2742: Ambitious Minimalism: How Owning Less Frees Us to Achieve More by Jay Harrington with Becoming Minimalist

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[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Health Daily. Ambitious Minimalism.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: How Owning Less Frees Us to Achieve More.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: By Jay Harrington with BecomingMinimalist.com

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Dr. Neil, your host.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey there and welcome back to another bonus Sunday episode.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_00]: This is where I share an episode from one of the other podcasts in our network

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: where we read articles to you.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Today's post comes from my brother's podcast, Optimal Living Daily,

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: where articles covering mindfulness, personal development, and minimalism are read to you every day.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: You can find and subscribe to or follow that podcast.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Just search for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're listening to this.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And with that, here's my brother Justin as we optimize your life.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Ambitious Minimalism. How Owning Less Frees Us to Achieve More.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: By Jay Harrington with BecomingMinimalist.com

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_01]: My pursuit of a more minimalist lifestyle was, for many years, a case study in cognitive dissonance.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01]: On the one hand, a burning ambition to create, build, and succeed in the traditional sense of the word.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: On the other, an intense desire for a simpler, less complicated life, a minimalist life.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It always felt like I had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other,

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: advocating for two distinct approaches that were an irreconcilable conflict.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: A big part of my struggle stemmed from, what turned out to be, an unfounded fear.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: A belief that minimalism is a bastion of the unambitious.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I had big things I wanted to achieve, so I resisted adopting the identity of someone who would settle for less.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's how I saw it. Either push the pedal, or hit the brakes.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I finally became so sick and tired of my mental machinations and scarcity thinking,

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: that I committed to finding the antidote to fear, which is knowledge.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_01]: By studying minimalist philosophies, I came to understand that my seemingly contradictory impulses could coexist.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I clearly remember stumbling upon Joshua Becker's insight that,

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_01]: At its core, being a minimalist means intentionally promoting the things we most value,

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and removing everything that distracts us from it.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: A revelation and reconciliation.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It became clear that a minimalist mindset doesn't stand in the way of ambition.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It's what enables the pursuit of big dreams.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I realized that owning less could free me to achieve more.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I began to see the world through a new lens,

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and tossed aside old assumptions and conventional wisdom.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I had a lot to unwind.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I took a deep breath, and got to work.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I left the law firm I founded.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I ditched the office space for the marketing agency my wife and I own,

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: untethered our employees,

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and started operating our business virtually from coffee shops and our kitchen table.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We sold our house.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: We moved from an expensive suburb to a small town in northern Michigan,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: with our three young girls.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: We took steps back in order to create space and time,

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: so that we could make a clear-eyed decision about the path we would follow,

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: once we were ready to move forward again.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: We created white space for the first time in a long time.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Like Thoreau said, we went to the woods to live more deliberately.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Fast forward five years later,

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and I am busier than ever between the responsibilities of work and family,

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: and also happier than ever.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: The big difference is that I'm busy on my own terms,

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: in a place of my choosing.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: My ambition is undiminished, but it's not consuming me.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm focused on what matters to me,

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_01]: not all the trappings of success that merely get in the way of a meaningful life.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Lessons learned.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_01]: The most significant lesson I learned from my experience

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: is that the real power of minimalism is practical and pragmatic.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: A minimalist mindset, which is one that provides clarity of purpose,

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: helps create the space and time necessary to pursue meaningful work, relationships, and experiences.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Minimalism has been a mental model that has helped me become more effective at prioritizing time,

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_01]: focusing attention, and drilling down on life's essentials.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_01]: At its core, minimalism is a powerful means to an important end.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Without an end in mind,

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: practicing minimalism can feel like a road exercise devoid of any larger purpose.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're using the principles of minimalism to move towards something you love,

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: then all of the stripping away like a sculptor chipping away at a hunk of marble

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: becomes a joyful exercise that reveals something beautiful inside.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: In this season of my life, one of my primary ends is building a thriving business,

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and the stripping away of excesses across all areas of my life is helping me to pursue it.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Before, my work was done with the aim of supporting a lifestyle meant to send signals of success to other people.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Today, free of so many burdensome obligations,

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm able to do work that aligns with my desire to do work that serves a larger purpose.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: No less ambition, far more satisfaction.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I can confidently declare that a less is more approach

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_01]: not only doesn't stand in the way of achievement, no matter how you define it,

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: it's what fuels it.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Here are a few key takeaways from my experience.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Number one, don't think of minimalism as merely a tool for subtraction.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: When you remove things that don't matter from your life, it creates a vacuum.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Use your newfound time and energy as the fuel to add more meaning to your life.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You may decide to write a book, start a business, volunteer, or rekindle relationships.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: If you decide to pursue a new passion project, you may find yourself busier,

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_01]: but also happier and more fulfilled than you've ever been.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Minimalism can be a means to a quieter, more leisurely life, but it doesn't have to be.

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Number two, money is not the only currency.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: It was during our quest to simplify that we came to learn that money is not the only currency,

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: nor even the most valuable one.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_01]: For us, time and mobility become higher priorities.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_01]: We make less money than we used to, but have learned that we need far less to sustain us.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_01]: That realization has been incredibly liberating and has emboldened us to try things we never would have imagined

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: a few short years ago.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And number three, the decision to minimize or not minimize is not a binary one.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: To realize the benefits of minimalism, you don't need to live in a tiny house,

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: wear the same outfit every day, and possess few belongings.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Creating the tiniest crack of white space in your life by ridding yourself of something superfluous

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: is still a win.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: No one who visits our house would tag us as minimalists.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's the beauty of minimalism.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: You don't need permission from anyone else to create a more meaningful life for yourself.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And how you go about building that life is entirely up to you.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I would humbly suggest, however, that a pragmatic approach to minimalist living can be a powerful force

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: in fostering the change you seek.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: You just listened to the post titled,

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Ambitious Minimalism, How Owning Less Frees Us to Achieve More,

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_01]: by Jay Harrington with becomingminimalist.com

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you to Jay.

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_01]: If that name sounds familiar, it's because I've narrated him a lot here,

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but from his site usually, which is lifeandwhim.com.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Today's article was actually a guest post on Joshua Becker's site,

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Becoming Minimalist.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So a nice little collaboration from two authors that I narrate quite frequently here.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And great takeaways here, minimalism isn't just about taking things out of your life.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're a long-term listener of this show, you know that already.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's a nice reminder.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to get sucked into tactical thinking and lose sight of the bigger picture.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So don't forget to take a step back now and again.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully articles like this one, or this podcast in general, can serve as a reminder.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for being here, have a great rest of your day,

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'll be back tomorrow reading to you, where optimal life awaits.