A new year, new focus, new letter, and we’ll soon be launching our new website and subscription model, Inside Minimalism, that we’re excited to share with you. We’re planning on launching our premium membership in March, but you can already subscribe to it today.
Letting Go of the Unnecessary and Focusing on the Important
By Deborah Deacon
When I was seven years old, my family of six took a trip to Prince Edward Island, on the Atlantic coast of Canada. We piled into our small pickup truck, and my parents took turns driving and sleeping so we could get to the coast without stopping. When we finally arrived at the Atlantic Ocean, the tide was out and the red sand stretched on for a mile. It was beautiful. And yet, I didn’t spend time with my family, build sandcastles, or swim in the ocean. Instead, I collected dead crab parts.
I can’t explain why I chose dead crabs—of all things—to collect, but I wanted to have something to remember my trip by and to prove to my friends back home that I had been somewhere exciting. I took off my favorite pink knitted hat and filled it with crab shells and legs. While my family played and laughed together, I spent most of the afternoon searching for crabs.
On our way home, the strong smell of my new collection began to fill the car. As we drove through Quebec City, my family discovered the source of the smell and ordered me to dump my new prized collection on the side of the road. I was angry and disappointed. After all of my hard work, I was left with nothing to remember my trip by. To make matters worse, I had effectively ruined my favorite hat.
That was a great family trip, but I clearly had the wrong focus. Instead of making memories with my family, I was fixated on collecting a ridiculously unnecessary memento. And while I can look back and laugh at myself for picking such an unusual keepsake, I know that for over fifteen years after that trip, I continued to prioritize physical possessions over being present and engaged in my life.
Minimalism helped me realize that owning more things is not a recipe for happiness. There will always be something bigger, better, shinier, and more expensive that I can buy. But the pursuit of stuff is ultimately a distraction from what I really want to focus on. I want to be more engaged with my family and friends, appreciate my life and experiences more, and have a better relationship with myself. Happily for me, none of these goals require material possessions.
I missed out on the memories that my parents and siblings made together that day on the beach because I was focused on collecting something completely useless. Now, instead of trying to ensure that I have physical proof of my life, I focus on actually enjoying it. The journey is far from over, and I still get distracted now and then, so it never hurts to remind myself: Life is short. Put down the crab legs.
Not Busy, Focused
By Joshua Fields Millburn
Take a look around: everyone is multitasking. We’re doing more than we’ve ever done, attempting to fill every interstitial zone with more work. Every downtown scene is the same: heads tilted downward, faces lost in glowing screens, technology turning people into zombies.
We live in a busy world, one in which our value is often measured in productivity, efficiency, work rate, output, yield, GTD—the rat race. We are inundated with meetings and spreadsheets and status updates and rush-hour traffic and tweets and calls and travel time and text messages and reports and voicemails and multitasking and all the trappings of a busy life. Go, go, go. Busy, busy, busy.
Many of us are working more hours than ever, but we are actually earning less. Busy has become the new norm. And if you’re not busy, especially in today’s workplace, you’re often thought of as lazy, unproductive, inefficient—a waste of space.
But for me, busy is a curse word. Whenever someone accuses me of being busy, my facial features contort, and I writhe in mock pain. I respond to their accusation the same way each time: “I’m not busy, I’m focused.”
This Month’s Most Read
Minimalism is a Lifestyle Template
How I’ve used minimalism as a template to design my ideal life.
A Reluctant Minimalist
Why I’m slowly becoming minimalist, one step at a time.
Are any of your friends interested in minimalism?
If so, please invite them to subscribe.