“One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.” —Henry David Thoreau
We only get one life. And with it, we are wise to choose mission over maintenance.
We end our lives most fulfilled when we seek to discover our purpose and then focus our energy on it.
Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
And I have begun to recognize the third most important day is the day we throw off everything that keeps us from fulfilling that purpose—the moment we choose mission over maintenance.
One effective way to remove distraction and aim attention at our mission is to reduce the physical possessions in our lives. Our possessions, you see, steal our energy. They require maintenance.
When we own more than we need, we begin wasting our finite resources maintaining our stuff:
- We clean them.
- We categorize them.
- We organize them.
- We rearrange them.
- We lose them.
- We spend hours trying to find them.
- We move them in and out of storage.
- We work extra hours to make the payments on them.
This is time we can never get back. This is life wasted. This is sacrificing mission for maintenance.
But the distraction of possessions is bigger than merely cleaning them.
Physical possessions can take a toll on our lives before we even own them! We obsess over buying them, we spend hours researching and comparison shopping, and we go out of our way to find the best deal on them. (The average American spends almost 10 hours per month shopping, yet many of us complain we don’t have time for important activities.)
On the other end of the consumerism cycle, we spend time trying to sell our unneeded possessions, posting them on Facebook Marketplace, or driving them to local donation centers. Again, the more we own, the more of our lives we waste maintaining our stuff.
Beyond the physical demands of extra possessions, they also draw up emotional reserves. Cluttered spaces distract our minds and weigh heavily on us.
These items take energy from us and our greater pursuits. Consumerism causes burdens in many areas of our lives: financial, relational, spiritual, and can also impact our health because of undue pressure.
And I haven’t begun to mention how much wasted energy goes into comparing our possessions to the possessions of those around us.
But there is a better way to live. An intentional, minimalist approach to life provides the mind with the ability to support our mission.
Minimalism paves the way to less stress, more time, more focus, and more fulfillment and happiness.
A minimalist home and life is significantly less stressful. There are less items demanding our care and attention—less time maintaining our stuff and more time pursuing our mission.
Owning and caring for fewer possessions provides opportunity for clarity. When we align ourselves with the counter-cultural approach of minimalism, we free ourselves from the constant tugging of the pursuit of more.
Living with less offers more time and energy to spend on your chosen mission. Suddenly, we can pursue the careers we most desire. We can create solutions to our most heartfelt problems in life. We have more time to spend on meaningful priorities.
Personally, my greatest priorities are faith, family, friends, and impact. My chosen mission is to pursue the promotion of minimalism. Collecting things I don’t need takes me away from those greater pursuits by requiring my attention.
By choosing to own less, I reduce the amount of time spent maintaining possessions and utilize that energy to fuel my mission. You can too.
Too many of us waste our lives maintaining possessions rather than pursuing mission and passion. Choose the wiser route: Mission over Maintenance.
Always inspirational
Point on
Always a big thanks for your articles for encouragement & keeping in track
Well said, Joshua.
I love reading your articles, you are very smart and knowledgeable on so many different things, among many different levels. I respect and appreciate what you do. Thank you for being so inspiring and motivating.
One of the best texts about minimalism I’ve ever read. It help me decide that tomorrow I will give many, many things I don’t need or don’t like anymore. Thanks and God bless you, Joshua.
This is perhaps the most succinct and ‘on point’ article for the purpose of minimalism yet. Well done Joshua for articulating this so clearly.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that in this digital age, as well as physical items, digital noise/clutter seems to be distracting/overwhelming us to the point where we’re not able to properly focus on the mission too.
I struggle with social media/internet use. This lockdown and trying to follow the news has just made it worse. But it’s made me realise that clutter isn’t just ‘things’. It’s anything that distracts you. Maybe its habits. Maybe its thoughts also. Maybe it’s even having too many different goals.
I spent an entire day doing my garden yesterday. If my mission in life was to be a gardener/have a beautiful home, then great. But I don’t think that is my mission. And I lost a day maintaining something that I don’t even use that often. What am I doing here? There are so many things that need improving in the world, and I just spent a day doing my garden :(
I get it! Gardens are lovely & I love flowers & plants, but I think I have a mission to help others. Specifically the elderly. There are so many that could use a lifeline, someone to talk to, someone to spend time with them. But enjoy your flowers & plants too! Stop & smell the roses! 🌹💐🥀
Wow. Maybe by working in your garden you could learn enough to teach a child to garden and change his/her life, or take your knowledge and improve another garden in your neighborhood, or work in a community garden and help fellow human beings. I have never heard of gardening being a bad thing.
We went through a flood in 2016 – had 14 inches of water in our home. Many important items were stored upstairs or lifted on bricks as we had time before the water came in. Not everything could be saved and some things we overlooked.
After the flood, all the walls from four feet down were gutted on the bottom floor and cabinets removed – you could see from one end of the house to the other. I remember it taking more than 30 trips upstairs to empty part of my closet – I immediately got rid of half my clothes; things that didn’t fit or I hadn’t worn in years. I kept purging… cookbooks, things of my deceased mothers – I gave to my sister saying ok, it’s your turn to have this, I’ve had it long enough. I wanted someone who needed the items to have them. I had enough of moving things around – to a shipping container; to the cabinets in the garage; to the upstairs bedrooms and then, into the attic. I didn’t want to own things only to have to move them – it was such a chore. We could flood again and the thought of moving things again, let alone rebuilding is overwhelming.
Now my father has passed. Thank goodness there are eight surviving siblings; but not everything is wanted/needed by everyone. Your article is helping cast a new light on the fact that even though things are sentimental, they’re just things. I love my parents with my whole heart – still; and that is truly all I need to keep.
“Minimalism paves the way to less stress, more time, more focus, and more fulfillment and happiness.” Very well-said, I enjoy this post
as much as many of your previous. Thank you.
Indeed, I feel very blessed that my parents have never been asked by their employers to transfer nor to change constantly their jobs. For I have been able to stay in one place for a longer time, to finish colleg,e, get married, have children and thus, grow slowly and safely. I have lost many friends becasue their parents were on mission and military for services. I have only kept in touch with one or two, too few. It is more about losing friends for them than letting their owning behind when having to move. This is what I think I could do better by having more friends to be with and also for my children to be with their playdates they love to hang around with. This is a great post about choosing how to use the time allotted and know that there is “a better way to live”
This one really resonates with me! I am in and out of storage due to military deployments. Getting out of storage is the hardest thing to do when you rent! You never live in the same sized residence as before. Plus my life has been so multi-faceted and compartmentalized. This article is a great motivator and I am working on my minimalism every day!