So what exactly is this Minimalism thing everyone's been on about lately? Do i need to throw out everything I own? No.. Do i need to sell my car and and quit my job? No.
Minimalism is a tool that enables people all over the world to accomplish something quite amazing.. freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture that people around my age build our whole lives around. That's not to say there's anything wrong with owning or admiring material possessions, but the minimalist lifestyle just helps people stop assigning so much value and meaning to "stuff".. stuff that in fact most of the time we could quite easily do without.
Since watching a recent Minimalism documentary on Netflix (the source of all inspirational content nowadays!) I got thinking about how i could take some advice from the two guys that tell their story in the film. Their simple message is "Focus on less", and I think that's quite powerful.
Focus less on the THINGS that matter and more on the PEOPLE that matter. I like that.
So since it's the beginning of the year and everyone is in a "self improvement" mindset, I thought it might be helpful to share the things I'm currently thinking of doing to try and minimalize different areas of my life:
- Find a place for everything I own. If I can't then I don't need it
- If i haven't used something for over a year then it needs to go
- Donate, give away and sell things I no longer feel I need
- Actively unsubscribe from any YouTube channels or junk e-mail accounts clogging up my inbox
- Create a monthly spending budget, that only includes a couple of new items.
- Love people, use things. The opposite never works.
Does having a go at the minimalist lifestyle make your to-do list this year?