A little over two years ago I walked 184 miles across the north of Spain with everything I needed in a 12 lb. backpack. In fact, I realized I had overpacked. It was, however, the most meaningful trip I’ve ever taken. Mostly because, when it came to material things, all I had was all I needed. I was forced to appreciate the scenery and history and energy around me.
When I returned home and saw how much stuff I had, it raised the question; are our possessions distracting us from our values? It became clear that I needed to adjust my goals and make changes in my life. I decided to practice minimalism.
We live in a world where we are focused on materialistic goods. The average american household has about 300,000 items in it — and most of us aren’t hoarders.
The average person sees 500 advertisements a day which is over a million or so a year and we are being told lies that exploit us to sell us something. We’re being told that we are lacking. We’re being told to improve that which doesn’t need improvement and hypnotized into seeing ourselves as incomplete.
We have become a society seduced by materialism, addicted to acquiring heaps of meaningless stuff. We must learn to stave off the tug of consumerism and get organized.
Some reports indicate that we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago.
It’s important to understand that being minimalist doesn’t mean you have to have less than 100 belongings, wear only black and white, get rid of your car and live miserably. Minimalist living simply means we are not defined by our stuff. Nor do our belongings control our satisfaction with life and overall happiness. It’s about living a lighter life.
Just to be clear, I like stuff but I decided to incorporate a lot of minimalism in my life and embrace frugality. It was hard to keep my stuff in order when I had too many things. When I’m working towards a goal, frugality isn’t about what I’m giving up, it’s about what I’m going to gain. I want to live a life I’m passionate about.
When the choice is between buying something I probably don’t need or living a life that will bring me fulfillment every day, that choice becomes very easy.
Being dangerously close to 60 years of age at the time, certainly not at the “beginning” of my life, I decided to do an exercise where I wrote my life story as I’d like it to read at a very advanced age — like 95. The most profound epiphany this exercise revealed to me is that no one will care how I lived my life except for me. I don’t mean that no one will care — in fact, I think a lot of people will care! My family, namely, and everyone I impact: my friends, colleagues, community and more. These people will care because I’ve been a major presence in their lives. But no one else really cares. I’m not a massively public figure so I have to live for me and for those closest to me.
It’s time to get back to the basics of what’s truly important in our lives. Life can be so freeing when you focus on what really matters.
Figuring out what you want to do with your life doesn’t need to happen at the traditional “beginning” of your life. Of you’re reading this, you’re not dead yet! So why act like your life is over? It’s not!
Why live a life you’re not passionate about, whether for the next fifty years or the next five?
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