“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” —Marcus Aurelius
Five years ago, I was introduced to minimalism by my neighbor. It was a short conversation, only a few sentences long.
I had been working most of the day cleaning up the garage and began complaining to her about the time and energy that goes into owning a home. She responded with a simple sentence, “That’s why my daughter is a minimalist, she keeps telling me I don’t need to own all this stuff.” At the time, it sounded like a completely revolutionary idea: intentionally live with fewer possessions and own only necessary things for life and purpose.
It felt like it was the first time anybody had ever invited me to own less stuff. I jumped in right away. Minimalism and its promotion became one of my greatest passions in life. And I owe it all to one short conversation with my neighbor, June.
Or do I?
I have often referred to that conversation as the first time anybody ever invited me to live with less—the first time somebody told me I didn’t need to own everything. But in reality, I’m not sure that’s true. In fact, as I look back over the course of my life, I can now see there were a number of people trying to make the same argument.
- Environmentalists warned me against consumption and disposal and its negative impact on the environment.
- Financial advisers warned me against buying more than I could afford and the negative repercussions on my credit score.
- Spiritual advisers warned me against materialism and its negative influence on my spirituality.
- My parents constantly referred to the need to buy less and not live beyond my means.
There were, indeed, numerous people introducing me to the idea of living with less—even from a young age. But looking back, each of them always stressed the negative consequences of materialism rather than the positive benefits of minimalism. Simply put, they warned me against materialism rather than inviting me to minimalism. And there is a big difference (for instance, none of their warnings ever stuck).
There is often a need to consider both the positives and negatives of a decision as we seek to live our lives effectively. And whether we are speaking into the lives of our children, our friends, our co-workers, or our very own, we should be open to discussing both.
But I try hard to frame my conversations by focusing on the positive aspects of life-change rather than warnings against the negatives as much as possible. For various reasons, I have found this works very well both in printed word and spoken conversation.
- People always enjoy hearing a “good-news” story.
- People are uniquely interested in themselves and the benefits of their actions.
- People love receiving invitations and often ignore warnings.
- People are searching for hope and answers.
This principle of speaking positively is important in promoting simplicity. But it is also important in any and every interaction where we seek to expand influence in our life and the lives of others. Embrace it.
You will find your influence expand. And your own personal attitude towards life will improve as well.
shebolt says
You have hit on something huge. I’ve devoted my life and my career to making the planet a better place. I’m always amazed at the backlash to the environmental movement. You can’t tell me people really want to live in a world full of pollution and paved surfaces. I think the backlash is a reaction to the negative, preachy tone taken by environmentalists. Maybe, if we make our message more positive, as you are doing with the minimalist movement, we will reach more people and have a better impact.
Pat says
Good morning Joshua, I am a long time fan and I enjoy your insights. I dove into living with less over 3 years ago and life has never been better! I went from a 2000+ square foot home with 2 mortgages packed with stuff to a very simple 236 square foot paid for home, and I now live on less than $1000 per month. I now have the time for what is really important, and I wonder why i did not do this years ago. Thank you so much for the inspiration. Can I ask where I might find the photo at the top of this post? It is simply beautiful! Thank you again.
Karla McEvoy says
So true! We seem to be wired to move away from things we associate with pain and move towards things we associate with pleasure. Hearing testimonials from people who found great benefits when they switched to the lifestyle helped encourage me when I first started out .
Steph says
That was a well-written and thought-provoking post. Thanks!
emma and carla: the merrymaker sisters says
Hi Joshua, thanks so much for sharing this post. We live a paleo lifestyle and have since finding your blog really resonated with a lot of your minimalist messages. They inspire us every day. We are going to start implementing this positive talk into every day life. Thanks again.
Rose says
Joshua this is probably one of your classic posts, I shall certainly read it again. I’m doing the Simple Year course and in January I found myself thinking about what my greta grandmother would say about today’s consumption. She died aged 85 in the 1960s when I was a small child — the lessons she taught me often come back.
Deb says
I could talk ’till i was blue in the face to my oldest son about the dangers of going into debt but it never seemed to sink in until last year when he had the chance to change jobs to something he truly enjoyed and found out that he could not support himself and his family and pay the huge debt that he had accumulated over the years with the cut in pay this dream job would mean. It just took seeing it in a different light to realize what I had been trying to tell him. Just as in school, we all learn differently and teaching takes many different forms.
Mariel Boldis says
I’ve never really looked at this way. Now that I think about my own situation, I find it that throughout the course of my life people have warned me about buying too much and wanting too much. No one ever really showed me the benefits of what owning little and wanting less will actually do to your life—the positives. When a salesman tries to get me to buy their product, they always emphasize how it will make me better, quicker, faster, prettier, etc. and how it will change my life, not the other way around. Maybe minimalism is kind of the same way. Instead of pointing out the negatives of everything minimalism isn’t, we need to promote the good things it brings to our lives. And thanks to blogs like yours, this is totally possible. Thank you for sharing!
Sandra Pawula says
Joshua, This is a very deep, when you really think about it. How do we speak about eminent dangers without scaring people or turning them off? I think it’s worthwhile to take your suggestions to heart and also find ways to do this without compromising the message.
Marie says
Hello,
What you wrote is very true. In this respect, aren’t we a bit like kids who prefer to be encouraged rather than told off? The first time I was introduced to minimalism was some (5? 6?) years ago, when I discovered a book by French author and minimalist Dominique Loreau, “The art of simplicity”. Suddenly simplicity seemed desirable, and has been ever since! Thank you for your web site, it has also been and still is one great source of inspiration for me (although it is my first comment)…
Marna Marie' Strauss says
Hi Marie, thanks for the mention of this book by french author. I have identified that I want to move to minimalism but now its to put things into action :) i will def read this book.
Thanks for the lovely website Joshua :-)