“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” ― Tom Schulman
Nobody really believes it. Nobody really believes possessions equal joy. In fact, if specifically asked the question, nobody in their right mind would ever say the secret to a joyful, meaningful life is to own a lot of stuff. Deep down in their heart, nobody really thinks it’s true. Yet almost all of us live like it is.
From the moment we are born, we are told to pursue more. Advertisements from every television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard, and website scream to us on a daily basis that more is better. As a result, we spend countless hours comparing our things to the person next to us. We measure our family’s success in life by the size of our home. And we end up looking for jobs that pay enough money so we can spend our adult lives purchasing the biggest homes, fanciest cars, trendiest fashions, most popular toys, and coolest technologies.
But we all know it’s not true. We all know happiness cannot be bought at a department store. More is not necessarily better. It’s just that we’ve just been told the lie so many times, we begin to believe it—without even noticing.
As a result,
- The average American cardholder carries 3.5 credit cards.
- The average American household carries over $15,799 in credit card debt.
- The average U.S. household debt is 136 percent of household income, which means the typical American family owes more money than it makes in an entire year.
- The number of shopping centers in the U.S. surpassed the number of high schools back in 1987.
- Women will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping.
- The average size of the American home has more than doubled over the past 50 years. Still, one out of every 10 households in our country rents a storage unit to house their excess belongings.
We live in a world that loves accumulating possessions. And while nobody would ever admit that they are trying to purchase happiness at their local department store, our calendars and checkbooks tell a different story.
But we can do better.
There is a better way to live life available to us. One that intentionally recognizes the empty promises of advertisements and consumerism. One that champions the pursuit of living with only the most essential possessions needed for life. One that champions generosity. One that boldly declares there is more joy in owning less than can be found in pursuing more.
Minimalism is, in many ways, an invitation to this new way of life. It can not be forced. It can not be mandated. It may never become entirely mainstream. But it is willing to embrace all who accept it.
Minimalism removes unneeded possessions and reveals newfound freedom in life. It changes the way we spend our hours, our energy, and our money. It changes how and where we focus our attention and our minds. It changes the way we think. It impacts the very foundation of our lives.
It frees us up to pursue the things in life of lasting value. And it may just line up with everything your heart has been telling you all along. Because deep down, we all know, we were designed for something better.
As a society and as individuals, we can do better.
Image: jenniferphoon
Been reading this blog for quite a while and I must say becoming a minimalist has been the biggest life changing epiphany I ever had in my life so far.
I unplugged my TV, gave away/sold my DVD collection, and other items that created noise or diversion away from stuff that really mattered like spending time with family, travel geographically and spiritually, etc.
I am still trying to cut down on browsing aimlessly. This makes me vulnerable to impulse purchases of items that will end in the back of the closet. And of course 50% off sales that seem like too good of purchases to turn down.
With that said, I don’t necessarily live like a monk either (people will have their own interpretation of minimalism). I was and still am a basketball shoe fanatic and jersey collector. At one point I had 19 NBA jerseys hanging in my closet!!! That may not sound much but think about it, how many opportunities would a non NBA player have to wear even one? Not that many let alone justifying keeping 19 of them. With the shoes it’s worse especially with Jordan retros. Those shoes are the most stolen sneakers in the world and people will shoot each other for them.
The rant above just shows how much materialism takes up time and space in my home and in my head. I got rid of a lot of those jerseys and shoes. I downsized from 19 jerseys to just 2 (heck I may even cut it down to zero). I owned at one point 15 pairs of sneakers with different color ways I would rotate so I could look fresh and impress my peers. Now I only one pair that I use to play basketball.
Once I got rid of the shoes and jerseys, I felt 1000 tons lighter. There was no more of cleaning them. No more outrageous laundry cleaning of 19 jerseys. I truly feel free.
Thanks for reading.
Excellent post as always, sir. There is a lot more to life when you own a lot less.
