“Memories exist with or without a physical item in hand. Don’t use nostalgia as an excuse to hoard those physical items.”
Inside Minimalism
Subscribe to Our Weekly Series
You can subscribe to become a member of our Inside Minimalism series brought to you by our dedicated team of writers. The first month is completely free!
Buy the Book
If a subscription isn’t for you, you can still enjoy our series of essays on simple living by downloading Volume 1: our inaugural collection of 50 short essays.
Download the eBook or Order the Print Book
What Are You Doing?
Like words, actions have an impact, too
By Justin Yoon
This is a follow up to “What the Hell Are You Talking About?” by The Minimalists. With The Minimalists’ entry focusing on words, I seek to focus on action.
We tend to ask this when we have no idea what we are doing. And more often than not, we struggle to answer why we are doing what we are doing. But what if we value what truly defines an action: discovery, memory, and merit? In other words, what if we ask what meaning our actions will truly have?
For example, do my actions make a meaningful contribution? Do they facilitate personal growth? What memory will it leave behind? What positive does the action present?
Actions that positively answer these questions include learning, traveling, creating, and reading. They enable us to not only enable personal growth, but for us to bolster our skill in other actions that fit in this category. For example, learning and reading increases creativity as well as our appreciation for the past, present, and future around us. This appreciation inspires us to create and travel, which focuses on discovery and memory with a sense of merit.
Or, is it shallow and solipsistic that either do nothing or worsen a malady? Is the action simply foolish, wasteful behavior that I will forget about? What negative does the action present?
Shallow actions include gluttonous eating, wasteful shopping, and meaningless web browsing. More often than not, such shallow actions can become meaningful actions if we choose. A food blog that focuses on healthy eating can replace gluttonous eating. Viewing products as inspiration for an idea can cut down on shopping. And browsing on learning materials and literature is more worthwhile web browsing.
If it is the former, then it is best to continue and hopefully do it to its fullest with no distractions. Those actions define us, enable us to flourish, and contribute to the larger communities around us. However, if it is the latter, we need to stop and reflect on our actions and ask what we are doing and why we are doing it. The latter fails to define us, causes us to regress, and provide nothing to the larger communities around us.
When we take action, it must have one of the aforementioned themes. Or else, we are simply wasting time on meaningless behavior. Time is a finite, nonrenewable currency. Therefore, like any scarce resource, optimization and efficiency are key. Actions that evoke discovery, memory, and merit make the time worthwhile and add satisfaction and a sense of success. Actions that do not make the time worthless and add a feeling of dragging and failure.
Under the Influence of Impulse
We feel as though we need everything we want, and we need it right now
By Joshua Fields Millburn
It’s that time of year again. The time of year when people go into debt. Of course, it doesn’t matter whether you’re reading this in December or June or somewhere in between: it’s always the time of year when people go into debt. That’s what we do. And that’s why we’re broke.
We purchase gifts with credit cards.
We buy jewelry with “no money down.”
We assume 60- (and now 84-) month vehicle loans.
We take on 30- (and now 40-) year mortgages.
We even finance furniture. Furniture!
Come on.
I walked into a furniture store recently because my wife wanted to look for a new throw pillow (or “throat pillow” if you read Everything That Remains). As we meandered the maze of coffee tables and couches and credenzas, I saw the same sign again and again, strategically placed on various pieces of furniture: “Take me home today! Financing available.”
This is what it’s come to. We feel as though we need everything we want, and we need it right now. And we needn’t budget, we needn’t save, we needn’t prioritize our expenses—because we can let our future selves sort it out. Someday.
How has that worked out so far? Are you grateful for your past self’s reckless spending? Are you happy with the lack of planning? Are you content with the trail of debt left in the wake of all the things your former self purchased under the influence of impulse? I know I’m not. It took me years to become debt free, and I’m not going back—because I’m no longer willing to deny my future self joy by pleasing myself today.
Truth be told, if we need to finance a thing—be it a sofa or an SUV—then, by definition, we can’t afford it. So instead of going into debt, perhaps we should consider going without. Not forever—just until we have enough money to cover the full purchase.
Until then…
We can sit still on that outmoded couch.
We can make do with that lumpy mattress.
We can use the cosmetics already lining our bathroom shelves.
We can go shopping in our own closets for the clothes we don’t wear.
We can drive that 2004 Toyota Corolla until it croaks.
Frankly, if we want a new thing, we should wait until we can afford it. Maybe then, when we’ve got that bundle of hard-earned cash in hand, we’ll realize we don’t actually want the object of impulse we coveted while standing in the store.
Otherwise, we can act on impulse; we can gratify our desires instantly. If we succumb to the siren song of debt, we might even feel a spark of pleasure at the checkout line, but that flame will soon be extinguished when the first monthly bill arrives.
A Little More of Less
A few other articles we think you might enjoy…
Minimalism vs. Fear by Leo Babauta
30 Days, 30 Photos by The Minimalists
Focused Reading by Carl MH Barenbrug
Are any of your friends interested in minimalism or living simply?
If so, please invite them to subscribe.