Ok, so that’s it! I counted up all my stuff and have 86 things left, many of that will be binned or replaced soon too. I’m sure it’s a few more either way but that’s pretty close. I know this number because I took a picture of each individual item and uploaded them all to one page on Flickr – here. It felt quite strange to get a picture of everything I own but empowering at the same time. I have literally counted everything except for underpants/socks, toiletries and shared things like a washing machine and cutlery – even individual bank cards.



My Views On Minimalism

It works for me, now – this is all that’s important. In the future I may have a lot more possessions but for now I will minimize what I own. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t let people tell you that you have to get rid of things because you’re plugging into a certain mindset or whatever. Some people are comfortable with more possessions. I still think that most people can get rid of 20% of their possessions and be happier for it though.



Why Are You Minimizing?

I am minimizing possessions for detachment from things and to get rid of distractions. If all I had in my bedroom was a laptop and a table, I’d be forced into productivity and there would be no distractions to take my mind away. It’s for the feeling that I am free. That I am not held to judgement by the things I own. By owning little but being genuine I will attract people of a similar level. It speaks to peoples spirits, not their minds. In one swoop, I will get rid of lots of possible negative future friends in my life.

I differ from the main view on one major point. Many minimalists just concentrate on getting rid of their external junk. This can lead you to detachment but real change has to come from the inside. You have to consciously face and dis-empower your attachments. The inner detachment will lead to the outer one but the outer one not necessarily to the inner one. Once I feel I get back to a level where I feel unattached to objects, I may slowly add things back into my life. Only time will tell.

I’ve become a lot more conscious recently and after dropping so many inner attachments the outer objects feel dead and non essential to me now and having things like this in your environment feels wrong.



My Inspiration

My main inspiration is nature. Nature is the ultimate minimalist. It takes a human mind to create complexity. Everything gets used in nature. A gorilla eats a banana, throws it on the ground and its soaked back into the Earth to be re-used as nutrients for trees or maybe to make the ground more fertile for seeds. No waste, no non-essentials. Nature will take over our possessions one day when they break down or we die so would you rather mke the choice conscious instead of accepting the default?



How I Did It

The first thing is to make a list of your temporary possessions. Things like toiletries, washing machines, cutlery don’t count unless they’ve been hanging around for months unused. Now make a list of everything that you have in your possession. If you have hundreds of things already, you should get rid of some of them before this as compiling a list that large would take forever.

Now, get rid of are the most obvious things. Clothes that are too big, too small, have stains on them or are simply not you anymore. After that things like money boxes and little presents and cuddly toys that you have had for years doing nothing are the best to go. Only get rid of a maximum of 10% of your things here.

After this first batch, I’d say take pictures of everything you own. Now you can slowly go through each thing getting rid of things that you will not need that are on your “maybe” list. You could set a 30-day trial of getting rid of 2 or 3 items per day for a month. If you are not looking at becoming a traveller in the next few weeks, what’s the rush?

Setting a limit of 1 or 2 items each day if you have 200 items now could whittle them down to 140 within a month and you’d feel comfortable about it. If you get rid of things too quickly you’ll be too far out of your comfort zone. By all means go on a purge. But or those things you feel an emotional attachment towards it is better to rid yourself of slowly. They were accumulated slowly after all.

Money is the ultimate value. With lots of money, you an afford to own very little but have access to it things whenever you want them. You can pick up a t-shirt for £5 for example.

With emotionally attached items you may want to consider just taking a picture of them (or scanning then if they’re letters/birthday cards) so you can keep the memory but ditch the physical thing.

Find friends willing to swap with your unwanted possessions with thing they have that you really want. This is especially useful for luxury items that you want rid of. I plan to get rid of my bicycle and bench watch and expect to get some good deals for these in exchange for really useful items.

About this time you may want to start telling people about your new minimalist view. This will shock a lot of people and some of them will think it is selfish that you turn away birthday gifts etc. It reminds me of some advice: “When talking to a fool, make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing”. When they bring up resistance, don’t get drawn in, rise above.

If they insist on a gift say you will only take certain things. Make your own list but a sample may include:

• Money
• Donations to a charity in my name
• Extremely Useful Things

Questions To Ask When Minimizing

• Should I save for next season (winter/summer)? - Yes, but only keep minimum clothes. If you’re expecting to grow or get smaller over the next few months then get rid of what you can and save the bare essentials that fit your physical body and style.
• Ask myself, is there a free alternative to what I’m doing that is just as effective? - I realise that I don’t really need the weights that I have at the moment (dumbbells/barbells/JML Bar) because they are so light that I could get just as effective a workout using my body weight and tabata intervals (pushups/pullups/situps/elevated push-ups). It would also mean I could workout anywhere.
• If I had to, how could I get by without this item? – This is a very powerful question. Ask your mind the right question and wait. It usually finds a really creative answer. I asked this about clothes and got the answer that I could figure out how often I clean them so I always have fresh ones but do not own too many items. I will test this for a month soon.
• Ask myself. could I just get rid of this because its used so irregularly that I’d be better off just buying/borrowing one when I need one? – Examples include – a football pump, a full suit that never gets used.

