This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1528. How to make small, sustainable changes to make your life better.

By Ellen Bergen of If It Brings You Joy.com and I'm your narrator, Justin Mollick,

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We have five shows where we do that just search for Optimal Living Daily in the podcast app of your

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let's get right to it as we optimize your life. How to Make Small, Sustainable Changes to Make Your Life

Better by Ellen Bergen of If It Brings You Joy.com. The change in seasons got me thinking about

life changes in general. Now, hold on if you're thinking change, not for me. It's stressful and

probably won't even stick. I completely understand. I've sworn to stick with a new exercise routine

many, many times throughout my lifetime, only to eventually let my routine slide. The changes I made

were not sustainable in the long run. One change that I've been quite successful with sustaining is

reducing the amount of my clothing. A few years ago, I looked at my closet and saw way too many

clothes that might never wore. I've always been pretty good about regularly donating clothes to

our local thrift store. But that day, I still saw a lot of clothes that I liked but didn't wear

because I simply had too many clothes. What a waste of space and money. At that time, I made a

different change. I vowed to stop buying new clothes. I motivated by decluttering my closet so

felt good to open my closet door. Out went anything I didn't wear or didn't love. It was a real

Marie condo moment. For two years, I've stuck with what was really one small change. There have been a

few necessary purchases and most of those were from a consignment shop. Staying out of tempting

clothing stores and feeling passionate about having an organized closet with a manageable amount

of clothes feels great. I say it was a small change because I just stopped buying new clothes.

It was one step in an ultimate goal of having a minimalist wardrobe. As time went on, it felt so

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