Irish PR guru didn’t shop for a year and says it changed her life

'This was a mental challenge'.

On this week's episode of Girls With Goals, we're on a mission... well, one of us is. via GIPHY Scientist, engineer, and performer Dr. Niamh Shaw joins us on the panel along with PR guru and businesswoman Lisa Regan. Dr.Shaw shares with us how she plans to get to Mars (1:50), while Lisa talks success (12:33), being your own boss (17:03) and how one Netflix documentary sent her on a year-long minimalistic mission (36:21). Listen to the full episode on your iPhone or Android, click below to listen now or keep on reading:   A minimalistic lifestyle is a nice thought. Clearing out all your crap, living with less and only owning the essentials could be incredibly rewarding. They (whoever they are) always say that a clean space begets a clean mind. Unfortunately for some of us, who shall remain nameless (Niamh Maher), it is rather tricky to part with our all-important  'stuff'. Drawing inspiration from the Netflix documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things, Galway woman Lisa Regan decided to make a drastic change, and it seriously paid off. The documentary that started it all tells the story of two mates, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who, for all intents and purposes should be deliriously happy. Successful jobs, career progression, and CRAZY bank, yet their success didn't equate to happiness until they adopted minimalism as a way of life. In doing this, they instantly felt peace and a sense of value they hadn't experienced in years, sounds good right? Now, to be fair... minimalism isn't for the faint-hearted, you could argue that's it's very easy without children to live with just a couple of jumpers and a laptop. The great thing about this documentary is that it explores the different ways in which minimalism can be adopted, everything from financial reasons to the environment. The varying degrees of minimalism means that anybody can try it, and more importantly, anybody can reap the benefits. After watching the documentary, Lisa decided she wanted to make a change, she decided not to shop for clothes for an entire year. No more running in for a 'few bits', no more buying new dresses for every event. She told us the experience was completely freeing:

"It was just one of the best things I've ever done in my life, I can't describe the feeling of freedom I had in the whole year, there were pangs that I didn't even realise I had... we are mass buying to just facilitate this momentary high of 'Oh great I got a new jumper I'm going to change my life now, I'm going to be absolutely buzzing'. Not having to be a part of that was phenomenal".

Lisa went on to explain what the general reaction to her decision was, in particular amongst other women:

"Massive interest and shock, the first question at the start was 'you must be saving loads of money?', but that was never my leading story on it, money never motivates me, my thing would always be how relaxed I felt, it was so amazing to not to be shopping, so when I told people that, their perception around it changed and they wanted to engage on a different level with me."

Although it seems like a daunting task, for Lisa anyway, the pay off was worth it. We'll definitely be giving this challenge a go. Who wants to buy anything in February anyway? *Back away from the high street*

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