Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

by Joshua Fields Millburn

health, relationships, passions, growth, and contribution.

discipline, attention, awareness, and intentionality.

Minimalism is a tool we use to live a meaningful life. There are no rules. Rather, minimalism is simply about stripping away the unnecessary things in your life so you can focus on what’s important.

Ultimately, minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can focus on life’s most important things—which actually aren’t things at

Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through

life itself; thus,

Minimalism is a tool to eliminate life’s excess, focus on the essentials, and find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.

After much cerebration, deliberation, discussion, research, and experimentation, we discovered Five Values that allow us to live a meaningful life: 1. Health 2. Relationships 3. Passions 4. Growth 5. Contribution

its simplest terms, there are two main ingredients of living a healthy life: eating and exercising. In other words: what we put into our bodies and what we do with our bodies.

then they are important enough to merit your undivided attention when you are engaged with them. No cellphone. No instant messaging. No texting. No watching the TV in your peripheral vision. Your relationships are important and they need to be treated accordingly. Hang on to their every word. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the reaction you get from people when you give them your full attention. (Additional reading, “Most Emergencies Aren’t”: minimalists.com/emergencies.)

the implied question isn’t What do you do? which by itself is rather expansive and could encompass thousands of things (I volunteer at soup kitchens, I work at Walmart, I enjoy fishing on the weekends, I exercise five days a week, I drink water, etc.); the implied question is What do you do for a living? or Where do you work? which is vastly different from the question itself. 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.