The Problem
Mankind is wired to conform to the enviorement around them. So, when you read about guys like Everett Bogue or Leo Babauta, you might feel like in order to be a minimalist you’d have to do what they’re doing to achieve that type of lifestyle. That’s not true, though, minimalism looks and feels different for each person. It’s not practical to carry everything you own in a backpack when you have a 9-month-old.
The Variable
The point of minimalism isn’t to get everything you own under 100 items, it’s to get rid of all the things you don’t use or really need; and that’s relative to each person. If everyone adopted the minimalist life and got rid of most everything they had, there would be no museums, no libraries, and can you imagine a minimalist hospital!?
The Equation
So, in your quest to be minimal, be aggressive in cutting out stuff but don’t be irrational. Besides, the goal of minimalism isn’t to have less stuff, it’s a lifestyle that enables you to live out your dreams which is a byproduct of having less. If your dream is to move into a smaller house and have a cheaper mortgage payment, then that’s not going to require you to get rid of as much stuff as if you were going to be a vagabond and travel the world.
My Solution
I’ll be honest, my dream is to quit my day job and take a trip around the world. So, my life is going to look a lot like Everett’s, but I have library of books (some that are very rare) and a collection of indigeouness artifacts from my travels that I don’t want to get rid of. My solution is to leave them at my family’s house.
What about you, what are your dreams? And what will it take to accomplish those?