Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

by Joshua Fields Millburn

Fresh smoothies. Get yourself a NutriBullet and use it daily.

Vegetables. Vegetables are low in calories and high in essential vitamins and nutrients.

Beans and legumes. Beans and legumes add healthy proteins and carbohydrates to your diet. They also help you feel full so you don’t overeat.

Fruits.

They are healthy—filled with necessary vitamins, acids, and water—but they als...

Fish.

fish is a great source of protein.

Organic foods.

Instead of establishing a diet plan, we encourage you to change your diet for ten days at a time (anyone can change for ten days, right?).

Your diet is not something you do; it is the way you live your life with respect to food consumption, which means it’s also not something you “come off of” either. Your dietary lifestyle is a permanent change, not something you adopt temporarily.

your diet is marked by the daily habits by which you live.

Food should be treated as nutrition, not ...

the most important measurements of success were not measured in pounds on a scale, but rather by two things: 1. Are we constantly improving our fitness? 2. Are we happy with our progress?

every exercise has been better than doing nothing at all

Enjoy exercise.

Exercise relieves stress.

Variety keeps exercise fresh.

Joshua's 18-Minute Exercises

People often forgo sleep to “accomplish” whatever it is they want to accomplish. But if it is your desire to live a healthy life—in the optimal condition to experience and enjoy life—then you will need adequate rest.

You must eat a nutritional diet to be healthy. You must exercise regularly to be healthy. You must eliminate harmful substances. You must treat your body like it is your most precious possession—because it is.

Without your relationships, you are unable to live a meaningful life.

your relationships are the people with whom you have frequent contact, the people around you—friends,

There are three ways to create better relationships: 1. Find great new relationships. 2. Transform your current relationships. 3. Change who you are.

if you’re like most people, you focus most of your time, effort, and attention on the group of people who matters least to you. This must change.

it is imperative you dedicate less time to this group and focus your attention on your primary and secondary tiers (including those people in the periphery who you want to move into those tiers).

focus on creating the most meaningful relationships possible—relationships that will reside in your top two tiers.

It is up to you to decide which role these people play in your life. This is especially true for the relationships you labeled as negative relationships.

your relationships will not remain static for the rest of your life. People will shift in and out of your life, and shift within your relationship tiers as you grow and they grow.

Your secondary relationships are important, as well (significantly more important than your peripheral relationships), but they should receive your time and attention only after your commitments to your primary relationships are fulfilled. Your primary relationships are your top priority.

Sometimes you have to get rid of certain relationships, even relationships of great value.

you cannot expect a person to change in every way you want them to. Of course, some people make radical improvements in their lives, but it is not your responsibility in any relationship to expect someone to improve to adhere to your standards, beliefs, or values.

The only person you can change is yourself.

The best thing you can do is change yourself (not attempt to “improve” the other person).

many arguments, especially with people we love, are birthed from simple misunderstandings blown out of proportion. To avoid this spiral of misunderstanding—and eventually arrive at a place of shared contentment—we must avoid acting on impulse, and we must instead work through the four stages of understanding:

Ultimately, understanding answers the important questions about relationships: What drives the other person? What do they want? What do they need? What excites them? What are their desires? What are their pains? What do they enjoy? What makes them happy? If you can answer these questions, you’ll be better equipped with the understanding you need to meet their needs. If you meet someone’s needs, and they meet yours, you’re guaranteed to have a vibrant, passionate, growing relationship.

You will not feel fulfilled if your life lacks passion. This is often the root cause of that empty feeling so many people experience.

People tend to designate one of three labels to their work: job, career, or mission.

If what you do everyday is just a job, then it is difficult to feel fulfilled during your working hours. Even if you work really, really hard and establish a career for yourself, you’ll likely have a hard time creating a meaningful life within the confines of your work schedule. In fact, having a career is one of the most dangerous things you can do if you want to find meaning in your life.

This “innocent” question actually says, I will judge you as a person by how you make your money, and I will assign a particular social status to you based on your occupation.

People are asked to answer this question so often that they become rooted in their careers: they establish “what they do” as their core identity, and they give their occupations far more societal worth than they deserve.

Another way to answer this question is by stating what you’re passionate about, instead of spouting off what your vocation is.

Your identity should come from your meaningful life, not from how you earn a paycheck.

We also don’t believe you were “meant” to be passionate about one particular thing, or that you have one “true calling” in life.

we believe you can be passionate about virtually anything.

any line of work can be yo...

A common misconception is that people who are passionate about what they do are inherently that way. That misconception is illogical:

People who are passionate about what they do are, in most ways, just like people who aren’t passionate about their work.

passionate people are just like you.

passionate people know what they are passionate about.

no one is passionate about only one thing.