Minimalism is a Journey

Minimalism is the internal and external minimization of unnecessary things. It’s like happiness in a way that it’s not a destination that you reach, it’s a journey and a state of mind that you hold in the present. You won’t wake up one day a minimalist when yesterday you were not. You consciously decide to bring it into your life and things will come and go. Underneath, you stay unattached, simple and minimal. That’s the basis of it.



Treasured Memories

There is attachment in life and then there is the beautiful feeling you get whenever you remember someone or something. Having one or two little possessions that remind you of great people who’ve passed away or brilliant times in your life is not a bad thing and I’d go as far as to recommend it. It brings your spirit up when you think of them and is a positive influence.



The List

Here’s the list of the 86 things that I currently own.

Books x 20

Casual Shirts (12)
11 x short sleeved
1 x long sleeved

Smart Shirts x 1

Pants/Shorts (10)
Jeans x 4
Running Shorts x 2
Smart Black Pants x 1
Running Pants x 1
Pyjama Pants x 1
Long Johns x 1

Other Clothes (2)

2 x full suit

Exercise Equipment (6)

1 x set of small dumbbells
1 x set of big dumbbells/barbells
2 x football
1 x BMX bike
1 x JML pushup bar

Computer/Electronics (5)

Laptop x 1
SD Card x 1
USB Stick x 1
1 x ipod shuffle
Mobile/Charger x 1

Shoes (5)

Steel Toe Cap Boots x 1
Snow Boots x 1
Brown Smart Loafers x 1
1 x flip flops
1 x plimsolls

Jackets/Jumpers (5)

2 x jumper
2 x hoody
1 x winter jacket

Misc. (20)

1 x set of bike keys
1 x drawstring bag
1 x stanley knife
1 x cycle oil
1 x broken pair of glasses
1 x england flag
1 x lever arch file
1 x ear plugs
1 x wallet
1 x bench watch
1 x bench money box
1 x diary
1 x stack of paper
1 x set of keys for relatives house
1 x nhs donor card
1 x current account card
1 x pen
1 x money box
1 x plastic wallet with essential documents
1 x library card

I would still estimate that I don’t need or regularly use 50% of this stuff so lots of this will be going over the next month. I aim to get some more clothes, replace old ones, reduce exercise equipment and get out in nature to exercise and experience the elements.

I will be keeping an updated list of my posessions called “Everything I own” over here. I’ll update it regularly when I get rid of things or add a new thing and keep the old list so that we can track the minimalist progress.



Will Minimalism Work For You?

Like it or not we all live in a society that is largely consumption based. We eat too much food, consume too much information and you sometimes feel like you’re drowning in a sea of “things”. Minimalism will work for you if you feel lost in stuff, if you lack concentration in your life and if you are an experimenter who likes to try things out for themselves.

It’s like I always say though. My system works for ME. Don’t feel that you have to use the whole system, just pick and choose what resonates with you and what doesn’t. If it works for you then great, if not then I apologize for wasting your time .

We all have friends that make you feel great. On the other hand, we have friends who make you feel awful. The questions is, why do you still hang around with them?

This isn’t a rhetorical question.

Why?

Actually ask yourself because it gives you clarity to see what answers come back.

My excuse was I didn’t want to socialize with them but felt I had no choice. I work from home so had a pretty introverted social life. 99% of my friends were energy drainers. They’re on the same level and I was at that level for a long time. I started improving my life quickly and felt a huge disconnect from them. They seemed happy to just get by.

I don’t believe that there are a lack of friends out there that are like you, you are a proof that humans can reach that level. It’s a valuable lesson to teach these people to have high self respect and you could teach them that by not taking their rubbish and moving on. Haven’t all lessons that you’ve learnt in your own life come from someone respecting themselves too much for a level of treatment and rising above it. You could give this lesson to someone else.

I try not to be angry at them. We’ve all been there and they’re just not ready yet. Just keep knowing it’s for their good and your own.

First Step

Get a list of the people that you have seen in the last month. Estimate how many hours you spend with each person. In the column after that note how you feel after being around them. -5 and 5 being each end of the scale. Feel free to include family as well, they’re not exceptional to this.

