These are just a few of the advantages of minimalism to bring you closer to its strong effects. On your way to a minimalist lifestyle you will discover many more individual advantages that minimalism offers you personally.
The connection between minimalism and our habits
Now that you know what is meant by a minimalist lifestyle, why it makes sense and what its benefits are, it's time to take a closer look at your habits. In this chapter you will learn more about the connections between our (still) consumption-driven habits and minimalism. So you're one step closer to the practice again. It's likely that as you read through this chapter, you'll realize how minimalism could enrich your life - don't worry, in the next chapter we'll get down to work on the practical implementation.
The connection between thoughts and habits
Our thoughts control our habits. Our thoughts naturally also control our shopping habits, our media habits and similar habits. So we should take a closer look at how the thought patterns that shaped our consumer behaviour came about. The constant hype about the latest car model, the latest smartphone, the biggest TV and the most expensive shoes - does that make us happy? No, not really, because we are constantly under stress to meet these strange expectations. From experience, we can say that many of these consumption-driven habits arise out of fear. For example, there would be the fear of not fitting into society, of losing one's social status and thus of becoming an outsider. So it can't hurt if you take a little time to investigate whether there may be similar fears behind your consumption habits. These fears are human, because who wants to be alone? The hoarding and collecting lulls us into a deceptive security. Most habits are already so firmly anchored in our behavioural habits that we no longer perceive them. This is a good thing, because it makes our everyday life a lot easier. Otherwise, we would stand in front of the refrigerated shelf every time we shop and philosophize about which butter should be put in the shopping basket and why. Habits therefore make our everyday lives easier. Around 80% of our behavioural repertoire consists of habitual actions. Well, at some point in life every person comes to a point where he wants to change something. And this works best through changes in our habits. You want to make your life more minimalistic? Then you should become aware of habits that do not fit your new attitude towards life and change them in a targeted way. That sounds easy at first, but have you ever tried running backwards all day? No way! It would be incredibly exhausting because we're not used to it. Changing habits means being very reflective, motivated and mindful over a longer period of time in order to uncover old patterns of behaviour and replace them with new, better ones.
Setting new habits as goals
In order to achieve our goals, i.e. the establishment of our new minimalist lifestyle, we need one thing above all else: motivation. Motivation arises as soon as we have set ourselves a goal that is realistic, challenging and not overstraining at the same time. This goal can best be subdivided into several subgoals - this works wonderfully with minimalism. After all, minimalism has incredibly many different facets and is more a development than a fixed concept. In the next chapter you will get to know many subgoals of minimalism. Maybe some of them suit you or you can think of other inspiring partial goals. Set one minimalist goal per week and divide it into seven steps. Let us take the example of the "minimalist bathroom project" as an illustration. This project could be a weekly project and can be divided into seven different steps:
- Definition of goal: What does my perfect bathroom look like and what purpose should it serve?
- Clean out the bathroom (more on this in chapters 3 and 4)
- Give away, sell or throw away misted-out things
- Seek inspiration for redesign
- Remodel the bathroom
- simple structures, clear shapes and unobtrusive colours
- Search for natural alternatives for chemically contaminated products
- Plan regular cleaning and clearing out
Of course, your seven-part plan could look quite different, after all, you have very individual demands on your bathroom. By setting goals, deadlines and sub-goals, you first change your environment and then lay the foundation for changing your habits. Clearing out and designing is an important step, because in a tidy and newly designed bathroom it is difficult to implement the old habits. The more goals and partial goals you achieve, the more motivated you will become and the easier it will be for you to replace your old habits with new ones.
Habits of minimalism
Minimalists are individuals and therefore there are no universal habits for them to live by. The basic idea of minimalism is to simplify life as much as possible and to get rid of unnecessary ballast in order to experience more happiness and contentment in everyday life. This can express itself for each minimalist in different habits. So your habits of minimalism will be strongly influenced by what contributes to your happiness in life. Anyone who strives for minimalism basically pursues the following goals: You want to have more time for yourself or your loved ones, you want to get rid of unnecessary ballast to live more freely and to concentrate on the really important things. Depending on preferences, the goals of minimalists can look quite different. What everyone has in common, however, is that they want to achieve an overriding goal with minimalism. The more precisely this goal is defined, the easier and faster you will achieve it. Let's assume your goal is to reduce your expenses by 50% in 6 months, clean out your apartment and accumulate fewer possessions. The saved money and time you would like to use to develop your career, maybe start your own business, finally have more time for your family, learn Qigong or finance a long journey. Ultimately, the great goal of a minimalist lifestyle is to experience more personal freedom and to live more self-determinedly, in other words to free oneself from the common paradigms - the habits of minimalism that emerge depend on your individual path.
30 Days Minimalism Challenge: Practical Tips for a Minimalist Lifestyle
It is finally time, we start together into practice! Of course you can live out minimalism very individually and accordingly not all of the tips listed here may fit you - or maybe not yet! In general, you should make the implementation of at most one of these tips as your current task per week. In some cases one tip per month is enough! What's the matter with you? Because we humans need around 30 days to integrate a new habit into our everyday lives. In these 30 days we have to fight daily with our old habits and have to concentrate with much strength on the new habits and tasks. If you now take on five or ten tasks at once, this can lead to chaos. The probability that you will not permanently maintain these changes is then correspondingly high. So, take your minimalist journey slowly, but more consistently.
Leave your comfort zone
Through the lived minimalism you have to leave your previous comfort zone and get involved in new experiences. Maybe that's why your neighbours will look at you crookedly or your friends will get to know you as a kind of changed person. You will quickly notice who is enthusiastic and willing to support you and who thinks your project is strange. Of course you don't owe anyone an explanation and don't have to justify yourself for your intention. However, if you live with your partner and/or children, then it is worthwhile to say a few words about your plans and involve the family in this process. There is of course a certain potential for conflict buried here, but with loving communication you will also overcome this hurdle - it is the first step out of your comfort zone! You made a conscious decision to take this step and for good reason. So stay consistent and self-confident with your decision, after all this is about your personal happiness, which only you can shape yourself.
Minimalism in thought
Minimalism is about consciously and attentively observing one's own thoughts. This succeeds wonderfully with regular meditation, yoga, playing the piano, dancing and similar activities. During these activities you are in the here and now and also concentrate