The Garbageman's Guide to Life: How to Get Out of the Dumps: Eight Steps to Clear Your Mind and Jumpstart Your Life

By Norm LeMay and Steven Kaufman

“Two men in the garbage industry might seem like unlikely authors of a mental health self-help book . . . Their wisdom makes a lot of sense” (Forbes).
 
The Garbageman’s Guide to Life is about clearing a path to the life you’ve always wanted by getting rid of your mental clutter. Its premise is simple: all the same skills you use to get rid of trash you can see are the exact same skills you can use to get rid of the trash in your head. And since all of us have been throwing trash away our whole lives, it’s entirely possible to do some mental housekeeping without having to spend years learning a new set of skills. That’s where our motto comes from: “If you can drag your can to the curb, you already know how to clear your mind!”
 
The Garbageman's Guide to Life offers an eight-step framework to getting rid of mental trash. Each step has memorable, garbage-related names like “Create Your Route” and “Take Care of Your Truck.” Filled with personal stories and down-to-earth wisdom, The Garbageman’s Guide to Life is written in an approachable, casual style that will teach people that throwing away old thoughts, beliefs, and opinions is no different than throwing out other garbage. It’s trash and it’s time to get rid of it.
 
“These trash talkers offer down-to-earth guidance about how excising mental rubbish from your mind can enhance your personal and professional life.” —Waste360

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781614487944

Norm LeMay

Norm LeMay has associated with the waste industry for more than fifty years, starting with steam cleaning garbage trucks when he was twelve years old. Mr. LeMay managed one of the most prestigious private hauling operations, LeMay Enterprises, for more than 20 years before it was sold to Waste Connections in 2008. He also co-managed LRI (a large landfill in Pierce County) with Waste Connections, a Board member of the Washington Refuse & Recycling Association. He currently serves as a Board member of the Environmental Industry Associations and is a Director of Routeware, Inc., a company specializing in on-board computing and analytic software for garbage trucks. Mr. LeMay’s enthusiasm and knack for seeing life through philosophical eyes helps infuse The Garbageman’s Guide with a down-to-earth spirit that makes it accessible and enjoyable to everyone.

Book preview

STEP 1

FIND THE VALUE AND TOSS THAT TRASH

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

—Warren Buffett

A few weeks ago, I pulled my truck up to a house and found a big pile of green garbage bags lying next to the can. As I started to throw them into the truck, the guy who lives there walked up to me.

I’m sorry for the mess, he said.

You don’t have to apologize, I replied. You can throw out anything you want.

I know. That’s the problem. This was my mom’s house. She has Alzheimer’s and I had to move her into a home. Every time I pick up a vase or a bowl or a magazine, I ask myself, ’Does this have a great story behind it or is it junk?’ Unfortunately, her memory is too far gone to help me. He looked away for a moment. I just know I’m throwing away some of our family history. And it’s killing me inside.

What he said really got me thinking. As I looked at the tons of trash that passed through my truck—all the stuff that I’m hauling out of people’s lives—I realized it was there because people decided that it had no more value to them anymore. What was going on in their heads? How did they make those choices? So I started examining how my brain makes basic keep-or-toss decisions, and it didn’t seem very hard: Keep the jewelry (high value) and toss the broken mug (low value).

I also realized that the same kind of thing goes on in my mind. I have a huge collection of thoughts, beliefs, and opinions in my head, or TBOs for short. They cover everything about me: my intelligence, my skills, my looks—the whole way I think about myself and how I fit in this crazy world. I’ve been collecting these feelings for years, ever since I was a little kid. I assumed that I made keep-or-toss decisions about my thoughts just like I did with my other stuff: keep the obvious ones like I’m a pretty decent artist and throw out the useless ones like I’m the worst painter ever. Then I looked a little closer at what was actually happening.

Since I’ve had some of these TBOs for so long, my brain naturally says, "Hey! These must have real value." It never even occurred to me to question whether I need them anymore, just like I never questioned why the closet was so full until I opened the door and everything fell onto my head. I’m holding on to garbage in my mind that should have been tossed a long time ago—and I’m tossing things of tremendous value that I should never have let go in the first place. Why, then, can’t I toss that trash? Why do I insist on dragging it around with me year after year, long past the time when it’s actually useful? It’s because I don’t have a working knowledge of value. That’s what this chapter is going to focus