Blick über den Tellerrand #12
As minimalists, we often talk about paring down possessions, and sometimes paring down what we do. But what about what we think? (…) When we start out with something, we usually will try everything. But as we learn, we can pare down ideas that we find out don’t matter. We’re left with the essentials.
For every aspiring minimalist, the golden grail is One Bag Living. (…) Essentially, it means reducing your stuff down to a level that’s right for you, which all depends on what you do for a living, how much you can handle, where you want to go and what you need for your interests or job and so on – as long as you get everything down to only. what. you. need. (…) Remember that minimalism isn’t about depriving yourself of things that you want, it’s about freeing yourself from the clutches of consumerism so that you can get what you want.
(Jessica Dang: A beginner’s guide to one bag living)
In my opinion, the value of minimalism is dependent upon the context of the individual. For that reason I don’t think the absence of things necessarily constitutes a minimalist way of life; instead, the ability to understand the value of what is and is not important to you and your life will ultimately (hopefully) lead to a more “free” way of life. In other words, I don’t think a minimalist way of life is determine by the absence of “things” or “stuff” – instead, I think it depends on understanding them and their personal value – and then getting rid things that don’t have as much value or purpose.
(Jessica Dang: Can Minimalism be Measured?)
A lot of people in my field write about how to be successful, but I try to avoid it. It’s just not something I believe is important. Now, that might seem weird: what kind of loser doesn’t want to be successful? Me. I’m that loser.
(Leo Babauta: Why I don’t care about success)
Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them. So maybe what’s obvious to me is amazing to someone else? Are you holding back something that seems too obvious to share?
(Derek Sivers: Obvious to you. Amazing to others.)
The more I focus on living, the less it seems I need. What does it mean to focus on living? It’s a shift from caring about possessions and status and goals and beautiful things to caring about actual life. (…) When I focus on living, all those other fake needs become less important. Why do I need television when I can go outside and explore, or get active, or take a walk with a friend?
(Leo Babauta: Live more, need less)
Sometimes people think that living more simply and becoming a minimalist means giving everything away and living with nothing. What it really means is living with what is most important to you.
(Courtney Carver: Less Is Not Nothing)
If a certain person in your life is making you feel more negative than positive, more cynical than open, more of a worse person than the day before, you need to let this person go, for your sake and probably his/her’s too.
(Nina Yau: How to Know When It’s Time To Move On)
The act of acquiring more and more material possessions to be happy became a constant cycle – so much so that I couldn’t help but notice something was amiss. It felt strange to me – if these material possessions would supposedly make me happier, why did I have to continually get more of them to keep myself happy?
(Celestine Chua: Materialism Breeds Unhappiness)
Earlier this year I made the conscious decision to remove all internet service from my apartment. It ended up being the best decision I ever made with respect to productivity. (…) I was not content with my productivity. I felt I could do more meaningful things than spend time on the internet—meaningful things like write, exercise, contribute to others, establish connections with new people, and strengthen existing relationships.
(Anmerkung: Ein guter Artikel, der den Nagel auf den Kopf trifft, allerdings bin ich nicht einverstanden mit dem Vorschlag, das Internet stattdessen aufs Handy zu verlagern. Wo soll der Sinn sein? Wenn man sein Handy als Internetzugang nutzt, trägt man es dauernd mit sich rum und hat noch mehr Gelegenheit, seine Zeit damit zu vergeuden und ist noch nicht einmal außerhalb des Hauses/Büros wirklich gegenwärtig. Abgesehen davon, dass das Lesen und Schreiben auf diesen Geräten viel länger dauert. Einer meiner Mitschüler meinte, dass ihn an seinem iPhone stört, dass er durch die Internetanbindung dauernd in Versuchung gerät, sich ablenken zu lassen, statt sinnvolle Dinge zu tun.)
(Joshua Millburn: Killing the Internet at Home Is the Most Productive Thing I’ve Ever Done)
Es kamen einmal ein paar Suchende zu einem alten Zen-Meister. “Herr”, fragten sie, “was tust du, um glücklich und zufrieden zu sein? Wir wären auch gerne so glücklich wie du.” Der Alte antwortete mit mildem Lächeln: “Wenn ich liege, dann liege ich. Wenn ich aufstehe, dann stehe ich auf. Wenn ich gehe, dann gehe ich und wenn ich esse, dann esse ich.”
(Jan Karbowiak: Eine Zen-Meister-Geschichte — offline)
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)
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)
Blick über den Tellerrand #9
“I never again want to hear you say you’re not good at math,” I’d say. I’d ask them to switch to “I’m learning math” or “I’m getting better at math” or “I’m working on fractions.”
