Cleaning your house everyday.
Getting your car serviced once a year.
Re-painting your house every couple of years.
We need to do these things in order to ensure that they don't degrade enough to make the car unusable or the house uninhabitable. We are not making our house or our car any better by doing this maintenance work. But, we do it just to keep it the way it is - functional.
Many years ago now, back when I had just started my MBA, I made a decision. I decided that nothing I would do from then on would be unsustainable. For instance, if I had to spend a night without sleep in order to study for an exam or complete an assignment before a deadline, I wouldn't do it as it is not something I could replicate at a regular frequency. I would only do things that I could incorporate into my regular routines and would have no special days. No exceptions.
And I have extended that same philosophy into the goals I set for myself, the things I buy and the things I do.
Minimalism is so attractive an idea for me because of the maintenance work involved. The less things I have, the less things I have to maintain and the less time I have to spend maintaining things. And the more time I free up from maintaining things, the more time I have to spend pursuing my goals. The more time I can spend pursuing my goals, the more ambitious I can be.
Thus, minimalism can become the foundation of success in our lives.
Of course, minimalism doesn't cause success. I can just as well choose to spend the extra time that I've freed up for myself watching Netflix or reading crime thrillers. But, that will get me nowhere.
However, if I spend a lot of time in maintenance work trying to keep things, relationships, and practices the way they are, I will have little time to pursue ambitious goals.
It is a trade-off decision. So, choose wisely.
Getting your car serviced once a year.
Re-painting your house every couple of years.
We need to do these things in order to ensure that they don't degrade enough to make the car unusable or the house uninhabitable. We are not making our house or our car any better by doing this maintenance work. But, we do it just to keep it the way it is - functional.
Many years ago now, back when I had just started my MBA, I made a decision. I decided that nothing I would do from then on would be unsustainable. For instance, if I had to spend a night without sleep in order to study for an exam or complete an assignment before a deadline, I wouldn't do it as it is not something I could replicate at a regular frequency. I would only do things that I could incorporate into my regular routines and would have no special days. No exceptions.
And I have extended that same philosophy into the goals I set for myself, the things I buy and the things I do.
Minimalism is so attractive an idea for me because of the maintenance work involved. The less things I have, the less things I have to maintain and the less time I have to spend maintaining things. And the more time I free up from maintaining things, the more time I have to spend pursuing my goals. The more time I can spend pursuing my goals, the more ambitious I can be.
Thus, minimalism can become the foundation of success in our lives.
Of course, minimalism doesn't cause success. I can just as well choose to spend the extra time that I've freed up for myself watching Netflix or reading crime thrillers. But, that will get me nowhere.
However, if I spend a lot of time in maintenance work trying to keep things, relationships, and practices the way they are, I will have little time to pursue ambitious goals.
It is a trade-off decision. So, choose wisely.
CONVERSATION