You might be saying, Ralph, okay, you do this Christian finance show.

I don't get the connection.

Well, here's the thing you gotta understand.

Unsubscribing isn't just digital.

It's spiritual because it's guarding your heart and choosing God's peace

rather than being bombarded with the constant consumer messages.

'cause here's the deal, you choose the inputs.

If you're choosing the inputs that shapes your financial output, you

want to take control of your finances.

That's the ultimate level of control.

You choose what comes into it.

the old adage is garbage in, garbage out.

If you're filling your mind with garbage, what do you think's gonna come out of it?

So now you might be saying, Ralph, okay, great.

I agree with you.

I'm trapped in this cycle of this consumerism.

You know that all those things are all around me.

What can I do?

How do I break free?

I've kind of already alluded to it.

The big solution is to create some digital boundaries and listen to me

unsubscribe from unnecessary messaging.

The digital marketers are not gonna be happy with me today.

But the big thing you're doing is you're choosing peace over

being constantly under pressure.

So I wanna give you an action item for today.

Step one, declutter your inbox.

This can be a fun game for you to play.

Unsubscribe to marketing emails that tempt you.

For example, you realize every morning you're tempted by a 50% off.

Today only email from your favorite clothing store, unsubscribe.

Pretty simple.

Or maybe you get that daily email from Amazon, even when

you're not looking for anything.

Unsubscribe.

Or maybe that home decor website sends the weekly inspiration emails that

always lead to those impulse buys.

Gone.

That's your email.

Second step, filter our social media.

I'm gonna encourage you right now, mute or unfollow those influencers,

those brands or those accounts that trigger spending or envy.

For example, maybe you've got this luxury lifestyle influencer who are constantly

posting beautiful designer bags and vacation getaways that they make you

feel like you're being left behind.

Unfollow that you don't need that, you don't need that input of that negativity.

Or maybe you've got a home renovation account that that makes, you wanna

just keep completely doing those, those new two new projects that,

oh, I'm gonna redo our kitchen.

But you look around, there's nothing wrong with your kitchen,

but you saw this home renovation.

You, oh, this is great.

I gotta do this.

Look at these pictures you say to your husband or your wife,

Hey, look at these pictures.

No, get rid of it.

Or maybe unfollow a fitness brand that posts nonstop about their

supplements and their gear and they, they're constantly tempting you

to buy things that you don't need.

Third thing I'm gonna encourage you to do is what I'm gonna

call the no browse challenge.

That's why it might take a little effort, because if you're like me,

you're kind of addicted to that browsing.

You just say to yourself, look for the next 48 or 72 hours, no browsing retail

sites unless it's a planned specific need.

It'll help you resist that urge to scroll.

Amazon just, Hey, I just wanna see what's new.

72 hours.

Nope.

You gonna save time and money?

Let's get browsing that target app, unless you've already decided you need

laundry detergent or, or paper towels.

Hey, the, the paper towels are running low.

That's fine.

Go get the paper towels, but don't look at the sidebars and all the

other stuff that you gotta have.

And instead of op opening that shopping app out of just boredom,

we talked about that the other day.

Why are you doing this?

What are your triggers?

So instead of opening up that shopping app, 'cause you're just bored, you're

laying around, you got nothing to do, go take a walk, read a book, read my

book, organize a drawer, do something.

You can break this cycle.

'cause here's the deal, fewer triggers leads to less impulse.

This, it, it's, it's a simple equation.

What's coming in.

If you reduce the inputs, if you have fewer triggers, there's gonna be less

decisions and less impulse to go do it.

Less noise.

I said that clatter going around you from all different sides.

That's more peace and it lets you focus back to what truly matters.

You break free of that cycle of that noise all around you.

How about we pray together?

Father God, we just thank you for technology and access.

We do really appreciate it, Lord.

But we confess, honestly, that we're easily swayed by all this digital

noise coming to us from all directions.

So Lord, right here, right now, we ask you to help us take a stand, help us

filter that with wisdom, strengthen our discipline, Lord, and restore the

peace that we so eagerly search for.

And Lord, we're gonna feel a void there, so just fill our lives with your purpose

and not this lie of constant consumption.

And we ask this in confidence.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

I wanna say something.

Decluttering digitally helps you spend wisely and live freely.

Do you wanna spend wisely?

Do you wanna live freely?

Then unsubscribe.

Unfollow, and if you have to just completely unplug, you're

moving towards real peace.

And if today's episode has been impactful, you like, Hey, I know a

bunch of people that need to disconnect.

Do me a huge favor, share this episode with them.

Point 'em to our website, financially confident christian.com.

Hey, make a game of it.

Go onto your text list and text every single person you know and say, Hey,

you gotta listen to this episode.

It's all about how to break that cycle of that, of that stuff that's

coming at you from all directions.

I also wanna give you a copy of my book.

I mentioned it a few minutes ago.

This is something if you're bored.

I'm not gonna encourage you to read just if you're bored, but it

will really be impactful to you.

It's called Mastering Your Finances.

You can get to it for free, no strings attached financially

confident christian.com/master.

Now, tomorrow we're gonna talk about, and I love this topic.

I'm really excited about tomorrow's topic.

We're gonna talk about why experiences and relationships always.

In bold here.

Always beat possession.

So I'm gonna encourage you not to miss it.

Now, let's go out there today and be those financially confident Christians.

You can do this.

I believe in you now.

Believe in yourself.

Stay financially savvy.

God bless you, and you have a great day today.

I.