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September 7 - September 15, 2017
Passionate people know what they are most passionate about, but they also know what else they are passionate about: they know what gets them excited, what gets them energized, what gets them into a peak state.
passion fuels more passion. Passionate people turn to their passions when they are feeling uninspired.
passionate people focus on the things that ge...
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Using what you’re passionate about to keep you focused and fuel more passion is a critical part in discovering your mission. But first you must discover what you’re passionate about.
As it turns out, we discovered four main anchors in our own lives that were keeping us from pursuing our passions: identity, status, certainty, and money.
Once you acknowledge your vocation is who you are, it’s extraordinarily difficult to do something else.
What other meaningful labels can you use to identify yourself?
If you’re caught in the clutches of status, it’s hard to see there are other aspects of your life that are far more important than your profession
People frequently associate an appreciable amount of social status to their employment because it’s the easiest thing to control in the moment.
The best way to escape the destructive influence of status, and the cultural stereotypes that come along with it, is to turn down the volume. For the two of us, this meant placing less value on what people thought about our jobs, and showing them why they should give more credence to our new identities, which were transferable to virtually anything we did, not just our careers.
Everyone needs some level of certainty to survive.
Certainty feels nice—it makes you feel comfortable, it makes you feel warm and fuzzy—but it’s sometimes the biggest underlying reason you don’t make the changes you want to make.
there are two ways to alter this thought process—two ways to cut loose from the anchor of certainty so you can change your life.
First, you can find a way to associate more pain with not changing.
Second, you can associate more pleasure with the long-term fulfillment of pursuing your passions and living your mission.
The best way to remove the anchor of money is to give money less importance in your life.
taking control of your financial life involves much more than adjusting your income upward: it involves making consistently good decisions with the resources you have, changing your financial habits, and living deliberately.
Step 1. BUDGET.
written, monthly, and budget.
Identify what’s truly necessary by identifying all of your monthly expenses based on the past six months, and then divide your expenses into three categories, as outlined in our essay, “Need, Want, Like” (minimalists.com/want).
Give every dollar a destination at the beginning of the month. By establishing these boundaries, you won’t worry about what you can and can’t purchase because money that wasn’t assigned at the beginning of the month can’t be spent mid-month.
Everyone in your household—even your children—must have a say in the written budget. This is the only way to get every person’s buy-in.
Once everyone is on board—once everyone is committed to financial freedom—it is much easier to gain the traction you need.
You’ll have some slip-ups along the way—that’s all right, it’s part of the process.
It’s best to create a Safety Net savings account with $500–$1000 for emergencies. Do not touch this money unless there is a true emergency (car repairs, medical bills, job loss, etc.).
Instead of thinking of it as investing money, think of it as paying your future self.
Right now is the best time to start planning for your future.
Not next week, not tomorrow—today.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GOOD DEBT.
You will not feel free until you are debt-free.
By clearing the clutter from our lives, we were able to focus on eliminating debt, changing our habits, and making better decisions with fewer resources.
No, minimalism is not about deprivation—we don’t want anyone to “live without” in the name of minimalism—but sometimes it makes sense to temporarily deprive ourselves of temporary satisfactions when we are attempting to move our lives in a better direction.
The shortest path toward freedom is appreciating what you already have. One of the best ways to find gratitude for the gifts you’ve already been given is to change your perspective.
donate your most precious asset: your time.
Whatever you do to build your contribution muscle, it needn’t be grandiose—it need only contribute to someone else’s life.
it’s not about our income level, it’s about the decisions we make with the resources we have.
when it comes to true financial freedom, these five ingredients—budget, invest, eliminate debt, minimize, contribute—are nonnegotiable. All five are necessary.
What would you do with your life if money wasn’t an object?
passion is one half love, one half obsession. So what would you love to do each day? What would you be obsessed by? Where those intersect, that is your passion.
The truth is someone is earning a living doing the thing you’re passionate about—doing the thing you obsessively love.
If you want to learn how to turn your passion into your mission, the fastest, most efficient way is to emulate someone already doing it.
find at least three people making a living doing what you’re passionate about.
We saved the most important two chapters for last: Growth and Contribution. These two values work hand-in-hand to form the meaning of our lives: to grow as individuals, and to contribute to others.
Once you make a change in your life, the journey isn’t over—you must continue making changes
Most change happens gradually,
you make small, gradual changes in your everyday life which amount to massive changes over time.
As you make these changes, your day-by-day life doesn’t change considerably, but when you glance at your life in the rearview, everything is different.
The first step in any change, big or small, is making the decision to change.
Leverage is your ability to associate enough satisfaction with the change that you have no choice but to make the change a must in your life
The more leverage you have, the easier the decision is to make and follow through with—because
