Blick über den Tellerrand #10
Relax! What’s the point of creating bulk categories of Stuff or denying the ownership of something that you’re living with and using just to get your list of possessions down to 100 things? There’s no god of minimalism poised to canonize you if you squeeze your list of possessions down to some arbitrarily decided number. How many things you own will depend on what kind of life you live, where, and with whom. If you’re a painter, for example, you probably own more than 100 items just in paint, brushes, canvases, and cleaning supplies alone. Does that mean you can’t be minimalist? Of course not. Just purchase and store the minimum art supplies necessary to do your job, a number that will vary depending on your approach, expertise, and output.
(Dru Pagliassotti: Why I’m Wary of 100-Thing Minimalism)
Excess consumption is practically an American religion. But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows, the things we accumulate can become oppressive. With all this stuff piling up and never quite getting put away, we’re no longer huddled masses yearning to breathe free; we’re huddled masses yearning to free up space on a countertop. Which is why people are so intrigued by the 100 Thing Challenge, a grass-roots movement in which otherwise seemingly normal folks are pledging to whittle down their possessions to a mere 100 items.
(Time Magazine: How to Live with Just 100 Things)
Compared to other guys, my body is very skinny. It has been that way since I was a little kid. My friends used to tease me because of it. I laughed at their jokes, but inside I always felt horrible. I felt like there was something wrong with me because I was different. As I got older I started going to the gym so I could gain weight. Progress was slow since my body naturally leans towards the skinnier side. But slowly I began seeing results in the size of my muscles. This is, however, where the results ended. I didn’t really get happier with my body at all, which was the main purpose of the training anyways. I still felt skinny and there was always something in my body that wasn’t quite right yet. At that point I realized that I was participating in a game that I couldn’t win. My body wasn’t the problem. The problem was what my mind was telling me about my body.
(Tiny Buddha: Be Stress-Free: Eliminate 5 Common, Unnecessary Stressors)
For most people in the developed world, stuff is everything. They work long hours, to buy mountains of clothes, furniture, gadgets. Nothing ever satisfies, you must have multiple sets of china for different occasions, a better car or bigger house. Then they work long hours on jobs they hate, hoping to pay for it all, and still have mountains of debt. Is it just me, or is there something fundamentally wrong with this picture? (…) Stripping away possessions like this forces you to focus on your values. For many people this brings about a realization that they have no values, that they are wasting there lives with the temporary. Shopping, TV and such like. When your interests exist beyond this noise layer, when you know what you’re aiming to achieve, issues of money and weather you have the latest whatever cease to surface in the mind. If you stripped away your own possessions, what remains? Here is where you may find lasting happiness.
(Robert Hickman: Simple living and life beyond money)
We even find “introverts” in the animal kingdom, where 15 percent to 20 percent of many species are watchful, slow-to-warm-up types who stick to the sidelines (sometimes called “sitters”) while the other 80 percent are “rovers” who sally forth without paying much attention to their surroundings. Sitters and rovers favor different survival strategies, which could be summed up as the sitter’s “Look before you leap” versus the rover’s inclination to “Just do it!” Each strategy reaps different rewards.
(Susan Cain: Is Shyness an Evolutionary Tactic?)
Looking back, I feel grateful that I had to overcome what I did. For a decade or so I considered myself cursed, but now I look at my “disability” as a gift. Without it, I may never have had reason to dig deep and discover what I’m capable of when I put my mind to something. Not many people believe they can live their dreams, but I know I can. I’m one of the lucky few. (…) A couple of years ago, I was still terrified that someone might find out about my secret. I was still fearful of being ridiculed. Now I don’t really care who knows. It’s not a big deal anymore. In fact, it’s a relief to let go and tell everyone. You all know me that much better now. I’m no longer hiding a part of me. It feels good to finally be myself.
(Niall Doherty: My biggest secret)
How can we shift our thinking, and approach new responsibilities and challenges with more confidence and energy? The answer is simple, though perhaps a little surprising: Give yourself permission to screw-up. Start any new project by saying “I’m not going to be good at this right away, I’m going to make mistakes, and that’s okay.”
(Psychology Today: Why Letting Yourself Make Mistakes Means Making Fewer of Them)
Relationships are easy. I understand that making time for someone else or giving up some of the things you love or getting your own way create some struggles in life – but once again, relationships are easy. Perhaps what people who believe relationships are hard work are actually referring to the difficulty of interacting and living with an immature, childish human. Why would it be hard work to be in relationship with a mature, caring grown up?
(Corey Allan: Relationships are easy)
It was always Schwermer’s belief that the homeless didn’t need money to re-enter society: instead they should be able to empower themselves by making themselves useful, despite debts, destitution or joblessness. “I’ve always believed that even if you have nothing, you are worth a lot. Everyone has a place in this world.”
(Times Online: Living without money)
Expectations have been inflated to such an extent that people think the perfect choice exists, argues Renata Salecl in her book “Choice”. Consider seduction. Bookshops are crowded with self-help guides and self-improvement manuals with titles such as “How to Choose & Keep Your Partner” or “Love is a Choice”. Internet dating sites promise to find the perfect match with just a few clicks of the mouse. This nourishes the hope of making the ideal choice, she says, as well as the fanciful idea that there are “quick, rational solutions to the complicated question of seduction”.
(The Economist: The tyranny of choice)
Facebook is starting to feel like a black hole to me. I’m starting to not enjoy it for its surface-level form of communication, if you can even call it that. ‘Likes’ do not carry any real value, except for social proof here and there. I cannot take the ‘Like’ with me, I cannot barter with it, I cannot hold it in my arms. It doesn’t care about me. Why should I care about it? An average Facebook user spends 23 continuous hours on Facebook a month. Disgusting. This is not counting those FB addicts.
(Nina Yau: Elimination of Inundation)