Tag Archives: minimalism

A Small Life Book Club: Essentialism

essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less

I’m a little late too the Book Club game this month. I apologize if you were waiting for the riveting discussion that I’m sure will ensue 🙂 I just had a lot going on and I know not all of it was essential. Ha-ha.

Anyway, this month I listened to the audiobook version of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*. The author, Greg McKeown, has a lovely voice and if anything, listening to the audiobook favorably influenced my opinion of the book. That hasn’t always been the case when I listened to audiobooks in the past. See: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this book. Most people chase everything instead of chasing the right things. The right things are the things in your life and career that will make the most impact. Unfortunately most of the tasks that we do are unimportant. It’s answering email. It’s picking up the dry cleaning. It’s filling out that form for the 5th time because someone lost it again…

I know on an everyday basis that most of the work tasks and many of the life tasks that I do are nonessential. I know that checking my email 394834923293 times a day doesn’t contribute to my productivity. I know that doing the dishes isn’t going to contribute to my big life goals. I also know that if I don’t do it, no one else will. Which leads me to my biggest problem with the book. I think that the principles are very difficult to apply to government, service or “worker-bee” jobs. It would be easy to say “no” to pursuing menial tasks if I was higher up the food chain. Unfortunately, much of my job is filling out forms and filling up the printer’s paper tray. Even if I did advocate for essentialism, I don’t think I would ever see an institutional change. It’s sad, but true.

I also think that as a person with a limited income, essentialism is difficult to apply to my personal life. Yes, I want to work on writing a book, but I can’t afford to pay someone to do my laundry, clean my house and cook my meals. That has to be done on an every day basis by me.

Although some of the principles of the book are going to be extremely difficult to implement, since reading this book, I have begun to question the nonessential things I can control. Do I really need a Facebook? No. And as soon as I download all of my pictures, I plan to get rid of it. I also reinstalled Rescue Time to keep me off of distracting sites. And I’ve taken off my email’s sound alert, so I don’t run to my email each time I hear the new mail ping. These little things have been extremely helpful, but I’ve yet to free up large chunks of time for essential projects.

Have you read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*? What did you think? How have you limited nonessential things in your life to make space for the important stuff? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

P.S. July’s pick will be Scarcity: Why having too little means so much*. Feel free to leave suggestions for future books in the comments!

*Affiliate links.

Tuesday Thoughts: The Simplest Things Are Often The Truest

The simplest things are often the truest.

“The simplest things are often the truest.” Happy Tuesday!

love,
melanie

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

It doesn’t matter if your house, garage or list of accolades are expanding. What matters is that your courage, and in turn, your life are expanding.

Happy Tuesday!

love,
melanie

Tuesday Thoughts: Ridiculous

ridiculous

“I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous.”

Most stuff we have isn’t stuff we need. It’s ridiculous stuff that we thought we wanted for a fleeting moment and then never used again. It’s ridiculous stuff that we got as a gift and didn’t want to throw away. It’s ridiculous new stuff that we thought we needed when the old would’ve done just fine. There’s enough ridiculous in our lives without buying more.

love,
melanie

A Small Life Book Club: May’s Pick

essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less

This month I’m going to be reading Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less* by Greg McKeown. Although I would consider myself a minimalist in terms of “things,” I often take on too many hobbies, tasks, chores, projects and just extra work. I’m incredibly interested in how to “get the right things done” instead of trying to get everything done. And this book promises to show me how. I’ll be discussing the book on June 1st and I hope you’ll join along.

Happy reading!

love,
melanie

*Affiliate link

A Small Life Book Club: The Power of Less Discussion

The Power of Less Book

Welcome to book club! Let’s settle in with a glass of wine (it’s Friday, right?!) and get to chatting! This month we read, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life* by Leo Babauta. Leo is of Zen Habits fame and this is one of many books and articles that he has written.

Full disclosure: I again, listened to this book via Audible*. This time I didn’t mind the speaker’s voice so I don’t think that swayed my feelings towards the book, but I do think at times, I missed things because I’m not a naturally audible learner.

