Love People and Use Things (Because the Opposite Never Works)

Joshua Fields Millburn is one half of The Minimalists.

At first glance, people might think the point of minimalism is only to get rid of material possessions: Eliminating. Jettisoning. Extracting. Detaching. Decluttering. Paring down. Letting go. But that’s a mistake. 

Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less; rather, they focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, more contribution, more contentment. More freedom. Clearing the clutter from life’s path helps us make that room.

Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s important things—which actually aren’t things at all.

Joshua wasn’t always a minimalist. In late 2009, his mother died and marriage ended (in the same month), and Joshua started questioning everything. That’s when he discovered minimalism. Now, Joshua thinks he owns fewer than 288 things (but he doesn’t actually count his stuff).

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life—families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and even a former Wall Street broker—all of whom are striving to live a meaningful life with less.

Check out the books, “Let go, change your life TEDxFargo talk” and new The Minimalists Podcast, where they discuss living a meaningful life with less stuff and answer questions from their listeners.

In the show I mentioned Colin Wright’s Exile Lifestyle blog and Derek Sivers on Tim Ferriss’s podcast.