do you want to relieve stress and have fun?
do you want to live a meaningful life?
It seems to be a brainwashing speech of some mysterious organization, or a propaganda language of chicken soup and success, but in fact, it comes from a minimalist life.
Based on my initial understanding of minimalist design, when I saw this term, I had this understanding of minimalism in life: he or she may be single, or married and have no children, with a simple life circle, no car, no house, no TV … and nothing, so they can achieve minimalism.
out of curiosity, Zhihu looked up "what is a minimalist life" and saw the answer: the concept of minimalist lifestyle may be completely unheard of by most people. However, in the United States, books, blogs and articles about minimalist lifestyle have almost reached the point of "flooding". This should be related to the relatively developed economy and commercial market of the US imperialists for a long time. Every day, Americans are exposed to overwhelming advertisements and listen to people telling you to buy this and that. After a long time, they will be rebellious (mistaken) ... And then again, they really need this, because there are not so many junk things in the average American family ... And it needs to be explained that minimalism refers to lifestyle, which has nothing to do with minimalism in design, art and philosophy. (from Kent Zeng, Ph.D. in engineering)
Then the book Minimalism clearly tells me that minimalism is not deprivation, and people don't want to live a life with nothing in the name of minimalism.
since the author has said so, it is better to find some information about minimalists, see who they are, and then discuss minimalism.
Colin Wright (/), a 32-year-old writer and international speaker, hosted a podcast called Let's Know Things and founded a publishing house called Asymmetric Publishing House with friends (one of them is Ryan, one of the authors of Minimalism).
Colin Wright's parents live in central Missouri, and three brothers and sisters are scattered all over the United States. Colin Wright has been traveling around the world since 29, moving to a new country every four months or so. New Zealand, Thailand, Iceland, India, Romania, the Czech Republic and the Philippines ... He has visited about 6 countries. When he travels, he loves making friends and dating, and he often meets people who are really amazing and inspiring in his life.
By the way, every trip he made was decided by the readers' votes.
Colin Wright is currently in Memphis, Tennessee, studying cooking and playing the piano. He has recently finished a new book and is outlining another.
Leo Barbetta, who lives in Guam and has six children, is also a writer and a vegetarian. He set up a blog named "Zen Habits" to faithfully record how he used his little strength to achieve his self-goal, health and a simple and happy life. In less than half a year, "Zen Habit" has become the top 5 popular blogs in the world, with more than 2, subscribers and an average monthly click rate of over 1,36,. His book has also been published, and the Chinese version is called "Less Power".
Joshua? Becker is the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist website. He gradually turned to minimalism after he missed playing time with his youngest son because he tidied up the messy garage.
In this way, minimalists don't live a life with nothing. On the contrary, their lives are interesting and enviable.
The authors of Minimalism, Joshua (not Joshua above) and Ryan, just want people to live meaningful lives, so they wrote this book of suggestions. They believe that minimalism is an effective way to find a meaningful life.
The mainstream lifestyle teaches us that we will have a happy life if we have more fashionable clothes, live in a bigger house, buy a bigger TV and use more beautiful things. However, after a short period of excitement, we still get high debts and crowded space. Have we become happier? This is a problem.
Ms. Eiko Yamashita of Japan once published a book that was popular in Asia, called Breaking Up. She warned people that buying more storage boxes won't make your space tidy. The so-called separation means cutting off the chance of unwanted things entering life, abandoning things that you have put away for a long time but don't use, staying away from the obsession with things and enjoying free space. Breaking up was later applied to interpersonal relationships.
to some extent, what Ms. Yamashita advocates is also a minimalist life-to clean up the deposits in your life and discover what you cherish.
Joshua and Ryan used to be executives with annual salary of six figures. They owned a lot, and they liked luxury houses, vacations and luxury cars ... Similarly, they were deeply in debt. By chance, they saw Colin's story. They find that what they want won't make them happy, so they want to know clearly what is blocking happiness.
Within a week, the two of them recorded what might be "anchors" (the first step to solve the problem is to recognize the problem). As time goes by, many anchors will appear on the list. The next step is to clarify the key points and divide the "anchors" into two categories, the main anchors and the secondary anchors. The main anchors are things that obviously hinder freedom, including houses and loans, certain interpersonal relationships, large bills and debts, and the secondary anchors occupy our daily life, such as clothes we don't wear, internet phone bills, small debts, daily driving time and so on. They try to get rid of the above anchor for a period of time, and finally get back a lot of their time.
or you can try to pack a party, which is very suitable for a couple who have just moved to a new house and can help you clean up things around you. Pretend that you are moving, ask your friends to help you pack things, large pieces of unused furniture, cover them with cloth, and take out the materials you need in the next week in the packing box. After a week, you will find that most things are still in the box. Those things that are not used can be donated and given away.
Through continuous practice, Joshua and Ryan come to the conclusion that minimalism is a tool that enables you to get rid of redundant food and pay more attention to the most basic aspects of life, thus achieving happiness, satisfaction and freedom.
once many unimportant things are cleared away, people will turn to the five most important aspects in life: health, interpersonal relationship, enthusiasm, growth and dedication.
Health is the most important of the five values. Imagine that you won the lottery and have an ideal partner and house, but the doctor told you that you only have one month to live. Without health, even the simplest happiness in life cannot be enjoyed.
What needs to be explained here is that health is a relative definition, not criticizing patients, but that even patients or people with physical disabilities hope to achieve his or her best physical condition. We want to have the best health for ourselves.
health itself is not a destination, but a means of transportation to take you there.
two parts of a healthy life: diet and exercise. That is, what we eat into the body and what we do to the body. Please be sure to know what your body has ingested.