(Tiny Buddha: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Using Affirmations)
Wenn ich sage „Ich muss …“, dann spüre ich gleich die Hand im Nacken und in mir fängt es an zu kämpfen. Und dabei geht natürlich eine Menge Energie und Lebensfreude verloren. Wenn ich aber sage „Ich will das, weil …“ dann ist das ein Ausdruck von Stärke, mein Rücken wird gerade, mein Kinn hebt sich und ich habe das Gefühl, mein Leben unter Kontrolle zu haben.
(Ralf Senftleben: Vom Müssen zum entspannten Wollen)
These days, however, I live without goals, for the most part. It’s absolutely liberating, and contrary to what you might have been taught, it absolutely doesn’t mean you stop achieving things.
(Leo Babauta: The best goal is no goal – auch auf deutsch bei Thomas Bagusche)
If you don’t let go, you cannot receive. To receive, you must first give what you have. You must release everything you’re holding onto and allow that space to be replaced with the present. All that you need is right here. Everything that feels missing is just waiting for a place to go, a space to occupy, a home to hold it. Empty yourself. Let go.
One thing I’ve been noticing lately is how common it is for people (myself included) to label themselves by what they do or think or believe. It’s a very common practice, and it has been for some time. “He’s a socialist… she’s a teacher… I’m a minimalist…” Why do we give ourselves these labels? What are they for?
(Mike Donghia: Breaking free from self-imposed labels)
“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.” Eckhart Tolle explores how people attach their happiness to achievements in the future. A perfect relationship. A promotion. A salary increase. Since all of these things exist somewhere other than now–and they’re all impermanent, even if you do achieve them–this thinking creates pain on multiple levels.
(Lori Deschene: On Realizing You’re Complete)
We’re so surrounded by people who think like us, that it’s impossible to see that what we think are universal truths are just our local culture. We can’t see it until we get outside of it.
(Derek Sivers: Fish don’t know they’re in water)
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness, because it’s so socially repulsive, but it’s pretty much the same for all of us, deep down. (…) If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important – if you want to operate on your default-setting – then you, like me, will not consider possibilities that aren’t pointless and annoying. (…) If you worship money and things – if they are where you tap real meaning in life – then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.
(David Foster Wallace on Life and Work)
Minimalismus generiert nicht nur Seelenruhe und Platz für seine Träume und Leidenschaften, Minimalismus hat auch die Kraft, die Welt zu ändern. Wenn wir weniger, anders oder gar nichts kaufen bzw. uns bewusst sind, wie die Dinge hergestellt wurden (Stichwort “Nachhaltigkeit” und “fairer Handel”) hat das Einfluß auf die Umwelt und vor allem auf die Unternehmen. (…) Ich kann mit jedem Euro für oder gegen ein Produkt stimmen; ich kann mich entscheiden, ob ich Kaffee kaufe, der arme Bauern unterstützt oder ob mein Geld in den Topf eines Konzerns geht, damit das wirtschaftliche Wachstum schön brav weiter wächst (wohin soll es denn eigentlich wachsen?! und: reicht es nicht schön langsam? Wann haben Unternehmen genug?)
(Frau Ding Dong: Minimalismus ist auch Konsum)
If you asked Buddha how to obtain freedom from procrastination, he might say that you cannot desire freedom from procrastination because the desire would become the wall. You are the problem. Your ego takes up space. Don’t desire. Be desireless.
(Psychology Today: Would Buddha Make a To-Do List?)
What is it about clothes, and other possessions as well, that brings up a palpable sense of loss when we think of separating from them? They are not living. They do not love us back. So what causes this and how can we work through it so that we can reach the peace of a pared down life?
(Jennifer Skinner: Learning to Let Go)
Wir müssen damit aufhören, die Augen vor dem zu verschließen, was in unserem Auftrag passiert. Denn genau das ist es: der Kauf tierischer Produkte ist unser Auftrag an die entsprechende Industrie! Und diese Industrie tut Dinge, die wir ganz sicherlich alle nicht gut heißen würden, wenn wir von ihnen wüssten.
(Gunther Wegner: Fleisch – oder: warum mir die Lust darauf vergangen ist.)
Anything you buy, you must maintain. Each tool you use requires time to learn how to use, to install, to upgrade, or to fix. A purchase is just the beginning. You can expect to devote as much energy/money/time in maintaining a technology as you did in acquiring it.
(Kevin Kelly: Techno Life Skills)
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
(Kevin Kelly: 1,000 True Fans)
When we try to change or control others, this behavior almost always creates conflict and resentment, resulting in the loss of intimacy. And the fact that our intentions may be good doesn’t really matter. (…) I like to think of the intimacy dynamic in terms of trying to connect two magnets. If each magnet has one side infused with control and the opposite side with acceptance, placing the two acceptance sides together forges a very strong bond. However, when you place the two control sides together, it causes a forceful separation.
(Tiny Buddha: Lose Control to Find Closeness in Your Relationships)
You could say that perfectionism is a crime against humanity. Adaptability is the characteristic that enables the species to survive—and if there’s one thing perfectionism does, it rigidifies behavior. It constricts people just when the fast-moving world requires more flexibility and comfort with ambiguity than ever. It turns people into success slaves.
