“Buy less stuff. Do work you love. And make a positive difference.” —Joshua Becker
I never set out to become a blogger. In fact, it is with mixed emotions today, that I announce I have become a full-time writer.
And it all started on a typical Saturday morning with a decision that became a passion. A passion that became a career.
How a Regular Morning Led to a Life-Changing Decision.
I woke up Saturday, May 24, 2008 with a relatively simple goal: clean out the garage. It was a decision not unlike the decision made by countless people around the world every weekend. After all, houses need cleaning, cars need maintaining, and possessions need managing.
Little did I know my life was about to change forever.
After a few hours of cleaning, my neighbor was the first to notice my defeated posture and frustrated facial expression. Her smile and light conversation was meant to cheer me up. I appreciated it. But it wasn’t until I began pointing out my frustration over the time and energy spent cleaning that she responded with a sentence so profound, it turned my life upside-down immediately.
“That’s why my daughter is a minimalist.” She said, “She keeps telling me I don’t need to own all this stuff.” I remember her words like it was yesterday.
I turned around to see the pile of things in my driveway. As I did, I noticed my 5-year old son playing alone in the backyard. And suddenly, a life-giving truth became clear.
All the possessions I owned were not bringing joy into my life. But worse than that, they were distracting me from the very things that did. And a minimalist was born.
My wife and I would go on to remove many of the nonessential possessions from our lives. All told, 60-70% of our stuff would eventually be sold, donated, recycled, or thrown away.
How a Decision Became a Passion.
I remember sitting by my computer just hours after our decision to intentionally live with less. I registered a free WordPress domain name: Becoming Minimalist. I intended to use the website as a simple online journal to chronicle our journey and keep our extended family updated on our progress.
But the process of journaling held far more benefit than I ever imagined. It provided opportunity for me to write about our process. But more than that, it forced me to articulate the emotions I was feeling, the lessons I was learning, and the benefits I was experiencing.
As a result, I became highly attentive to the positive, practical benefits we began experiencing almost immediately after choosing to live with less. We noticed we had more time, more energy, and more money for the things that mattered most.
I remember one dinner party just months after our decision. I sat next to a wonderful friend and began explaining to her our decision and our progess living with less. Her face lit up immediately. She began listing all the things in her home she would like to remove and began dreaming of the possibility of living a freer life without them. It was almost as if she was just waiting for someone to give her permission to own less.
Suddenly, it occured to me that I had just played the role of my neighbor in my friend’s life. I had invited her to a new and better way to live. Around this same time, more and more readers began visiting the Becoming Minimalist website—just enough to remind me there was great value in this message of minimalism and people were drawn to it.
Living with less quickly became a passion for my own life. But additionally, a passion was growing in my heart to spread the message of minimalism in a world bound to consumerism—to become one voice calling people to buy less when every other advertisement was calling them to buy more. My passion for simplicity quickly grew beyond the walls of our own, uncluttered home.
How a Passion Became a Career.
With a renewed focus and desire, the goal of Becoming Minimalist began to evolve. What started as a personal online journal quickly morphed into a website dedicated to inspiring and equipping others to discover and embrace minimalism.
I watched other bloggers. And learned from their example.
Social media began to play an important role in spreading the message. We established Becoming Minimalist on Facebook and joined Twitter shortly after. Our presence on both continues to grow.
We wrote two books. Simplify and Inside-Out Simplicity have sold in the tens of thousands on Amazon and as PDFs in bundle sales. Simplify has ranked as the #1 Self-Help book on Amazon on two separate occasions.
Readership at Becoming Minimalist began to grow and has exploded recently. Traffic has doubled over the past five months. During the month of September alone, over 300,000 visitors visited Becoming Minimalist and were exposed to the message of minimalism.
One year ago, we launched the Becoming Minimalist Newsletter (no longer available) after sensing a growing desire to unite simple living advocates. The newsletter serves as encouragement for those committed to promoting simplicity. It is unlike any other email newsletter I have ever received. It is designed to equip the reader to grow in influence and promotes simple-living posts from every corner of the web. It is read by over 6,000 subscribers.
And through it all, because I love my work and find rich meaning in it, I have continued to work 50+ hours/week at my full-time job. For the past 15 years, I have served as a pastor in a number of different Christian churches. When this blog first started, I served as the Youth Pastor at one of the largest churches in New England helping middle school and high school students find fuller-meaning in their hearts and souls. Most recently, for the last two years, I have served alongside a good friend of mine planting a church in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country.
But I have known all along pursuing both passions was unsustainable for the long-term. And at this point in my life, my greatest opportunity for impact is to promote living with less in a world that has bought into the lie that pursuing possessions is a worthy endeavor.
As a result, effective today, October 1st, I am committed to the full-time promotion of minimalism. With fear and excitement, today, everything changes for us.
What Does This Mean for Becoming Minimalist?
At this point, there will be little change on Becoming Minimalist. In fact, regular readers will probably notice very few changes on the website. I do not intend to increase the frequency of posts. I only hope to improve their quality. I also hope to spend more time writing guest posts on other websites looking for new opportunities to introduce others to the invitation of minimalism.
The Becoming Minimalist Newsletter will still be delivered on an every-other week basis. There is a chance this frequency will increase in the future. But for now, it will stay the same. By the way, thanks for all the kind words and feedback I receive from it. I appreciate every single one of them.
I do hope to become far more interactive and available to readers than ever before. I hope to become more responsive to blog comments, Facebook messages, tweets, and e-mails. Community is important to me. And I look forward to having more opportunity for it.
