3123: How Minimalism Builds Consistency for Personal Growth by Anthony Ongaro of Break the Twitch

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[00:01:32] It's a minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily Episode 31-23.

[00:01:37] How minimalism builds consistency for personal growth by Anthony and Garo of BreakTheTwitch.com

[00:01:44] and your narrator Justin Malik reading you articles every single day of the year,

[00:01:48] usually covering minimalism on Mondays.

[00:01:50] So with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:58] How minimalism builds consistency for personal growth by Anthony and Garo of BreakTheTwitch.com

[00:02:06] Six years ago when I started learning about minimalism,

[00:02:10] I didn't know what to expect.

[00:02:12] Sure, I heard about how minimalism makes your life easier and less cluttered.

[00:02:16] However, I didn't truly understand how minimalism would impact me.

[00:02:20] The specifics, you know?

[00:02:21] The concrete ways of how getting rid of things, creating space and minimalism as a whole

[00:02:27] could lead to living a more intentional fulfilling life.

[00:02:30] But over the years of exploring and sharing what I've learned here,

[00:02:34] my experience has validated that minimalism is a fundamental building block for creating

[00:02:39] consistency in personal growth and building better habits.

[00:02:44] Minimalism is both an effective tool and one of the best places to start

[00:02:49] if you know something in your life needs to change.

[00:02:52] I get the disconnect though, it's a bit of a leap to believe that simply donating

[00:02:56] a few pieces of clothing translates to more space in your life magically getting better.

[00:03:01] The math doesn't quite add up.

[00:03:04] But it's the space that is slowly built over time, even the seemingly inconsequential things

[00:03:09] that have allowed me to be more consistent than ever.

[00:03:13] Consistency is where the magic happens.

[00:03:16] Small, steady improvements change the entire game and minimalism creates space for consistency.

[00:03:22] That's where it all comes together.

[00:03:25] The importance of margin.

[00:03:27] Life is unpredictable and inconsistent.

[00:03:30] I mean look at the year we've just been through.

[00:03:32] 2020 really put a lot of us through the ringer.

[00:03:36] When we sat down at the end of 2019 to dream up what the next year would look like,

[00:03:40] I don't think any of us would have painted this picture.

[00:03:43] And just in case any time travelers happened to be hearing this,

[00:03:46] buy stock in zoom and peloton at the end of March 2020, you'll think me later.

[00:03:52] Even outside the wildly unexpected global pandemic, things happen.

[00:03:57] Unexpected delays, events or tasks can result in not enough time, energy or resources

[00:04:03] to do what you set out to do.

[00:04:06] So when you're running late feeling overwhelmed and you can't do that thing you've committed to doing,

[00:04:11] it's not because you're not good enough or need to work harder or faster.

[00:04:16] If you have too many things in a box and life suddenly hands you another thing to put in it,

[00:04:21] it's not because you're not a capable put stuff in a boxer.

[00:04:24] However hard you push, it's not going to fit in the box.

[00:04:28] You're not going to have space for an extra thing if the box is already full.

[00:04:32] That's just how it works.

[00:04:34] Minimalism is what helps you create the space to be consistent across different areas of your life.

[00:04:40] If your schedule is slammed full, the odds of you being able to consistently have time and

[00:04:45] energy to get to the gym to work out will be lowered. Minimalism and attention.

[00:04:51] The minimalism effect even goes beyond the calendar and physical space.

[00:04:55] Minimalism also impacts attention space.

[00:04:58] I'm talking about the energy bucket that's drained from us when we're super focused on creative

[00:05:03] analytical or detailed work.

[00:05:05] If we're not careful about protecting our attention space and what we spend that on,

[00:05:09] we can end up with less energy to spend on the things that are personally important to us.

[00:05:14] With decluttering clothing in particular, it's easy to see how it translates to less time

[00:05:19] choosing what to wear since you will have fewer options to choose from.

[00:05:22] Removing an item from your life means that you're not organizing or cleaning it.

[00:05:27] You're not even thinking about items that are no longer in your life.

[00:05:30] This also applies to attention space.

[00:05:33] The fewer things you do, the better you can do those things.

[00:05:37] But this is where it can get kind of tricky because sometimes our subconscious can over leverage

[00:05:41] our attention as a defensive measure. It's one of the ways we can self sabotage and prevent

[00:05:46] ourselves from giving our full selves to the few most important things.

[00:05:50] There are many reasons why it may be scary to give our full selves to something.

[00:05:54] What if we do that and it's not good enough?

[00:05:57] What if it ends up not working out?

[00:05:59] That can be a scary proposition and so it's sometimes easier to be incredibly busy

[00:06:04] and distracted with lots of things going on.

[00:06:07] The clutter helps to hide those underlying insecurities and feelings of not enoughness.

[00:06:12] If it were easy to simply commit to just doing one or two things over and over again

[00:06:17] until we got to mastery, then we'd all choose that path.

[00:06:21] But instead, many of us feel societal pressure to do more and more.

[00:06:25] Many of us deal with limiting beliefs that get in our way.

[00:06:29] Minimalism helps reduce the noise, increase our awareness and save more energy for what's truly

[00:06:35] important. Minimalism as a practice.

[00:06:39] The final way in how minimalism builds consistency is that it's meant to be a consistent practice

[00:06:44] that ebbs and flows as your life changes. Minimalism isn't meant to be an end goal.

[00:06:49] There's no pressure to reach an end goal where you're finally a minimalist and now you're done.

[00:06:54] Your life is going to be changed, your needs and interests are going to shift.

[00:06:59] The decluttering process is a series of decisions and choices on what you want in your life

[00:07:05] and what you don't. When you first start decluttering, the items you declutter may be smaller

[00:07:09] and it may go more slowly. As you go on though, you're actually building your decision muscle

[00:07:15] and confidence. It'll get easier and easier to decide. Minimalism as a practice is about paying

[00:07:21] attention and actively deciding what to declutter and what to keep as your life evolves.

[00:07:28] At the core of it, I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to be a minimalist.

[00:07:32] You'll have more time and energy to go after what's important to you.

[00:07:35] You'll have greater awareness and confidence to face the small discomforts in the unpredictability

[00:07:41] of life. This work is ultimately what break the twitches about, identifying and stepping into

[00:07:47] small discomforts, slowly building the muscle that allows us to do it better and better over time.

[00:07:53] That's personal growth. I mean, it's what I've been doing steadily since embarking on this

[00:07:57] journey six years ago. You just listened to the post titled How Minimalism Builds Consistency for

[00:08:08] Personal Growth by Anthony and Garo of BreakTheTwitch.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:12] monitor and shut off. Mowen. Thank you to Anthony. When sharing this article, I'll

[00:09:18] remind you how when my space around me is cluttered, my brain feels cluttered. There's a huge

[00:09:24] correlation there for me at least. I don't know if you experienced that too or if you've thought about

[00:09:29] it. I recently decluttered a bit and I only have stuff out that I actually use so things are

[00:09:35] feeling a lot less cluttered and I can focus more these days especially on work. So that's nice.

[00:09:40] Just hoping to keep it up because I feel like it's in a good spot. It is a bit empty but I'd rather

[00:09:44] have that than the overwhelm of clutter and then not knowing where to begin.

[00:09:50] So don't forget the benefits see what you can do to minimize just a little bit today.

[00:09:54] As he mentioned, it's an ongoing thing. It never ends so keeping a top of mind is important.

[00:09:59] Thank you for being here with me and listening every day and I'll be back tomorrow

[00:10:03] where your optimal life awaits.