“The life we receive is not short but we make it so. We are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.” ―Seneca
My life looks very different today than it did six years ago. Minimalism was the catalyst. It brought intentionality to my surroundings and my pursuits. And I recommend it to everyone.
But deciding to own less brought more changes to my life than cleaner drawers and closets. It also prompted a new lifestyle that questioned the presence of certain assumptions. As a result, it introduced me to a better way to live centered on more essential pursuits.
Looking back now, I have the benefit of comparison.
I loved watching television. I played hours of video games. I rarely exercised. I drank lots of soda. I ate too much fast food. I slept in late whenever possible. I did all the things I thought I wanted to do.
I was living the dream, or so I thought. But I am beginning to notice how my previous way of life was not improving my life—it was actually detracting from it. The life I was living wasn’t even close to the best one possible. Worse than that, in many ways, it was keeping me from it.
I think this is what makes the unexamined life so dangerous. We often think we are living life to the fullest, but we aren’t. Often times, we are exchanging long-term purpose for short-term pleasure.
When we eat unhealthy, we miss opportunity to fuel our bodies properly.
When we watch too much TV, we miss opportunities to interact with people in the real world.
When we buy more than we need, we miss opportunity to live free and unburdened.
When we neglect to exercise, we miss opportunity to enjoy adventures available to those with physical stamina.
When we stay up late and sleep through the morning, we miss capitalizing on the most productive period of our day.
When we focus too much on vacations or entertainment, we miss opportunity to discover the joys sitting in front of us each day.
When we spend more than we earn, we burden ourselves with the bondage of debt.
When we spend too much money on ourselves, we miss opportunity to find greater joy by being generous to others.
When we choose leisure over work, we miss opportunity to contribute and benefit society with our skills.
When we work too much, we miss opportunity to refuel, recenter, and rest.
Again, with each of the decisions above, we think we are enjoying our lives and living them to the fullest. I sure thought I was enjoying my previous lifestyle. But in reality, we are only trading a better life for a more available, easier accessible one.
So how do we objectively evaluate our lives? How do we gauge if we are sacrificing the important for the urgent? How do we recognize if our choices are detracting from our lifestyle?
Here are 5 steps that have been helpful for me:
1. Embrace humility. We admit that we don’t have all the answers and open our hearts to hearing truth.
2. Seek input. We seek family members, friends, and mentors—people who know us and love us. And we humbly invite them to speak boldly into our lives.
3. Look for the root. We ask ourselves questions—hard questions. Why do we make the decisions we make and live the life we live? Is it because our habits contribute to our best life possible? Or are there others reason present in our thought-process?
4. Experiment. Try living differently for a month, see if it changes your outlook on life. Give up television, sugar, or alcohol. Exercise, write, or leave work at 5 every day for a month. Notice how it impacts your overall well-being. 30 days will provide enough time to see if the change is worthwhile.
5. Learn from others. Successful people are curious people. They possess the humility to learn from others. Identify people living their lives with purpose and goals. Then, study and learn from them.
We all want to live our life to the fullest—to enjoy and accomplish all that we can with all that we have. Let’s work hard to make sure we are making the best decisions with it.
Joshua,
I am in the beginning stages of this change to a minimal lifestyle, just tapping into the first year. What I have learned this year, is it can’t all change at once. Growing towards a more minimal lifestyle, for me is like setting deep roots, it happens underground first in how I make decisions – then comes to the surface with how I live with those decisions, and full bloom when I am living more consciously one day at a time.
thank you for the knowledge and inspiration.
-Kathleen
Awesome! Amazing and focused. Thank you :)
Dear Joshua,
I’m at a point of taking a (huge) step back from my life and re-evaluating priorities. Just as you speak about above, I am questioning if my current lifestyle is built on my true values from within, or am I just trying to live up to what others expect of me, or society ‘tells’ me I ‘should’ value.
Specifically, as this relates to money and time. I want more time. Can I live on less money to get it?
I’m digging the 30 day idea. I will give this a go.
VERY much appreciate your thoughts in this post.
Thank you!
Allison
Joshua, I’m so glad I found your blog. I was searching on Google for “how to declutter”. I needed a starting point. I have wanted to declutter and downsize for several years now. My husband, however, did not. He loves to shop (online mostly) and collect old Mercedes cars (we had 6 cars). I did what I could with my belongings but could not get him to budge with his. He’s an emotional keeper! But, one day last year, he had a stroke (58yrs). Thankfully, he is recovering but guess what he learned? A lesson the hard way. Which is not always the worse was to learn a lesson, it seems to change your life. We had savings, but not unlimited. I didn’t buy anything except food and gas (to get him to therapy 3x a week). I stretched our savings from 6 months to almost a year. I’m running low now! So, now we have to downsize. Kids are gone and a large house and several cars is the last thing we need. I’m just looking at everything right now and I start to hyperventilate! I have to get this place cleared out and packed up by the end of May. It’s hard to find a starting point, it’s so stressful. I’m going to keep reading your blog for inspiration. It’s a wonderful format, easy to read, relaxing to follow. Brian did an awesome job!!
Great post, thank you. I really appreciate your writing, and find posts such as this one which apply minimalism to areas of life other than possessions to be really thought-provoking and helpful.
What a great post – full of wise words and a timely reminder for me of why I’m working to make a few positive changes in my own life – one step at a time!
Thank you.
Wonderful post! I’m with you on all of this and it’s actually something I needed to read. I need to examine a lot of my habits.
My only amendment would be to this one: “When we watch too much TV, we miss opportunities to interact with people in the real world.”
As an introvert, I can only handle so much interaction with other people. Though, I do try to limit tv to spend more time exercising, reading, meditating, or any other activity that enhances my life. Though, after a hard day at work, I often love nothing more than coming home, putting on my pj’s, and watching a favorite tv show. :-)
Thank you for mentioning those of us who are introverted. I am very introverted. To be honest, I wish I were a little more outgoing (not too much … but a little).
Maybe one of the 30-day challenges for myself can be to add, just a little, socialization.
All tips are great! Growing up I always learn from others and I learned a lot from their mistakes and it helped me for who I am today!
Great post! I love the idea of living minimally. It is something I have been doing more and more of. Clutter and “stuff” is annoying to me. I have come to realize over the past number of years that all this stuff takes up space where love + relationships should reside instead. With less things cluttering my home, I have more room for creativity + fun. It takes time to manage all that clutter…so I will gladly do without less of it.
Great article! It goes along the lines with something that I was thinking today. I’ve traveled a bit and I’ve noticed that in third-world countries where people have less, they seemed to be more intent on relationships. In fact, the people there said that they would pray for us Americans because we were so distracted.
I know what you mean, Serena. I lived in the Philippines for 5 months and the people there had very little. But they were happier than anyone I knew back in the US.