-5: Amazing and refreshed
-3: Considerably better than when we met
-1: Feel better but barely
0: Feel no difference (neutral)
1: Feel worse but barely
3: Considerably worse than when we met
5: Terrible and depressed

Now compile that list. Just open Notepad, it’ll take a second and you’ll get some real eye opening data. Now what you do is create a final column which is a multiplication of the hours spent and energy.

It should look like this at the end.

Friend A – 30 hours (Energy 5) = 150
Friend B – 3 hours (Energy -3) = -90
Friend C – 10 hours (Energy -5) = 0

From the above example it is obvious that this person spends too much time with Friend A. The high score indicates this. On the other hand Friend B leaves them feeling “Considerably better than when we met” but only 3 hours a week is spent with them. Stop seeing friend A and see friend b for those 30 hours you’re making up for. It’s simple, and effective.

The lower numbers are areas of improvement and the the higher numbers mean you should cut back contact with that person.

The Source

A social mentality that a lot of people have is that there is a head of a group of friends, sometimes called an “alpha”. They are the groups energy source. This can be a good or a bad thing but one thing that is certain is that being around them seriously affects you.

Positive energy people are head of the group because people see their positive energy and warm to it, it makes them feel good. Negative energy people are head of the group because people live in fear. The difference is chalk and cheese. Fear and Love.

The Energy Drainers

These people suffer from varying degrees of Excusitis and can often by found holding up and helping maintain each others limiting beliefs about life by relaying how terrible their day has been. Conversation topics regularly centre on

1. The Weather (Mainly my fellow Brits)
2. What “That idiot” did to me, and
3. Their own “bad luck”.

These people can easily be spotted and I know you all know one of them, maybe personally.

How do you know which you are? Here’s a little test.

Do your friends reveal deep things to you? Would they tell you a secret that they wouldn’t tell others? If the answer is no then you’re probably a negative energy person or a neutral one at best. It’s cool though, we’ve all been there. Just have the guts to admit it and move on.

Amplified Energy

The reason these two sets of people don’t mix is that their energies are opposites. The high energy people might as well not exist to the lower energy ones. All the lower energy people can see is their low energy friends and their mind thinks “Sheesh, maybe life really is just hard and everyone is suffering like this”. This is why meeting new people is such a thrilling experience. You find sides to yourself you didn’t even know you had.

When a group of really high or really low energy people get together, their energy is multiplied to more than the sum of their parts. Let me explain that. 10 high energy people together can change the world permanently for the good and 10 low energy people have their energy multiplied to create human shames like 9/11 and The Holocaust. They’re not that insane on their own. It’s thinking as a group that turns you insane.

How many positive world changing people worked alone and how many world changing negative people worked in a group? This is why you have to be so conscious of your energy level and that of those around you. Do you think Hitler or the 9/11 bombers thought that they were influenced by others? Of course not. They are unconscious to what’s happening.

Turning Up Your Energy

Firstly, realise that you can’t just start to socialize with the highest energy people starting today. They know about low energy and are well prepared.. They set up systems of mazes and hoops that you have to jump through to get to them. Low energy people will shit all over your high energy if they get to you. Most of them will give up after a few hurdles it’s too hard and they don’t want it that badly. It’s Darwin all over again. Only the strongest will get through and that’s the entire purpose of it.

You have to change yourself first. You have to shift to that level and you will find high positive energy attracts itself and people will pop up from nowhere.. If you have to sit indoors for a month, so be it. This is a life changing proposition I’m offering here. Here’s how its done:

Be Grateful – High Energy people appreciate things. They find gratitude in the simplest things like a quiet coffee with friends. Find something you can appreciate, anything. Ask yourself the question “What could I be appreciative of right now if I had to find something?” then listen.

Start Mixing With Less Friends – High energy people don’t just socialize with tonnes of people. They have 5 friends who are AMAZINGLY high energy them rather than 50 friends with ” I’m getting by” energy. When you have to deal with lots of people you have to deal with lots of different levels of energy and that’s just going to make your energy go haywire all day.

Stop Feeling Obligation – If a person does not depend on you for one of the 5 basic needs (housing, food, water, money and housing) then the best social lesson you can give them is to leave them if they have really low energy. Don’t think a number of years doing something makes you good at it or means you should stay with them. Being friends for 10 years often means you’ve not grown enough.

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P.S. – Whilst writing this article I was interrupted by phonecalls and a knock on the door from my biggest personal energy drain (unfortunately a family member). And just thought I’d tell you about the synchronicity. The universe is always listening to your thoughts.