Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

by Joshua Fields Millburn

Sometimes we’d be out to dinner, grazing our expensive meals, and instead of discussing our days, our interests, our desires, I’d be on my side of the table, attending to the glowing BlackBerry in my hand, tapping away, responding to emails and texts, focused only on GTD15 instead of on the moment and the real, living, breathing person on the other side of the table.

Progress requires practice and dedication and, to a certain extent, a healthy obsession. Hence, passion is a mixture of love and obsession.

Truthfully, though, most organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding.

Careers are dangerous because people invest so much of themselves into their careers that they establish an identity and a social status based upon where they work and what they do for a living.

“Now, before I spend money I ask myself one question: Is this worth my freedom? Like: Is this coffee worth two dollars of my freedom? Is this shirt worth thirty dollars of my freedom? Is this car worth thirty thousand dollars of my freedom? In other words, am I going to get more value from the thing I’m about to purchase, or am I going to get more value from my freedom?

We hold on to jobs we dislike because we believe there’s security in a paycheck. We stay in shitty relationships because we think there’s security in not being alone. We hold on to stuff we don’t need, just in case we might need it down the road in some nonexistent, more secure future.

Indeed!!

When I decided to relinquish home Internet, I did it mostly so I could focus on writing without distractions. But I found so many additional benefits too: My time at home is more peaceful, a personal sanctuary. My thoughts are clearer, less fragmented. And perhaps most important, I find myself doing more meaningful things with my time: reading, writing, thinking, exercising, walking, spending time with friends.

When I had the opportunity to meet Leo Babauta four months ago during a trip to San Francisco, he said there were three things that significantly changed his life: establishing habits he enjoyed, simplifying his life, and living with no goals.