3491: Decluttering Your Life Could Save Your Life by Chris Lovett with CEO Magazine on Minimalism

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[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_02] It's a Minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily. Decluttering your life could save your life. By Chris Lovett with theceomagazine.com and I'm Justin Malek. Hope you're having a great start to your week. This is where I read to you from some of the best blogs I can find and get permission from. So with that, let's get right to today's Minimalist Monday post and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_02] Decluttering your life could save your life by Chris Lovett with theceomagazine.com. In a world full of overconsumption, becoming a professional minimalist could change the way you work forever and more importantly, it could save your life. It was a very comedic event that blew my world apart back in 2017.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_02] The simple act of stepping on a CD case while tidying up became the catalyst that sparked a mini revolution across the world. At the time, I possessed all the trappings of societal success. A home, a car, financial security, and a respectable job title. Plus, of course, high stress, debt, and loads of stuff. Despite accumulating all of that, my core aspiration of traveling was buried underneath.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_02] I realized that if my possessions, that I had taken ownership of, could cause me physical pain and hilariously turn me into a cockney incredible hulk, then they owned me. In order to excavate my way toward more agency, I needed to declutter. So on that weekend, I made the first step of selling and donating things that didn't add value to my life.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_02] Within a few days, I had recouped $197, which allowed me to purchase the first flight from London to Copenhagen and start this odyssey. Six months later, I had sold virtually everything I ever owned, loosely arranged a sabbatical, and said goodbye to home ownership. I had decluttered my world. Homeless, keyless, and most likely jobless, I imagined people thought I had lost the plot.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_02] It was the opposite of everything we had been taught, but I was about to find out the power of a less-is-more approach to life. So off I went around the world, relinquishing more possessions and mental clutter that I had been carrying around. I obtained experiences and growth that would set me up for years, more than any course or learning on the job could ever provide. I identified with the tag of minimalist.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02] This act of jettisoning was also supporting communities, charities, and the climate in a way that I never thought was possible. I would often get emails from the British Heart Foundation to say that the sale of my donated items contributed to research into heart disease and helped pay for pacemakers. My stuff was saving lives. But then came the return to real life.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_02] As the sun set on my nomadism, a new career appeared on the horizon, and I was reintroduced to a more, more, more way of working. Overconsumption, overwork, and overwhelm was everywhere. To many, this was normal, but it was too late for me. Similar to Neo in The Matrix, I had taken the red pill, and I could see what was actually occurring outside the illusion created by corporate systems.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_02] Clutter was masquerading as valuable work, and we were all complicit. Professional minimalism was born. In order to scale this disruptive minimalist approach into a professional context, I attended fewer meetings, asked more questions, and did less but better work. The result was that I became more focused, more productive, and more of an asset. I quickly became a role model. Less really was becoming more.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_02] While I pushed the boundaries on tradition, I was also learning more about our bias towards addition and overcomplexity based on where we were in the hierarchy. Mix that in with a real reluctance to let go, and you have your over-engineered, siloed, bureaucratic bloat generating overwork and burnout. Why we can't let go. Our identities are forged with the stuff we've invested in, and for some, detaching is tough.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_02] Rational decision-making gets lost in the dreaded FOMO, fear of missing out, and the stories we tell ourselves. Simplifying requires a level of professional bravery, but without that disruption, nothing changes. Removing all the clutter from my life exposed me to space and truth, therefore giving me little excuse to not pursue the things I really wanted to. Work can also be like that, as our busyness attachment creates more optics than outcomes, presenting the image of,

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_02] if I'm busy, therefore I must be needed and adding value. But are we really? 45% of people feel overwhelmed by the volume of meetings they attend, and 71% of leaders say that meetings are inefficient. Deep down, you probably already knew this. The bottom line is that becoming over-busy is easy to do, lazy even, as we allow other people's low-value priorities to infiltrate our limited resources.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_02] That's not surprising, given it feels instinctive, with our deep-seated origins of survival to be agreeable to group dynamics. We would likely miss out on shelter, food, and protection if we weren't, and would therefore be ostracized, left to fend for ourselves against the pitfalls of the wild. Putting boundaries up in a workplace system still makes us feel like there are potential dangers and risks of exclusion. Those perceived negative consequences

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_02] lead a lot of us to just avoid saying no entirely, ultimately leading to huge piles of yes. How busyness is killing us. Today, one in three people feels overwhelmed by busyness. And while this may feel like it gives us a daily purpose, it's in fact an illusion that's killing us, and faster than you think. Burnout reached record levels in 2022. More than half of us work while on holiday,

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_02] and more people are off sick in the United Kingdom now due to stress than in the last 10 years. There was even a word created in Japanese for death by overwork, karoshi. The World Health Organization indicates the volume of deaths by heart disease and stroke caused by overworking across the globe is higher than malaria. We are working more, overwhelmed by increasing demands, what feels like an infinite stream of requests, and that feeling of never enough time to do it all.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_02] But downing tools is simply not an option. You can throw in all the desktop yoga and well-being initiatives you want, but it still won't decrease the workload. Strategic abandonment, ruthless prioritization, simplification agenda, call it what you will. It's all about doing less, but better. Being a professional minimalist could positively change the way you work forever. And more importantly, it could save your life.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_02] You just listened to the post titled, Decluttering Your Life Could Save Your Life by Chris Lovett with theceomagazine.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Looking for a snack that works as hard as you do? Wonderful Pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts. Each one ounce serving has six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value. Pistachios are known for their protein power, fiber, and better for you unsaturated fats for a combination that may help keep you

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[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_02] Whether you're powering through your day or unwinding in the evening, Wonderful Pistachios is your perfect snacking companion. Get snackin' and get crackin' with a snack that packs a protein punch. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. Thank you to Chris. That statistic about burnout and overwork is pretty alarming, especially the Japanese term karoshi, meaning death by overwork.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_02] Over on Optimal Health Daily, my brother often talks about how stress and overwork can seriously impact our physical health. And it might seem like more work at first, but something I think is worth trying for a week, if not a month, is time tracking. Where is all our time going? And where can we cut back and minimize to avoid unnecessary stress and overwork? When we time track, it's eye-opening to see how much of our

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_02] quote-unquote busy time isn't actually productive at all. And it's nice to hear how minimalism spread into different areas of life for Chris. Like when he donated belongings to the British Heart Foundation, it must have felt really nice to know that it was, at some point, literally helping to save lives. A nice reminder that sometimes letting go can create some unexpected benefits. So maybe today and this week we can look at where we might be overcomplicating things,

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_02] whether it's our possessions or schedule or our work. And with that, I hope your week is starting off as well as possible. Have a great rest of your day. And I'll be back tomorrow reading to you where your optimal life awaits.