Blick über den Tellerrand #11
As long as you’re able to keep your living costs low—if you can live on $1,000 a months, or better yet, $700 a month—you don’t need to do anything for anyone, you can just do the occasional little odd-job, and say no to the rest. I really adopted that philosophy, when I was 22. I actually quit my job at Warner Brothers, and that’s the last time I’ve ever had a job. Ever since then, I’ve just found ways of keeping my life very cheap, saying “no” to the whole advertising industry’s desire to make you want things. (…) As long as I was making $1,000 a month with it, I was fine. As CDBaby grew to the point where it was making $20,000 a day, of course then, anybody who comes along saying, “You have to meet these demands if you want to work with us,” I was like, “Well, no. I don’t need you. I don’t need anything beyond this level. I can just say no to all of it.”
(Michael Ellsberg: One of the Best Hours You’ll Ever Spend)
What’s a life without expectations like? It means you accept reality as it is, and people as they are, without expectations, without trying to force people into the containers you have for them, seeing things as they are. It’s a life where you don’t need to be disappointed or frustrated or angry — or if you are, you accept it, and then let it go.
(Leo Babauta: Toss Your Expectations Into the Ocean)
Loslassen kann eine tolle Befreiung sein und wenn Du es tust, wirst Du Dich befreit und leicht fühlen. Aber Dir selbst zu erlauben loszulassen ist eine emotionale Sache und wie mit allem was emotional ist, ist es nicht immer einfach.
(Leo Babauta: Wie man Besitz loslassen kann — übersetzt von Thomas Bagusche)
If you are serious about loving yourself, chances are it will take a bit more than treating yourself to a new piece of clothing, taking a luxurious bath, or repeating a few affirmations now and then. It means having the courage to peel back layers of pain and sadness. (…) Loving ourselves in a healthy way is not the same as being egotistical or narcissistic, which are characterized by thinking only – or mostly – of your own self. The motivation in this practice is to unblock our spring of love for both ourselves and all others.
(Sandra Pawula: Are You Serious About Loving Yourself?)
Dump the stuff. Take a trip with friends, try a new restaurant in town – just make memories, not toys, and realize that society has been built around the idea of buying things in order to find happiness. You and I both know that isn’t true.
(Matt Madeiro: What Minimalism Means to Me)
(Hier gibt’s keinen Textauszug, weil ich keine eindeutige, prägnante Stelle finde, welche den Inhalt gut wiedergibt: Es geht um eine digitale Auszeit. Hier nur ein kurzer Gedanke, der mir gerade beim Lesen des verlinkten Artikels kam: Sind wir eigentlich “lebensunfähig” geworden? Oder anders ausgedrückt: Haben wir uns von den modernen Kommunikationsmitteln so sehr vereinnahmen lassen, dass wir uns in großen Teilen vom “echten” Leben – und was es uns an Erfahrungen und Sinneseindrücken bietet – entfremdet haben? Je mehr ich mich selbst davon “distanziere”, desto “krankhafter” wirkt dieses Verhalten auf mich.)
(Matt Madeiro: The Longest Day of My Life. Siehe auch: “Close the Laptop” 1, 2)
Whereas when we fill our house with stuff, we are doing it to stave off the void, to avoid having to fill it with experiences and silence.
(Leo Babauta: A Simple Strategy for Simplifying)
It is pretty funny to see peoples faces when I show them by bag and tell them it is everything I own. People either get happy or confused. The happy ones challenge themselves to think if they could do it (with wonder) and the confused tend to tell me that I shouldn’t travel to ‘dangerous’ countries like Colombia. One of my favorite interactions was at JFK. I talk to a lot more people now that I don’t have a job, it is just interesting to see what people are up to, where they are going, what they are living for. A middle aged guy said I was elitist for traveling. I was standing there with everything I owned on my shoulders, being called elitist.
(Scott Berkun: Interview: man who owns only 15 things)
Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. (…) In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have.
(On Startups: Anything You Want: 21 Inspiring Ideas From Derek Sivers)
Wenn du aufhörst, gegen das was ist anzukämpfen, wenn du die Dinge also einfach sein lassen kannst, dann wirst du anfangen zu entdecken, von wie vielen Wundern du tagtäglich umgeben bist. Etwas Ruhe, Gelassenheit und sanfte Beharrlichkeit öffnen mehr Türen zum Glück als alle Ungeduld, Getriebenheit und verbissene Anstrengung.
(think minimal: Wunder sein lassen — offline)