Big Love

Why is it that deleting old accounts is like the Hotel California of digital land?

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave

– Hotel California, The Eagles

Yesterday I deleted 1,651 old emails, the next morning I woke feeling lighter with new ideas. I also found new energy for connection.

In the process of deleting the thousand plus emails, I opened an email from my now X. The email was very flirty and suggested of a new relationship. And it was, as it dated over 15 years old. Yikes!! Why was this in the cloud? The cloud that I paying for, that was an extension of me like it or not?

Old emails, who likes or needs them. Most have no clue how many we even have of these. If it was a paper per email, then I would have 15,000 pages of old emails.

I thought I had done much of the work sorting and eliminating my electronic mail, files, and photos. I have read multiple books on office sorting and tidying and I thought that I had applied these practices. I have an organized computer screen that is free of distractions. I have folders in my cloud storage, which I sort things into. However, sixteen thousand emails told a different story.

It dawned on me, that moving on is a lot harder than I ever thought.

“We are all just prisoners here

Of our own device.

– Hotel California, The Eagles

There are many reasons for this. First, I had to decide for myself what would comprise the act of moving on. I have conducted this process in what felt surgical, cut out and replace, the cancer removed and cleared from my field. When I was ready to do deeper purging, I discovered that it isn’t easy to quit old accounts, either.

For many companies, they purposefully make it nearly impossible to delete your account. For example, for an old Peloton account, I needed to search specifically how to delete an account, because I was having no luck browsing for it. Then I filled out a form. Then I verified an email. Then I had to wait for a confirmation of the account deletion.

I counted the passwords that I know of and came up with close to 90. What are we doing?

I also made a list of old accounts to delete if I could and have been tackling one or two a day. A few I had to abandon, without official closure. Much like an old relationship.

Back to the benefits of doing this arduous and seemingly never ending task. I am glad that I put the effort in as I really do feel better. There is still much work to be done, but with clearing the old, energy is released that gives you the oomph to keep at it. In looking back at my email archives, I also found some lovely notes from old friends. This inspired me to act. I sent many messages out to these old friends and acquaintances and it felt good. I even heard back from some of them, which made my day that much better.

Out with the old, in with the new. Which will be read then deleted 🙂