Hi, there!
The books I read in January had one thing in common: they both put emphasis on keeping things simple. Having a simple life brings multiple benefits. But before enjoying it we must walk through a process of decluttering.
That’s exactly what The Minimalists propose in their book “Love people, use things – because the opposite never works”.
The book
The book starts by stating that
“Our material possessions are a physical manifestation of our internal lives”.
Then, it introduces way to understand what actually adds value to our lives and what’s not. Once you get to that point, you’re able to start to de-clutter: put things into a box and 1) sell it, 2) give it to others, 3) throw it away.
It’s actually a very simple concept. If your house had only the things that add value to you -and nothing else- then that stuff would be empowering you and helping you get to your next level.
The beauty of that process is that you can extrapolate it to other areas in your life. You can, for example, follow this “de-cluttering process” to understand which activities in your life add value to it, and which are just distractions. Same with relationships, self-awareness, your creative process, and more.
The book is written mainly by Josh Millburn, and Ryan Nicodemus finishes every section with practical advice, and list of things you should do, and things you should avoid. A very efficient way to communicate their ideas, in my opinion.
As this concept focuses on understanding how different things add value to your life, or in other words: your relationships with these things, the minimalists decided to divide the book in 7 sections, exploring different relationships in each one.
Relationship 1: Stuff
Here, they explore your relationship with stuff, and how accumulating stuff makes your life more complex, noisy, and automatic.
We live in a society where over-consumption is the norm. We’re manipulated by social media, online advertisement, our “smart”-phones, and most of the technology around us. They are all used to convince us to buy more stuff compulsively.
The short summary here is:
- Most stuff adds noise in your life.
- We don’t actually need most of the things we own.
- Having less stuff allows us to use stuff intentionally to empower our life, instead of alienating us.
Relationship 2: Truth
“Honesty is an engine of simplicity”.
Being honest -to us and to others- is also a way of being minimalist, and focus on the things that add value. Lies are equivalent to junk we accumulate. They don’t only make our houses more cluttered, but also cost us money, time, energy, and more.
Relationship 3: Self
By this point, we have enough tools to follow the same decluttering process with ourselves. Josh puts it very clear:
“By removing the physical distraction around us, we’re able to look inside ourselves and begin the process of mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual decluttering”.
Self-awareness is one of the most powerful skills one should hone every single day. Clutter just gets in our way of hearing to our emotions, feelings, and thoughts.
I had a situation with a friend of mine recently. He stayed at my house for a few days. At home, we don’t watch much TV, and we hate news channels. In opposite to this person that has the TV on the whole day with news and gossip programs.
We also take time to read, have conversations outside, and focus intensively on our work while we’re at work.
To this person, this environment was much more “silent” than his. And even though he only stayed with us for a few days, it was enough time for him to relax, mute the external world a little bit, and listen to his own feelings, emotions, and thoughts.
The result was that his conversations shifted drastically from gossip and ugly news to unresolved situations he lived in his childhood.
When we focus on our inner-world instead of the external one, we can become aware of the things that hold us from growing, facing them, and healing. It’s not a simple or enjoyable process, but it’s the only way to freedom and true joy.
Relationship 4: Values
In this section, Josh and Ryan also explore the differences between instant gratification from the things that actually bring joy to our life.
Sometimes our values aren’t set by us. We may not notice it, but we’re forced to value ephemeral or hollow things.
We crave for a cheeseburger when we’re totally aware that it won’t bring any good to us, just instant gratification. We save for years (or worse, get a loan) to buy a luxury car that won’t bring anything to our life but debts and a more expensive cost of living.
“From money and possessions to status and success, the things you desire usually won’t provide the satisfaction you anticipate”.
When your values are deepened, you start to live by high standards rather than high expectations.
Working every day to live a meaningful life, will bring us pleasure and happiness as by-products.
Relationship 5: Money
I’ll start here by saying that money is not evil. Instead, money is a powerful tool, and as a powerful tool you can use it for a very bad thing or a very good one.
The same amount of nuclear energy can be used to provide electricity to a big city, or to destroy it from the ground.
Using money smartly can empower your experiences incredibly. Just follow these tips:
- Have a budget (and follow it);
- Establish an emergency fund;
- Spend less than you make;
- Get out of debt as soon as you can;
- Other than mortgage, never go into debt again;
- Invest in your future self by saving for retirement;
- Most purchases are unreasonable if you’re in debt;
- Teach kids about saving and giving when they’re young;
- You can’t buy a meaningful life, you can only live it.
Relationship 6: Creativity
We are all creators. Creating things is what fuels our passion. Without passion we’re empty flesh-and-bones vessels floating around the world.
But, in order for us to cultivate our creativity and our productivity, we must remove everything that distract us and become more focused on our stuff.
This section is all about focusing on what matters. Stop being just busy and start being focused.
“Doing less is more productive because you’re concentrating on the work you actually want to be doing”.
Seeing that your productivity reaches new levels is a power motivator. Learning how to achieve that consistently is even more motivational.
- Find your creativity.
- Concentrate your creativity.
- Cultivate your creativity.
- Remove your distractions.
- Practice your creativity.
Relationship 7: People
To wrap up the book, Josh and Ryan added a final section intended to makes us explore the relationships we hold with other people.
Cultivating meaningful relationships with others and pruning the toxic ones, make our life and other people’s life much pleasant. However, before doing that we must recognize our own issues and be honest to ourselves.
The 8 elements of great relationships are:
- Love;
- Trust;
- Honesty;
- Caring;
- Support;
- Attention;
- Authenticity;
- Understanding.
My final thoughts
This is a wonderful book that provide practical ways to simplify our lives. In combination with “Atomic Habits”, these two light up the path to living meaningful lives, power up our creative processes, increase our productivity, and be nicer people.
Minimalism has caught me. It took me a full month reading the book but not because I didn’t find it interesting, but because I felt many times like leaving the book aside and starting taking things out from my house.
Other than the book, I watch the two movies the Minimalists have on Netflix, which I also strongly recommend:
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Please, share your comments!
