Today we are discussing “Minimalism: A meaningful life” by Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus.
Check out the book on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com.au/Minimalism-Meaningful-Joshua-Fields-Millburn-ebook/dp/B006I7DDPI
They have a website and podcast available at: https://www.theminimalists.com/
And if you are looking for an easy to digest 98 minute film, check out: https://www.netflix.com/title/81074662
How does minimalism lead to self-discipline?
Quite simply, by reducing all of the crap and distraction in your life, and mindfully focusing on the things that really truly matter – then not only will you be living a more fulfilling and meaningful life, you will also be clearing a pathway for self-discipline and efficiency in your life… or that is the hypothesis anyhow.
Highlights of the book:
The book, minimalism covers 5 core areas to focus on in order to live a meaningul life through the mindful practice of minimalism as follows:
- Health;
- Relationships;
- Passion (or Purpose);
- Growth; and
- Contribution.
Health is an obvious one for any one on a self-discipline journey. Healthy body = healthy mind. Effectively eating healthier, exercising regularly and self-care are the core principles promoted in this section (with a disclaimer by the authors noting they in no way purport to be any kind of medical practitioner or hold any qualifications of the sort). Nice one.
Relationships is the section that particularly appealed to me. Joshua and Ryan put forward the importance of having healthy, flourishing, connected relationships with your loved ones.
Applying principles of minimalism in this area – they suggest writing a list of all the people you interact with in your life. Then categorise each person into primary, secondary or peripheral. Once you have categorised each person, reflect on whether that person has a positive, negative or nuetral impact on your life. With the peripheral connections, contemplate, do you wish to move or grow any of these connections into secondary relationships? If so, what do you need to do… the way they word it is “what must you do” to grow these connections in to secondary connections. Finally, in this exercise, reflect on the time you spend with each of those connections. The authors propose you should be investing the majority of your time and energy into your primary relationships.
Where are you investing your energy?
In the next part of the relationships exercise- the authors talk about growth in relationships and the three ways to increase relationship growth:
- Make new amazing connections and relationships with people;
- Improve the current relationships you have with people through investing and connecting in them; or
- Change yourself so that you become the person your desired friends want to be with.
How must you change to attract the friends you want?
This is the crux of this chapter that really appealed to me personally. Creating a vision board for your ideal friends. Who is your tribe? What are their desires? their wants? Their needs? How do they make you feel? what do you do together? Where do these friends hang out and what are their interests?
I personally have never made a vision board for an ideal friend, but for some reason absolutely love the idea. So this week, my mission is to embrace the friend vision board and see what appears on the other side. Importantly, once you have reflected on this (ie. your ideal friend), ask yourself, am I the person that friend wants to be around? and if not, what must I change to be that person?
Deep.
Passion is the third core principle the authors focus on. Without passion/or purpose, what is driving your life? What is driving you to greatness?
In this section they discuss the road blocks that prevent people from finding their true passion or purpose in life as follows:
Anchor of Identity
Anchor of Career
Anchor of Status
Anchor of Money
The authors suggest, if we get too caught up on caring about how we appear, identifying with our career, status or thinking we need a certain amount of money before we can express our passions or find our purpose, we may never find our purpose and instead end up living a life based on what we think other people expect of us, rather than listening to the inner driving force within.
They propose that people focus less on “what do you do?” implying, what is your career when commencing a conversation, and focus more on exploring peoples passions, hobbies, desires, purpose in life. The things that really matter and speak to each of our hearts and souls.
Finally, the book briefly covers growth and contribution.
With regard to growth their approach is in relation to taking small, incremental, consistent steps daily until those tiny steps flow into a giant leap… and with regard to contribution, being part of something bigger than ourselves is an important part of living a meaningful life. If you don’t know where to start volunteer with a local community organisation.
I love this -as I have found the more you appreciate or give to others, the more you live in a space of gratitude in your life, which quite frankly, makes everything better in life.