What I did grasp from the book were a few key concepts that, although very basic, have been helpful for me in achieving goals in the past. Although, when Leo listed how many goals he has achieved in the beginning of the book using these methods, I felt like I have achieved NOTHING. He’s written books, run marathons, grown his blog to hundreds of thousands of readers and so much more.  He also has 6 kids and gets up at 4:30 am everyday. Crazy pants. Anyway, I think he really has something with the 3 “Most Important Tasks” (MITs) concept. I write down the 3 most important things that I have to do each day in my planner and my “MITS” always get done.

I also really liked his suggestion to start (almost comically) small when achieving goals. If you want to exercise everyday, start exercising for 5 minutes a day. It’s more important to establish the habit first than actually achieve results. I know that I would have trouble with this suggestion. I’m an over-achiever, but I’m going to try it with my next big goal.

Leo also suggests just pursuing one goal at a time. This would be the hardest suggestion for me to follow. I want to achieve so many things and I don’t want to wait an entire year to start the next goal. I want to both exercise every day and grow my blog. I don’t know if both would be possible by his standards.

I did like that his methods are easy to understand. Nothing is revolutionary, but nothing seems impossible either.

Did you read The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life?* Let’s chat in the comments

love,
melanie

*Affiliate links.

Tuesday Thoughts: Success

successI often have trouble defining myself as “successful.” I see other people my own age traveling the world, scrambling up the corporate ladder, opening their own businesses and living their dreams. I know that I shouldn’t compare myself to them, but I do. It’s so easy to get caught up in the usual standard for success– big house, nice car, extravagant vacations, etc. Instead, I’m trying to focus on defining success in terms of happiness. I have a happy marriage, the sweetest dog and a family that loves me. I’m still working on wanting just what I have, but I know that I have everything I truly need.

love,
melanie

 

 

Tuesday Thoughts: Too Many People

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like."

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”

Don’t keep up with the Joneses. You don’t even like them. It’s time to impress yourself.

love,
melanie

Houseless, not Homeless

Houseless not homelessLast week we had a funny thing happen. Someone that George had known from the church he went to when he was growing up dropped off a card full of cash at our house! Apparently they had heard that George was unemployed (he’s not) and that we were having a hard time (we’re not). But they also had driven by and saw the trailer, so they assumed all of that information was correct. It was a super sweet gesture and I was certainly happy to receive the gift, but we are not “in need.” We’ve returned the money and I thought it might be nice to share the letter that I attached to the money. The long of the short of it is: We consider ourselves to be houseless, not homeless.

Dear _______________,

Thank you so much for your generous gift. It is comforting to know that in a time of need, neighbors, friends and strangers will be there for you. I am writing to you today because this is not our time of need and we cannot accept your gift. Please let me explain.

Almost two years ago, George and I were at a crossroads. I had a new job opportunity in the area. Unfortunately, the job requires me to work evenings. I knew with both of us working “regular jobs,” we would rarely get to see each other. At the same time, George was working as a teacher by day and illustrating by night. Together we made the decision that George should quit his teaching job to pursue his art full-time. In order to get George’s business off the ground, we knew that we would have to make some sacrifices. I make a decent wage at my job, but we knew that it would be difficult to pay rent or buy a house and establish a small business at the same time. Therefore, we decided to live a simpler, smaller life. It is the best decision we have ever made. I know it may look strange to others, but our lifestyle was and is our choice. We consider ourselves very lucky. Neither George nor I have ever known hunger and this lifestyle has given us the ability to save money to pursue our dreams.

I cannot thank you enough for your concern and your gift. Knowing that people care about us is a gift in and of itself.

Thank you,
Melanie and George

Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If, then, your eye is simple, your whole body will be bright.”

Have anyone ever thought you were in need due to your lifestyle choices? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

love,
melanie

Tuesday Thoughts: Move In The Opposite Direction

opposite direction

More than anything else, changing your life is about courage. Do you have enough courage to defy societal norms, to “rage against the machine,” to live with less and to move in the opposite direction? Most people don’t have that kind of courage. But you aren’t most people.

Let’s go against the grain.

love,
melanie

P.S. Don’t forget tomorrow we’ll be discussing The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.