“Money won’t make you happy, but everybody wants to find out for themselves.” —Zig Ziglar
We live in a culture that begs us to conform. Through its various messages, it calls us to squeeze into its mold. It exerts external pressure on our minds to believe in and buy its opinions, hopes, and aspirations. Yet, the pursuits that define most of our culture never fully satisfy our heart and soul.
In response, the world will tell us to just run faster, reach further, work harder, make more, and become conformed more deeply. But its promised offer of fulfillment always remains out of reach. Our deepest longings are left unsatisfied.
Unfortunately, through this vicious cycle, we lose our uniqueness. We lose our passion. We lose our energy. We lose our opportunity to choose a different future. And because we are too busy chasing the wrong things, we sacrifice our opportunity to find something greater and more fulfilling in this life.
Meanwhile, our heart begs us to live differently. Our spirit calls us to seek our own passions. Our soul cries out for us to not conform. Our insides long for us to live countercultural lives. But all too often, the external pressure from the world calls us back into conformity. And we reenter the race. How then do we break free?
Are there steps we can take to live countercultural lives?
First, we can admit that there must be more. We can come to a point where we realize that there is more to life than what the world is peddling. We admit that we have foolishly bought what the world is selling… and our lives are still empty. Possessions have not brought happiness. Money has not provided security. Popularity and power have not satisfied. And sex has not brought love. The answers clearly do not lie in a life conformed to the unoriginal culture of our day.
Second, we can limit culture’s messages into our lives. The calls for conformity enter through our eyes and ears, take room in our mind, and force out the pleas surfacing from within our soul. While we can never remove the external pressure completely, we can limit their opportunity for impact. We can watch less television. We can flip through fewer ads. We can worship fewer celebrities. We can find more silence. And as we begin to reduce the noise from the outside, we open space in our mind to hear from the inside.
Third, we can listen more to our heart. In the absence of external noise, we find more opportunity to intentionally search our heart. We find the space to allow our soul to speak and cry out for its desires. We hear best in solitude, meditation, and self-examination. But be advised, this is difficult at the beginning. We are rarely flattered with what we find at first. We must face the hard truth that we have wasted most of our lives chasing the wrong things. We are humbled at how easily we believed culture’s false promises. But keep listening. The look back is necessary, but short.
Fourth, we can pursue our newfound passions. To complete the process, we must realign our lives to seek our heart’s truest desires. If our lives do not intentionally chart a course in this new direction, they will eventually revert back to their original state. But be assured that you don’t need to know every step of the journey ahead, you only need to know the first one… however small it may be.
Nobody can tell you where your heart will lead. Your soul must speak for itself. But rarely will it ask for more money, possessions, fame, or power. It will usually ask for something far more countercultural than those.
Michael Boyink says
My wife and I joke that we have quietly become counter-cultural hippies.
It started with homeschooling. Then self-employment. Then selling our house and traveling fulltime via RV as a family – that’s where our hearts have taken us.
We we are gratified and humbled to continue to meet fellow-travelers. There are a lot of screwed up things about our world…but out there, under the radar, not in front of the camera, is a growing group of counter-cultural world-changers.
Catherine says
Hi Joshua
I’ve been following your writings for about a year now and have become totally committed to a life of minimalism.
I live in Italy (www.cathscache.blogspot.it) but have just spent 5 weeks in Australia and was devastated with the consumerism culture there. I have never noticed it before and can only assume that the country lifestyle I have in Italy and the Italian culture itself have allowed me to see this for the first time. My family and most other Australians spend all of their spare time shopping. I was bored silly in shops and walked around them for the first time noticing that every piece of what was around me was created to feed our culture of government and corporate greed. Quite simply, I think it all comes down to that.
What do you think?
Cheers
Cath
Suzanne Pontius says
I am between #3 and #4. We gave away our TV more than a year ago–I have no regrets–and we don’t get a lot of magazines. I am going to have to rethink the amount of time I spend on the computer.
I have retired from my library job and my project these days is to clean out the house that we have lived in for 28 years so we can move to something smaller in a new location. I have been feeling restless for about 3 years now, but it is not as easy to pull up stakes when one of us still has to work and two of our sons still live with us while going to college.Admittedly, I haven’t quite figured out my new passions, except for reading and getting rid of stuff.
Ralf says
Instead of aiming for more admit it’s fine to possess less.
Ignorance is bliss.
Switch off the news on holiday.
Stephanie Blom says
“But be assured that you don’t need to know every step of the journey ahead, you only need to know the first one… however small it may be.
Beautiful! Inspiring post, good reminder, and love the 4 steps you mention. I also believe and am starting to experience how living more in line with your heart is connected to being less attached to material things. The more I do what I love, the more I want to live with less stuff!
Thank you, you are inspiring!
Jo says
Beautiful message and beautiful writing. Thank you for the simplicity and elegance of both, Joshua.
Ella says
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights on minimalist living. Your posts are always so very interesting and thought provoking. I don’t care what pictures you use….this is YOUR blog, not mine, and I am happy that you share.
Anonymous says
I really hope you see this comment.
I can see that you have touched many, many other lives with this and other posts. I just wanted to say that yesterday I made the difficult decision to try to stick to the whole suburban ideal, as soulless as it may be.
My reason for doing so was that I feel pulled in two different directions: living an authentic life, which can SOMETIMES be countercultural but not always, and doing what society expects of me and my family. The pressure from my coworkers, social contacts and others has been intense to conform and toe the line. But it JUST doesn’t feel right.
I have never felt so conflicted about anything in my whole life.
Because I was moving from one to another, often within hours, I have not accomplished much in either direction.
However, after seeing this post pop up on my Facebook newsfeed, I feel strengthened and encouraged to pursue the soulful existence that I truly, deeply want.
I really hope you see this comment because your writing changed my life.
Jenny Johnston says
So nice to not feel alone in wanting to do nearly EVERYTHING the opposite of what everyone around us is doing. We have no TV, we homeschool, we dont buy “stuff”, we dont do birthday parties for our children, we dont do organized sports, we dont complain about our spouse/children/family.
What do we do…..we are happy, loving, kind, thoughtful, minimalistic, enjoy the simple things, we do what makes us happy regardless of what others think.
Why do we do this? So we can make memories together as a family. In 3 days we leave to ride 800 miles on our bikes (yes, with our children) through British Columbia. THAT is what we do!
Carol says
This might be the most fulfilling article I have ever read. It beautifully explains what I have going through for the last 5 years. That thoughtful silence leads to tiny steps towards our souls desire and that the soul never asks for more money or possessions. Perfect read for today. I look forward to your posts every day. Very refreshing.