“The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore, to use it, not to misuse it.” —Plutarch
“I could never become a minimalist.”
This is a phrase I have heard countless times since starting this blog.
Every time, two thoughts come to mind. First, I wonder what misconception they have about minimalism that would make it seem so difficult. But second, more importantly, I think to myself, “But you already are a minimalist—you just don’t know it yet.“
The truth is, we’re all minimizing something in our lives, whether we realize it or not. And once we understand that fact, everything about us begins to change.
Every day, we make choices about where we spend our time, money, energy, and attention. By definition, these resources are limited. Even if we were the richest man or woman on earth, there is still only a finite amount of money and time available to us. It is impossible to do or have everything.
All of life is a trade. Every minute of every day, we trade for something. And if we’re not minimizing our possessions, we’re minimizing something else.
When I first embraced minimalism, I thought I was just motivated to declutter our home so I could spend more time with my kids. But I quickly realized minimalism was about more than that.
Minimalism was about finding more intentionality with my resources.
It wasn’t just about removing things from my home. It was about making better choices with my life.
When we began to own less, we found more time for the things we love. More energy for pursuits that matter. More focus for what brings real meaning. More money for service and generosity. We even found more opportunity to focus on self-growth and personal development.
When we began minimizing possessions, we began maximizing more important things.
That is always the case!
We are all trading something every day. We are spending money on something, we are spending time somewhere, we are focusing our energy and affections in a specific direction.
And if we’re busy chasing and accumulating physical possessions we don’t need, we’re minimizing resources that could be spent elsewhere. But most of the time, we don’t even realize it.
There is a direct correlation between the increase in our physical possessions and the decrease in our resources to be spent elsewhere.
Make no mistake, everybody is living a version of minimalism. The question is, are we minimizing the right things?