I have a desire to accept more speaking opportunities than before. I desire to continue promoting minimalism and its intersection with entrepreneurship, business, happiness, and spirituality. My commitment is to continue offering speaking engagements at an incredibly affordable price. You can find out more here.
I also have plans for some exciting new projects in the very near future. I will be releasing a new book later this month and have been collaborating with other simple living bloggers for an amazing opportunity we will unveil soon. I have also begun the process of creating a book proposal for 2014. These projects are ones I am passionate about creating and offering to you. I look forward to the opportunity of finally having the time to create them with full excellence.
Lastly, it is every bit my intention to keep Becoming Minimalist reader-supported (ad-free). Despite what some may think, my income from Becoming Minimalist is just barely equal to the income from a part-time job. While we don’t need much (minimalism has made this possible), I do have a responsibility to my wife and two young children to provide faithfully. And to that end, I will continue to pursue and create resources that benefit both the reader and the creator.
There are such wonderful days ahead. Our message is important. Our opportunity is great. And together, we can absolutely change this world for the better.
Image: Swaminathan
Vincent says
I’m super excited for you, Joshua! Best of luck to you and I will see you in Phx tomorrow!
joshua becker says
Looking forward to it. And best of luck on your crazy new adventure in the Philippines.
Hooperissima says
Happy for you Joshua.
Thanks to you and others like you (especially Courtney and Bea), I found the courage to go part time a month ago. I’m now working a three day week, using the extra time to simplify my home and my life. At the same time I’m rediscovering the people and activities that make me truly happy. Best decision I’ve made for as long as I can remember.
All the best to you!
joshua becker says
And all the best to you too!
Tina Lemna says
Congratulations Joshua! This is great news for someone like me that loves your blog and your books. I feel that you are the voice of minimalism today and this is your true calling. I look forward to your reading your future books. Thank you for spreading the word and for all that you do.
joshua becker says
Thanks Tina. I’m glad to hear you look forward to reading future books. I look forward to writing/finishing them.
jill britz says
yay!! i’m so grateful for your writing, & to read that you’re dedicating yourself to it — well, i feel even more encouraged. your writing & the writing you’ve pointed to has made a GIGANTIC impact on my family — we’re reduced our possessions by 50% & have cleared our calendar & our kids’ calendars (we have 4 kiddos). i appreciate your incorporating your spirituality in a non-churchy way. more often than not, when i’ve needed a minimalist nudge, i’ve found one here. & thanks for sharing that you are in fact taking an income hit, & that it’s possible because of your minimalizing. (us, too — my huz screenprints in our basement, & i stay home & homeschool our tribe, neither of which is possible without minimalism.)
hear, hear!! :)
joshua becker says
Thanks Jill. “Buy less stuff. Do work you love.”
Carl says
Congratulations Joshua!
Your success is richly deserved for fighting the good fight and letting people know a life with less can be a life with more (so much more!)
All the very best for the full time blogging adventures ahead.
joshua becker says
Thanks Carl. There have definitely been lots of late nights and early mornings over the past five years. And in some ways, I look forward to even more.
Meri says
Congratulations! I’m looking forward to reading as you progress.
Sue@House Pretty says
Hi Joshua!
I found your blog in late spring of this year, and this is the first time I have commented. I have to say, you have changed my life! I started out my blog chronicling the renovations we are doing to our house, and I quickly got “sucked in” to the whole decorating blog “thing” And based on some of my blog pictures, most people could tell I desperately need a new camera, lol! Anyway, through the years I had done several “downsizes” due to relocations for my husband’s job. But this spring it finally got to me, and I typed in “minimal living” or something like that, and up came your site. And I have been hooked ever since!
I am shocked, I had no idea you were a pastor (and that’s a good thing, lol!) Even Jesus warns in the NT about the accumulation of “stuff”. You have inspired me like you would not believe. And everyone I tell about my journey to minimalism looks at me like I have two heads!
Thanks for what you are doing!!!
Sue
Sue@House Pretty says
Oh, on a side note, I didn’t mean that it’s a good thing I didn’t know you were a pastor, lol! I meant being a pastor is the good thing. Just to clearify, lol!
Sally says
I think it’s a good thing that you didn’t know he was a pastor; I was surprised to find that out as well. To me, it means that he isn’t preachy and judgmental, and those are good things!
joshua becker says
Appreciated hearing that story Sue. I’ve made mention of my profession elsewhere (http://www.theunitive.com/i-want-to-be-rich/), but try not to make much of a big deal about it here on Becoming Minimalist. My hope is that the strength of the argument will stand on its own.
Robin Johnson Simpson says
Excited for your journey, Joshua. Your story has helped our family immensely. Looking forward to the seeing your impact multiplied as you head into promoting minimalism full-time.
joshua becker says
Thanks Robin. Thanks.
Kelsey Hancock says
Hey Joshua,
I’m so excited for you as you step out in faith in a new way. Its been a blessing to experience your ministry as a high schooler and follow along your writing since the beginning. I remember the first Sunday night at youth group you preached about materialism and I went home and trashed or gave away about half my room…and I’ve been using your same ideas and principles ever since. Its been a huge help transitioning out of college and into my own work and ministry. Thanks again for all the ways you and your family impacted my life as a high schooler and still do through this blog. I can’t wait to see all the ways you are used for big things in this next stage of life and I wish you all the best.
Kelsey Hancock
joshua becker says
Thanks for the kind words and always believing in us Kelsey. It’ll be exciting to watch your journey as well.
Marc says
Congrats Joshua! You did it! :)
Angel and I are 100% behind you. Please let us know how we can help.
joshua becker says
You already have. But the next time we’re in the same zip code, you can allow me the opportunity to buy you lunch… something without meat sounds most appropriate.