Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

by Joshua Fields Millburn

But work isn’t separate from life, it’s part of it. So rather than trying to measure and weigh and compare parts of your

life that defy comparison, why not ask yourself whether you’re feeling the harmony in how it all adds up. Like, Am I happy? Am I healthy? Is what I’m doing meaningful to me?

You see, sometimes we have to contribute to help other people, but sometimes we need to contribute to help ourselves. When we step into our discomfort zones and contribute beyond ourselves, we

grow, we experience the world in a different way, and we gain new perspectives from which to be thankful.”

I’m driving slowly, careful to avoid speeding through life—my life—no longer wasting my summers waiting for snow, my winters waiting for sun, taking each season as it comes, appreciating the warmth of the sun, the cleansing of the snow.

“Taking time for ourselves, especially when we’re overwhelmed and don’t want to, helps declutter the mind. Everyone has twenty minutes a day to clear their mental clutter.”

Without growth, people atrophy: we waste away, and in a meaningful way we die inside. Hence, we must continue to find new ways to grow, new elementary schools to crash.

Cash—not a debit card, but cold hard cash—is the only currency I use these days; it’s harder to part with, makes me cerebrate over each purchase.

Every dollar I let go of is like letting go of one dollar of my

fre...

I realized that I didn’t control my time, and thus I didn’t control my own life. It was a shocking realization.