For daily exercise, it is better to exercise than not to exercise at all, and there is no problem if you only do what you like.
the second value is interpersonal relationship.
We all want to be loved and share our lives with others. Therefore, interpersonal relationship plays an important role in our life.
The authors suggest that we should focus on the minimalism of interpersonal relationships from three aspects: finding excellent interpersonal relationships, transforming existing interpersonal relationships and changing ourselves.
Take a serious look at the existing interpersonal relationships. Do they make you happy? Do they support you? Do they help you grow up? Come on, try to make a list: the first column is the names, such as people you frequent, your family, relatives, teachers, classmates, colleagues and so on. The second column is the identification item. Choose one of the three contents: primary, secondary and peripheral, and fill it behind everyone. The third column is the influence, positive, negative and neutral, choose one from three.
when you have finished listing and checked the form, please answer: how many interpersonal relationships do you have, why are there so many (so few), what are the primary, secondary and peripheral ratios, and what are the positive, negative and neutral ratios?
once you answer this question, you will understand where your time has been spent. take some time, think about these relationships and make a choice: who will be gradually eliminated and who will be promoted to primary or secondary relationships.
in interpersonal relationships, what people can do is to change themselves, not others. When you are looking for new relationships or improving existing ones, think about what you want. Don't underestimate this problem, it is crucial.
Write down what you want. What are their beliefs, values, wishes and interests? What is absolutely not allowed in communication? What kind of person must you become in order to attract such people?
once you have determined what you want and what you absolutely don't want, you must figure out what changes you must make to attract such people to become your friends, lovers or the most sought-after relationship.
after writing these answers, remember to take them out every day.
Joshua and Ryan first embarked on the road of minimalism through Colin, and now they are very friendly friends.
enthusiasm is a very important part of the five values. If you lack enthusiasm in your life, you won't feel full, which is the root of many people's emptiness. Can enthusiasm be cultivated? The answer is yes. After all, this is also one of the important purposes for us to choose a minimalist lifestyle.
Back to the real world, let's take a look at people's day. No matter what you do, how much you like your job, and what you call it. Most people will call their occupation by one of their occupation, career or mission. Which one are you?
if all you do every day is a job, it will be difficult for you to feel satisfied and fulfilled at work. So, we should find our own business, right?
actually, if you want to find the meaning of life, owning a career is actually a dangerous thing. That's because people spend too much time on their careers, and resume their identity and social status on the basis of their careers.
just imagine that someone you just met will ask you a mindless question like "How are you recently?"-"What do you do?" On the surface, the problem of doing things is simple, but the implication is not the case.
although the question "what do you do" refers to a very broad scope and can include thousands of things, the question implied in this sentence is "what do you do for a living" or "where do you work", which is very different from the question "what do you do" itself. This "simple" question just says that I will judge you by the way you earn money and assign you a specific social status according to your occupation.
People are frequently asked to answer this question, so they are rooted in their own career: they regard their career as their core identity, and thus the social value given to their career is far beyond reality. Once someone takes a career as his position, it is difficult for him to get rid of it, even if he hates it.
(There are some doubts here, I think the author may mean work)
However, there are actually other ways to answer "What do you do?" For example, let the questioner realize that his question has never been used, and answer with another question: "That's a very broad question. What do you want to ask?" "Maybe we can talk over coffee." Or answer what you love, "I love writing (or climbing mountains), which turns the topic into what you are passionate about.
This kind of answer will immediately make the other person rethink the question, and at the same time help you remember that your identity is far more than your career. You are a mother/father, an interesting person, a growing person and an enthusiastic person. Your career does not represent your identity.
as we said at the beginning, we are not satisfied with our career, but turn to the mainstream life concept of this society. We buy a lot of things, spend too much money, become moonlight people, and want to buy happiness in every big shopping mall and every luxurious vacation that our society can find. We comfort ourselves with a temporary indulgence, but this happiness can't last long after paying the bill.
at this time, it should be noted that it does not mean that "working for the enterprise is an unfortunate bad thing", nor does it mean that people "should" be enthusiastic about something, or follow some kind of "call."
You can be interested in anything, and any industry can be your mission. Some things seem worthless to some people, while others are extremely eager.
in fact, in most cases, people who love their work and those who have no enthusiasm for their work are of the same kind. They also don't want to leave the bed and deal with new projects. But at some point, they will jump out of bed, excited and inspired by their mission.
however, there are two significant differences between them.
First of all, it is obvious that passionate people know what they love. No one is only interested in one thing. Enthusiastic people know what they love most and what they still love. They know what makes them excited and energetic and what makes them reach the peak.
secondly, enthusiasm will lead to more enthusiasm. Enthusiastic people turn to what they love when they are listless, and make up more enthusiasm for themselves. This is very important to find your mission and find out what you love.
it is difficult to find enthusiasm, and we are easily trapped in our daily work. There are four main shackles in our life that prevent us from finding enthusiasm. They are status, status, certainty and money.
who are you and have you thought about this question? On the surface, this question is very simple, but in fact it is a difficult question to answer.
once your occupation is recognized as the answer to the question "who are you?", it is difficult for you to do anything else. This is one of the reasons why many people always stay in the same industry when changing jobs. People are limited by the idea that occupation is equivalent to identity, so it is difficult to realize that they are far more than that and what kind of people they are-in fact, they are excellent in many aspects.
what qualities do you have that can be used to establish your identity? Once you get rid of the shackles of identity, you can clear your way and get rid of other shackles.
As people's positions rise, their terms of office lengthen, and they become more and more familiar with and comfortable with their work and career, it is easy to produce a strange