You’d think that throwing a few things away and adopting a simpler lifestyle would be easy. How hard can it be to do less and buy less?
The reality is that this is much harder than it looks. We have become so used to being stressed, jealous, and wanting more that is hard to let go when we decide to try. Here are five mistakes that people often make and how you can avoid making the very same errors.
Using Technology too Much
Technology is, in many ways, the antithesis of a minimalist lifestyle. While no one is asking you to turn off your phone permanently, what you should avoid is the kind of ‘mindless browsing’ that leads many of us to end up making purchases of things we don’t need. Take some time off your tech!
Not Finding Fulfilment Elsewhere
If you just remove things from your life, then you’ll find that it can quickly seem quite empty. Instead, you need to find new things to fill your life just as you take things away.
The best way to do this is to think about what makes you happy and how you can get more from what you already own. Keep yourself busy with things that don’t require ‘more.’
Not Keeping it Up
A big mistake is to go all-out creating a minimalist lifestyle and then to give up only a few weeks later. The key here is consistency, and introducing a few simple rules can help a great deal. For example, make a rule that you have to get rid of something in your home each time you buy something new!
Being too Strict
A lot of people act as though being minimal is a binary choice. You’re either minimal or you aren’t. Thus, the only way to go minimal is to throw everything out and live entirely off the land. Not so! You can become a ‘little more minimal’ and reap many of the benefits without making it too hard on yourself.
Missing the Point
Many of the issues people have with minimalism come from missing the point. The point isn’t to be mightier than thou, and it’s not to shun society. The point is just to scale back a little so that life becomes more manageable again! And, it is to read a few of the rewards that just so happen to come as a by-product of that.
