This is a guest post by Dave from Life Excursion about Minimalism… a topic that he has recently inspired me to try being a minimalist. greatly. Today, he is debuting his new site, The Minimalist Path , which is dedicated just to minimalism.
photo credit
I get the questions, “What is minimalism and why are you doing it?” quite often. I usually say because I am just much cooler than you. This is followed by strange, confrontational looks. Then I explain my real reason. “Because my life is too important to focus on that which isn’t that important.” Hopefully, after this article, you too will find the opportunity to re-focus your life on what is truly important.
Too often, we forget how simple life is. In reality, we only need just a little bit of water, food, and shelter daily to survive. What would your life be like if you had those three things covered? Would you have more time to do what you love? Would you enjoy life more? Well, if you answered yes to the final two questions, why aren’t you trying to move towards a life that you love? All it takes is re-focusing on what is important to you. Because besides your basic survival needs, all you really need to live a happy life are experiences.
I became a minimalist to focus on what I wanted. I wanted more time, less stress, more fun, less worries, more opportunities and fewer headaches. As I began reducing the items that surrounded my life, the more I tuned in to what I really only wanted. I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted whenever. Simple as that. If I could reduce the liabilities in my life, i.e. debt, stuff, clutter, boss, I would be a much happier being.
Here are the steps you need to take to re-focus your life by way of minimalism:
* Reduce Clutter You can do this easily and for free. Just start throwing away, donating or selling things that are mainly useless in your home.
* Budget Getting your finances in order is awesome. Budgeting will focus your money on what you really want to spend it on. Are $5 latte’s important or is taking that Mexican cruise? Your choice. Your money. Spend wisely.
* Buy Less Stuff Stop buying crap. Once again, simple as that.
* Organize Organizing your home and life, in general, will lead to more productive actions freeing up time to do what you really want.
Obviously, that list could go on and on. This is just a starting point.
Get started now and re-focus your life towards the life you want.
Dave
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Dave,
You’ve got me hooked on minimalism too!
Best of luck on your new site.
Ken
I’ve stopped buying things, unfortunately my partner’s parents keep buying me clothes. Half the time I do0n’t even lie the style or they don’t fit quite right. I tell them not to buy me anymore but they keep giving them to me. Thankfully we’re moving from China next year and I won’t be able to take them with me. I’ll be donating most of them. Minimalism is the way to go.
Good luck with the new site! About two weeks ago I started living the way you describe in this post. It’s amazing, truly amazing. I wish I had done it sooner.
It certainly is amazing what you find you’re capable of when all the clutter is gone from your life. You can’t hide behind the need to fix this thing you never use, and you have all that time and energy to focus on what you really want to be doing.
Also- the new site looks awesome!
Haha. “…because I am just much cooler than you.” This is a nice, simple post. Thanks Dave. Keeping things simple and worry about the things that matter is a valuable quality to have in a person. I think this line can resonate with most of us here, “I wanted more time, less stress, more fun, less worries, more opportunities and fewer headaches.”
Dave! I see you everywhere!
Best of luck with the new blog.
Brett
Heya Dave and Karen:)
Great post! I love minimalism, having the bare essentials. I think stuff is nice to an extent, but adventures, stories, friends and experiences are ultimately worth more.
Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning YOU”
Cheers!
I love to see more on less. What is truly important rises to the surface when not surrounded with media zombifying junk!
Quality not quantity…unless I’m paying for lunch, then I want quantity about %90 of the time.
I really loved this post by Dave! I’m a HUGE fan of minimialism and am currently adding more of it into my life (wait, that sounds funny, is that an oxymoron?
)
Anyway, thanks for the great post!
Cheers,
Dayne
TheHappySelf.com
“Because my life is too important to focus on that which isn’t that important.”
You hit the nail on the head right there. Summing up all the things I like about minimalism in one simple sentence. My compliments!
Indeed, keeping focus is the best thing you can ever do. As soon as you spread your resources thin nothing will work properly. To top it all off (after the budget thing and the less stress/clutter) it’s even green, an issue that seems to be on a lot of minds nowadays.
I wonder what attracts others to minimalism, it’s definately a growing crowd