{"id":27744,"date":"2018-05-18T11:07:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T16:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nosidebar.com\/?p=27744"},"modified":"2018-05-21T16:17:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T21:17:25","slug":"minimalism-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nosidebar.com\/minimalism-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Minimalism as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself, to Live a Fulfilling Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like exercising at the gym, but I like being able to play basketball with my friends and chasing my kids around the beach. I don\u2019t like writing, but I like sending a new book off to print, and hitting publish on a blog post that informs and inspires my readers. Place me firmly in the camp of author Dorothy Parker, who once said, \u201cI don\u2019t like writing. I like having written.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, I\u2019ll admit, I don\u2019t particularly like being a minimalist. Like exercising and writing, and many other pursuits that are hard and require sacrifice, minimalism is not easy. It requires discipline. It\u2019s counter-cultural.<\/p>\n
Most people think you\u2019re weird if you reject conventional wisdom of what it means to live the American Dream. But I press forward nonetheless, because the pursuit of less, in a world that celebrates more, is worth the effort and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.<\/em>\u201d Booker T. Washington<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The reason I can power through a mindless, joyless session on the treadmill under bright fluorescent lights is that it helps me get stronger and healthier, and do active things I love outside of the gym. Similarly, the reason I resist temptation, choose to live with less, and try to keep my priorities in order, is that it helps me to create space and time for what really matters.<\/p>\n
In other words, I don\u2019t see minimalism as an end in itself. The process of decluttering, detaching, and deemphasizing materialism is simply a step on the road toward a destination. Like exercising and writing, the process of minimalism is simply a means to an end.<\/p>\n
Without an end in mind, practicing minimalism can feel like a rote exercise devoid of any larger purpose. But if you\u2019re using the principles of minimalism to move toward something you love, then all of the stripping away, like a sculptor chipping away at a hunk of marble, becomes a joyful exercise that reveals something beautiful inside.<\/p>\n
Stepping Back to Move Forward<\/h2>\n
Three years ago, my wife, our three young daughters, and I embarked on a path to test a hypothesis: Could we, as a family, pivot from a life motivated by accumulation and consumption, to one chasing meaning and purpose?<\/p>\n
It was a long, often hard journey that took us from an expensive suburb outside of a major city, to a small town in rural northern Michigan. We committed to living with less, because we knew (or at least thought) that a life with less could lead to more.<\/p>\n
For many years prior, we desired this change but found ourselves unable to act. We would read, ponder, discuss, and plot how to make change happen, but never move forward. We were stuck in a routine and a lifestyle that wasn\u2019t making us happy, but that we had grown accustomed to. We were battling the inertia of ambivalence.<\/p>\n
When we first learned about the concept of minimalism, we were intrigued. The idea of shedding possessions and living lighter appealed to us. So we started boxing up belongings and dropping them off at charitable thrift stores, or placing them at the curb for trash pick-up.<\/p>\n
But after a weekend of shedding, we\u2019d find ourselves back where we started: with a few less things, but without making much of a dent in our desire for broader change.<\/p>\n
What ultimately led to the transformational change, and ultimately greater happiness, that we experienced was taking a step back and trying to understand the larger purpose and vision we had for our lives; the \u201cend\u201d we had in mind through the \u201cmeans\u201d of minimizing.<\/p>\n
A Strategic Approach to Living with Less<\/h2>\n
2,500 years ago, Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War<\/em>. In it, he stated, \u201cStrategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n