“Our tools are just tools, and it is our responsibility to ask important questions about how and why we use them.”
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 containing a collection of 50 short essays.
→ Download the eBook or Order the Print Book
Fulfillment Through Minimalism
How a minimalist lifestyle is helping me achieve happiness and fulfillment
By Kelly Foss
For over two years now, I’ve been unlearning our society’s consumeristic ways and uncovering that in life which matters most.
Through adopting a minimalist lifestyle, I’ve been creating the space to gain internal clarity on the things in life that bring me the greatest joy.
By removing the non-essential from my life and learning to manage society’s materialistic influences and insistent noise, I’ve been building a stronger sense of self and feeling a greater sense of purpose in my every day.
Arguably, we are all in search of meaning; to feel useful and productive—to feel our labors and challenges are worth something.
Many of us are easily coerced by consumeristic channels to seek fulfillment by means of expending our resources on the things we don’t need. This lifestyle is helping me become clear on the real virtues that are lost in our society—connection and contribution.
By managing life’s excess and refocusing my attention on contribution over consumption, I’ve gained time for self-reflection, time to connect with family and friends, and time to give back and influence others.
Minimalism is the great reset I needed. I can now go out in the world in a clearer state to develop and deliver my highest contribution.
Today I work to inspire others to follow.
11 Signs You Might Be Broke
By The Minimalists
You might be broke if…
1. You’re living paycheck to paycheck. If you’re spending every dollar you take home, you are, by definition, broke. More than 75% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck (with little to no savings), which means that, right off the bat, at least three-quarters of us are impecunious.
2. You have credit-card debt. There’s no such thing as “good” debt. The debtor is always slave to the lender.
3. You have student-loan debt. Read our lips: THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “GOOD” DEBT, DAMMIT!
4. You have a monthly car payment. Ahem.
5. Your income dictates your lifestyle. It should be the other way around: we should work to earn enough money to live, not live to earn enough money to buy shit we don’t need. Until he breaks free from consumerism, the hoarder is slave to his hoard.
6. You aren’t saving for the future. We know, we know: you’ll start saving “tomorrow.” But of course tomorrow never comes, because tomorrow will be today tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow will never be today. Ergo, begin today. Your life literally depends on it. See 5 Difficult Steps Toward Financial Freedom.
7. You’re not healthy. Unhealthy equals depression. Yes, if you’re unhealthy, statistics show that you’re likely depressed. If you can’t enjoy life, no matter how wealthy you are, then you’re broke in a different way: you’re broken. The richest man in the graveyard might have the most lavish tombstone, but he’s still dead.
8. Your relationships are suffering. Too often we forsake the most important people in our lives in search of money or ephemeral pleasures. We believe that our loved ones will always be around or that “they’ll understand.” But when you’re careless with something for long enough, it breaks.
9. You argue over money. Troubled relationships tend to end for one of two reasons: arguments over money or arguments over sex (or both). Even if the relationship doesn’t end, it is difficult to grow if y’all’re constantly bickering about finances. (P.S. If you’re arguing over sex—or the lack thereof—then something’s broken.)
10. You’re not growing. It doesn’t matter how much cash you earn: if you’re not growing, you’re dying. We feel most alive when we cultivate a passion, drudge through the drudgery, and live our lives with purpose, autonomy, and mastery.
11. You don’t contribute as much as you’d like. Your worth isn’t determined by your net worth: real worth comes from contributing beyond yourself in a meaningful way. It was MLK who said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” Giving is living, and it’s much easier to give when you’re no longer worried about money.
Being broke is okay. Being broke without a plan to break the cycle is not. You see, given the above criteria, we’ve all been broke at some point in our lives—everyone has been broke or broken.
True, we all need money to live, but you are not the contents of your wallet. What’s more important than income is how we spend the resources we have. We personally know broke people who make six (or even seven) figures a year. We also know families who live on $25k per year but aren’t broke at all—because they live within their means: they live deliberately.
Real wealth, security, and contentment come not from the trinkets we amass but from how we spend the one life we’ve been given.
A Little More of Less
A few other articles we think you might enjoy…
→ When Your Task List is Overwhelmingly Long by Leo Babauta
→ Stepping Into the Water of Possibility by Meg Kelley
→ As Happy as Possible by Leo Babauta
Are any of your friends interested in minimalism or living simply?
If so, please invite them to subscribe.