Overwhelmed with consumer advertising and all the stuff available to buy? Frustrated with spending more and enjoying it less? Take a deep breath and read on.

To better cope with the stress from information-overload and hyper-materialism, here’s an important message from business and life coach, Steve Davis: fulfillment involves understanding “Assimilation vs. Accumulation.”  Note: I’ve cited Steve’s article many times in this blog because his message bears repeating. Following are key excerpts, and I encourage you to read the complete article to clarify the critical difference between these two concepts.

We haven’t asked ourselves the questions, “How much is enough?” “What do I value over everything else?” We just cannot say “no” to available things and information that meet our fancy. And in some ways, we crave each new thing with the hope that it will somehow set us free. Consequently, we are literally dying from over consumption in one form or another.

How do we cope with the temptation to consume ourselves into oblivion? …  First … begin replacing the habit of “accumulating”  [i.e., amassing information, material things, and experiences] with the practice of “assimilating”  [absorbing them]. And second … make sure that what you ingest in any form is of the highest quality possible. 

Satisfaction comes from fully digesting and extracting the fine nutrients from what we already have, and making choices for new input based on our true values and passions, not our casual likes and vague interests.  — Steve Davis, Assimilation vs. Accumulation

While Steve wrote this for an audience of professional facilitators, his message is applicable to everyone. It’s a profound strategy to better cope with the stress of too much during the holiday season and throughout the new year.