3315: How Minimalism Lights the Path to Vision by Anthony Ongaro of Break the Twitch on Lifestyle Design

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a Minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily. How Minimalism Lights the Path to Vision

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: by Anthony Ongaro of BreakTheTwitch.com and I'm Justin Malik. As I said, it's Minimalist Monday.

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna keep this intro nice and minimal and start optimizing your life.

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: How Minimalism Lights the Path to Vision by Anthony Ongaro of BreakTheTwitch.com

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been on my minimalism journey for about a year and a half

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: but the change that has come from it has already been impactful.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: In a way, decluttering my home and life to focus on the essential has become more than after work and weekend activity.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Minimalism has become a way of living and thinking, a filter with which to view the world.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: When I started out by playing Min's Game with my wife Amy,

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I really had no sense of where decluttering our home and life was going to take us. In the last year,

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: things have changed more than I could have possibly imagined.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: After reducing Amazon purchases to only the essentials, I was able to meet my goal of traveling 12 times in 2015.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I was able to visit friends and family in their home cities that I haven't seen in quite a while.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: One of those trips was to Siguatepeque, Honduras,

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_00]: where I volunteered my photography and video work alongside my friend Joshua to help launch his new nonprofit, The Hope Effect.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a trip that has given me a renewed sense of purpose and helped me further understand the true meaning of having enough.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: In my video last week, I discussed the idea of vision versus goals or plans.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, vision is what an ideal day might look like to you. An ideal day is not a vacation day, but a productive,

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: meaningful, relaxed,

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: purposeful day. That isn't to say checking out every once in a while is a problem,

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: but simply that an ideal day would be a productive one, full of creating,

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: giving, and fulfilling a meaningful purpose to you while earning a living doing what you do best.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The question that remains is how do you find that vision?

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: What is the path to vision? More importantly, is it truly your vision or is it a product of the environment we live in?

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the vision we've set for ourselves is the expectation created by a culture of consumption and debt-ridden economic growth.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So how does minimalism help us figure all this out?

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, life is full of distractions and minimalism as a philosophy helps remove many of those distractions.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it helps us figure out what parts of our lives are distractions in the first place.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: By slowly and intentionally removing the excess from our lives, the meaningful parts are illuminated.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Opportunities emerge from beneath the credit card payments and overstuffed closets and garages.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: When we're less busy organizing our belongings and running from one commitment to the next, our brains begin to wander.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: It's in moments of nothingness that we reflect upon the meaningful parts of our lives.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, those blissful moments between Facebook notifications.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I recently finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which overwhelmingly suggests that our ability to overcome bad habits

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: relies heavily on actually believing that change is possible. With less clutter,

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: minimalism helps uncover the foundation of momentum and good in our lives.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: The kind of change you want for you and your family becomes seemingly possible within the space that is created.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Minimalism helps light the path to vision by eliminating the majority of consumerism from our lives.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: When we learn to accept that we've had enough, we can truly focus on where we want to go instead.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: When we buy a new car that has monthly payments for five years,

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: that purchase is providing as a framework for the next five years of our lives. In a way,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: we're saying it is our vision to own that car fully in five years once it has lost over half of its value.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't define your vision, there are thousands of companies that would be happy to define it for you.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Minimalism, focusing on the essential, forces us to create our own structure for achieving vision in our lives.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of having a convenient 60-month payment plan provided for us, taking an alternative approach

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: creates the flexibility and freedom in our lives to make that decision for ourselves.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: To consider continuing to drive the car you already have, buying a used car or taking public transport.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: To really dig in and ask ourselves,

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, what's important to me, really?

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: What has brought me the most drive, energy and passion was realizing that I already had everything I needed.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I may be working harder than I ever have before, but it sure feels different now.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Once the clutter is removed, a meaningful vision comes out of the woodwork.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Once we're not chasing the latest and greatest, once we know that we are enough and we truly have enough,

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: it becomes much easier to focus on the things that bring us fulfillment,

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: value and meaningful progress.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This is how minimalism lights the path to vision.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, How Minimalism Lights the Path to Vision by Anthony Angaro of BreakTheTwitch.com

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Anthony.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Early in the post he mentioned the MINS game, that's short for the Minimalist game, that was created by the Minimalists,

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Arguably the most popular writers of the entire movement. They have a couple of documentaries on Netflix about minimalism, in fact.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, the game they came up with is pretty simple and while technically you can do it at any time,

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: it's most convenient at the beginning of the month because the goal is to do it every day for a month and

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: the day of the month corresponds with how many items you get rid of. So for example,

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: today is September 9th.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So today you would sell, donate, trash or recycle nine items.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Then tomorrow since it's the 10th of the month you'd get rid of ten items instead and so on until the last day where

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: you get rid of 30 or 31 items, I guess, depending on the month.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried it once but it really felt like in my home

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have enough stuff to get rid of. If it were at my family's house where I still have a bunch of old things,

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I probably could have done it.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But any case, it makes for a great activity with another person, sort of turning it into a challenge.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you have some accountability and motivation to continue going until the end of the month.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe try it out if you're looking to declutter, it could work wonders for you.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great day of decluttering if you wish and I'll catch you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.