"When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all,"
"looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck,"
"I have pitied him - not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry."
I'm at - uh - Walden Pond right now. That's a replica of Thoreau's cabin.
Dude basically built a tiny house for himself in the middle of the woods
and ate beans for two years straight.
Except not coffee beans...
I mean, c'mon man - if you're gonna live in the woods and not drink coffee,
what are you even doing?
If you're lost right now, no worries - I'm talking about a book called "Walden."
It's been around for quite some time, and it's frequently mentioned as a source
for lots of minimalists.
It's cold out there!
Just like coffee beans, minimalism has been around for a very long time.
That's a weird segue, but it's true!
And although our ways of communicating minimalism have changed -
now we do a lot of blogs, and videos, and photos, in addition to books,
and it wasn't always called "minimalism" -
the ideas themselves have been around for a very long time.
It might seem like it's trendy right now, but it's been around.
Personally, I've been into it since 2010 - nine years - which is nothing,
compared to how long it's been around.
My own start came about when I was trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff
after graduating high school and starting to move to college.
I remember my mom said something like, "well, aren't you a minimalist!"
And I didn't really get what she meant by that word in that context.
I only knew the word "minimalist" in reference to art and architecture.
I kept minimizing bit by bit through college and then did another purge
after graduating in order to move halfway across the country for a job.
Last year, I actually moved across the country again in the opposite direction
and got rid of a whole bunch of other stuff.
But I've been picking up new stuff along the way, too.
It's not just purge, purge, purge, and be done with it!
There's a lot of exchange that happens when you realize the things that you used to need,
and now you need THESE things, and then you don't need THOSE anymore, and you need THESE things.
My uniform is a perfect example - that's going to change.
Even though I have preferences now, I might not always have those same preferences,
and my body might shift,
and the situations that I'm in might need to shift the clothes that I wear.
Although Thoreau did say, "beware of new enterprises that require new clothes..."
But he also said, "don't drink coffee," so, uh...
I'm done with him.
Nowadays, except for when I'm making these videos,
I don't really think about minimalism much.
It's just kind of the way that I do things.
It's - it's the way that I lead my life.
And f you're not there - if it's not second nature yet, don't worry -
you get there eventually.
Just wait it out, keep going, step by step,
and soon it'll become second nature for you, too.
It can be daunting to look at people online and think, "I have such a long way to go,"
but I have to reiterate: it's personally taken me NINE YEARS to get to this point.
So no need to rush yourself! It's truly a journey. It's a process.
Think of it like you're navigating a boat.
A one-degree difference in where you're aiming,
fifty miles down the line, could have you in a completely different country.
Even it's just one degree or two degrees, every degree counts.
So patience, young grasshopper.
No need to do it all at once. No need to
try to emulate people who have been doing it for a long time.
All you need to do today is one degree shift. And tomorrow, another degree shift.
Get rid of one thing. Read one book a month. Go to the gym for ten minutes a day.
These tiny changes will compound over time, and in the long run,
you'll be so much farther than you were before, if you had just kept going in your same
normal direction without making any changes
or trying to make leaps and bounds that weren't sustainable.
And one more thing - thanks to all the new subscribers! It's great to have you.
Welcome! I am flabbergasted and just extremely grateful
to have your attention for a few minutes a week.
So thanks for joining me.
'til next time!
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