(Psychology Today: Pitfalls of Perfectionism)
Das Gefühl der Einsamkeit stellt sich ein, wenn man vor dem Alleinsein flüchtet. Wenn Du allein sein kannst – und wenn es nur für einen Augenblick ist – dann stirbt das Ego; das „Ich“ stirbt. Du löst Dich auf, es gibt dich nicht mehr. Das Ego kann nicht allein sein, es existiert nur in Bezug zu anderen. Durch Alleinsein wird das Ego gebrochen. Wenn Du also bereit bist, allein sein zu sein, standhaft allein zu sein, weder auszuweichen noch zurückzufallen, wenn du bereit bist, die Tatsache des Alleinseins hinzunehmen, wie sie ist – dann hast du eine ungeahnte Möglichkeit. Dann bist Du genau wie ein Samenkorn mit einer großen Wachstumsmöglichkeit. Vergiß aber nicht, daß das Samenkorn sich zerstören muß, damit die Pflanze wachsen kann. Das Ego ist das Samenkorn.
(Jan Karbowiak: Die innere Revolution und Minimalismus — offline)
Blick über den Tellerrand #8
We have hundreds of friends on Facebook, but hardly anybody knows the names of their neighbors. All the social online sites are great, no doubt about it. But does the exchange happening there provide the human warmth we so desperately need?
(Tiny Buddha: How to Expand Your Offline Social Network)
Then, when people are considering spending thousands of dollars on a giant TV, or going deeply in debt with a new car, a surprising squawk might shock them back to their senses. The quickest way to double your income is to halve your expenses. Any study of happiness will tell you it’s best to actively appreciate what you’ve got.
(Derek Sivers: You have enough)
Trying to pursue many different directions at once, but not making progress? Frustrated that the world wants you to pick one thing, because you want to do them all? The problem is you’re thinking short-term. Acting as if you don’t do them all this week, they won’t happen. The solution is to think long-term. Do just one for a few years, then another for a few years, then another.
(Derek Sivers: Trying to pursue many different directions at once?)
Sich seine eigene Meinung zu bilden, offen mit ihr umzugehen und für sie einzustehen, obwohl alle um dich herum glauben, dass du mindestens verrückt bist – das braucht Eier. (…) Nein, was ich meine, ist die Entdeckung dessen, was einen selbst ausmacht. Nicht nur die Entdeckung, sondern auch die Akzeptanz des eigenen Ichs. Und dann noch etwas daraus machen – das braucht Eier.
(Dorothea Kirstein: Man(n) braucht Eier)
Nicht nur Männer können kein Multitasking, auch Frauen können es nicht! Multitasking ist eine Illusion von Zeitgewinn der eher darin resultiert, dass halbfertige Aufgaben sich über Stunden hinziehen und kein einziges Projekt akkurat, ordentlich und mit Konzentration ausgeführt wird.
(Dorothea Kirstein: Singletasking)
The wisdom of our teachers — the inspirational leaders, fearless explorers, and great writers who inspire and motivate — will only help us grow if we choose to digest their wisdom through our core, channeling and guiding their wisdom through our essence.
If learning is a journey, there are no setbacks – only progress. Learning is something you can do everyday because it doesn’t hinge on externalities beyond your control.
(Mike Donghia: The myth of the self-made man)
When you take an inventory of the people who’ve made a big difference in your life, how frequently do you visualize their net worth alongside their smiling faces? When you look back at your happiest memories, how many of them required massive financial backing?
(Tiny Wisdom: On How Much You’re Worth)
Sie haben bemerkt, dass man unauffällig besser durchs Leben kommt. Nicht zu gut sein, nicht zu schlecht, in gemessenem Rahmen kindlich, aber bitte nicht zu laut, Vater hat Rücken. Studieren dann später, BWL, natürlich, ein interessantes Fach, die Säulen der Erde, die Haare haben Sie sich abgeschnitten, ein Mann mit langen Haaren, wie soll das denn aussehen, die Blicke wollten Sie nicht ertragen. (…) Sie haben einen Esstisch? Sicher, Sie haben auch eine Frau und Sie tragen eine Krawatte. Warum tun Sie das? Gefällt Ihnen so ein griffbereites Suizidwerkzeug in der Nähe Ihres Kopfes?
(Sibylle Berg: Wie wär’s mit einem eigenen Leben?)
Was nicht verkauft, hat keinen Wert. Der Erfolg gibt ihnen recht, das ist eines der blödesten Sprichworte unserer Zeit, die hoffentlich bald zu einem universellen Kollaps führen wird, zu einer großen Pulverisierung von allem, was wir kennen, um der Verblödung ein erfreuliches Ende zu bescheren.
(Sibylle Berg: Wie Denker zu Idioten wurden)