The Minimalist Mindset

by Danny Dover

Minimalism is the constant art of editing your life. Minimalism is a reminder that the Cave exists, but it is not an assault on the Cave itself or the people who live in it. Counter-intuitively, minimalism isn’t about minimizing, instead it is about maximizing what really matters in life.

You shouldn’t believe someone if they tell you they are happy since happiness is expressed through actions and body language, not words,

My Life List gave me a strong enough purpose to eventually beat depression.

the journey from depression to happiness is not a straight line.

Instead it is a lot of hard work and a lot of trial and error.

Happiness isn’t a destination.

Happiness is the result of a life well lived.

Reading practically any biography or autobiography will illustrate a uniquely human learning lesson: Life is hard and growth is even harder.

One person that I studied was Benjamin Franklin.

his daily routine was roughly the following:

5:00 AM to 8:00 AM: ”Rise, wash and address Powerful Goodness3, contrive day’s business, and take resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.

8:00 AM to 12:00 PM: Work.

12:00 PM to 2:00 PM: Read, or look over my accounts, and dine.

2:00 PM to 6:00 PM: Work.

6:00 PM to 10:00 PM: Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.

10:00 PM to 5:00 AM: Sleep.

Winston Churchill

7:30 AM: and remained in bed for a substantial breakfast and reading of mail and all the national newspapers. For the next couple of hours, still in bed, he worked, dictating to his secretaries.

At 11:00 AM:, he arose, bathed, and perhaps took a walk around the garden, and took a weak whisky and soda to his study.

At 1:00 PM: he joined guests and family for a three-course lunch. Clementine drank claret, Winston champagne, preferable Pol Roger served at a specific temperature, port brandy and cigars. When lunch ended, about 3:30 PM he returned to his study to work, or supervised work on his estate, or played cards or backgammon with Clementine.

At 5:00 PM:, after another weak whisky and soda, he went to bed for an hour and a half. He said this siesta, a habit gained in Cuba, allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours.

At 6:30 PM: he awoke, bathed again, and dressed for dinner at 8:00 PM

the patterns of the daily routines of men and women who had lived life well.

Perhaps the key to living life well was by enabling myself with the world’s greatest tools.

”the most important

aspect of a perfect wallet is not what is inside it or included with it, rather the most important aspect is what you subtract from it. You are better off obsessing over what not to put into the wallet than you are about what to add to the wallet.”

addition isn’t possible without subtraction.

If I wanted to add something to my life, I was going to need to focus on what I would be eliminating first.

Again, in the real world, addition isn’t possible without subtraction.

Benjamin Franklin

because he accomplished a lot of things, he lived life well because he subtracted a lot of things and was then able to utilize the freed-up resources to accomplish things that were important and fulfilling.

“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from yo...

It appeared that the trick to living life well was to focus on what could be subtracted in a world full of needless additions.

A mindset is a perspective through which ideas are filtered. An idea can burn out quickly, but a mindset lasts.

author is), is not enough to hold a mindset. To gain a new mindset you need to repeatedly practice habits. Habits, not ideas, are the programming language of human beings.

thus your focus and efforts are best spent on deciding what to subtract.

Instead of eliminating expenses at the bottom, I have found that it is a much more effective habit to eliminate expenses at the top. To do this, you must first identify what are your most expensive but overvalued expenses.

create a sorted recurring expenses spreadsheet.

identify your recurring expenses and sort them both by the cost and by the true value you received from the expense.

Forgive yourself. Let yourself know it was silly and resolve to not make similar mistakes in the future. After that, move forward.

This spreadsheet exercise far outweighs the value of cutting out morning coffees and can be used for many areas of your life.

Debt is a disease. It is stressful, paralyzing, and financially crippling.

simplify your spending abilities.

I blocked off three evenings on my calendar and vowed to get my personal financial system under control.

Both accounts are made up of low-cost index funds from Vanguard, a great option for my particular circumstance.

where to invest your funds.

automate your good financial habits.

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