I’m something like a minimalist. But as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in between loads of audio equipment in a homerecording studio (this is where my computer is). For me, the important thing in stuff is: Does it enable me to do things that I feel I want to do? Because after all, doing what I want to do makes me happy. The other stuff that just sits around in a corner never being used can simply go away. But one question is: Do people learn to be happy with doing what they want to do, not with what they are buying? Do they really have the need to be free and want to do something? Do we even want them to be happy without buying? After all, we’re talking about growth of the economy all the time, and economy can only grow when we buy more useless stuff, because all the stuff we need we’ve got already.
For me, all of this is a side-effect of our so called western world. Money is priority #1. We sacrifce a lot for getting more money. Then we try to buy happiness with that money. Well, we could also have happiness on #1 and money simply as a means to an end.
Enjoyed reading the range of comments here. I’m into simple living now and celebrating/enjoying things for the value they offer but not worshipping them or thinking they are the source of happiness. :)
Sometimes the path to a minimalist lifestyle sneaks up on a person. After losing my husband a few months ago, I purchased a smaller house. Yep, paid for. No mortgage, ever. I donated, gave to relatives or sold most of our extra clothes and “stuff.” Recently, I decided to stay in a rather low-paying position (that I love) instead of busting my butt in school and getting a position with greater pay, but much greater stress. (At almost 50, I don’t need more stress!) My food mainly comes from Bountiful Baskets, the grocery store and I aren’t as close friends as we once were. None of these changes were done in a purposeful pursuit of a minimalist life, but it appears that is where my path is headed. :-)
I’ve just recently stumbled upon the idea of living a minimalist life and loved this post. I’m 26 with 2 small children and I’ve never been a huge shopper and hardly ever felt the need to acquire things until my early adulthood. In the past few years I’ve become SO unhappy, with so little self-worth; I believe this stems completely from comparing myself to others, more specifically what we own and the money we make. I’ve endured years of self-induced stress from spending money on things I don’t need rather than paying off my bills and enjoying the EXPERIENCE. There just seems to be such freedom in only needing to keep up after what you need, rather than the excess. I want my children to live that freedom and deem charity a priority and I believe minimalism will be a contributor in how my husband and I accomplish that. I look forward to reading and learning more and implementing small and steady changes in my real life. :)
Great article…..One little thing though, it makes women sound like we spend way too much time shopping. If you click on the article you see that much of the time is spent on shopping for groceries, gifts and clothes for our children and our spouse. The article ends with this sentence. “So perhaps the best Christmas present British men could give their wives or girlfriends this year would be to do their fair share of the shopping.” Hmmmmm
I’m a mother of 3 daughters and recently came to the realisation that I was spending on my kids as though it was really necessary for them to each have xxxx pairs of jeans, or to have tickets to an upcoming concert or stage show and had to have “everything” that other kids were getting from their parents. This resulted in my eldest, for example, developing an attitude where she expected the best and was disappointed when she did not get it. On the other hand, my middle child had the attitude of “mum I don’t care if I don’t have a huge birthday party, I just want to spend it with my best friend”. These two different behaviours were part of a huge wake up call for me, and one thing led to another and I ended up “stumbling” upon minimalism. As they say, when the student is ready the teacher will teach. I have started sharing what I have learnt with other friends via Facebook, and if only one of my friends gets something out of what I share, then I think we have all done our part. Well done on an excellent blog!
I grew up in India. When I hear about the first world problems in the United States, it just cracks me up. It’s like they buy more stuff, then buy stuff to keep this stuff in, more storage, more space and then ultimately more stuff. I just don’t get it.
I’m working on living minimally. I have boxes and boxes of things in my parents house that I just tried to sort through and there is so much that is just.. not needed! The rest of my stuff lives half a country away with my in Vancouver.
Oh money. Luckily my boyfriend has a much better understanding of it than I do and paid of his 16 000 in school debt in the 12 months after he got a job. Hopefully he will be helpful as I try to embark on a more minimalist lifestyle!