The School of Greatness - 600 Live with Less with Joshua Fields Millburn

Episode Date: February 10, 2018

"HOW MIGHT YOUR LIFE BE BETTER WITH LESS? I know so many people who are struggling with debt. They are looking for ways to retake control of their finances, and often times they feel hopeless. For all of you who are feeling this way, I wanted to bring you back this clip from a previous episode with Joshua Fields Millburn. This 5 Minute Friday talks about what it's like, and what it means, to live a minimalist lifestyle. If you are looking to take control of your life, this may be something you will want to consider. Learn all about the benefits of minimalism in just five minutes, on Episode 600. In This Episode You Will Learn: What minimalists ask themselves (1:02) How minimalism helps with debt (1:28) The oldest person Joshua helped become a minimalist (2:07) The youngest person Joshua has known to be a minimalist (2:28) The truth about the minimalist lifestyle (2:58) The 3 rules of minimalist mindset (4:10)

This is 5-Minute Friday! Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the minimalist Joshua Fields Milburn on today's Super Pumps. Now for those that feel like you are overwhelmed with too much stuff in your house, too many things, too many possessions, this is the episode for you to learn more about why less is more. Now Joshua Fields Milburn is a writer and a minimalist. He's the co-founder of the popular blog and podcast that gets millions of downloads and followers on the blog called The Minimalists, as well as the author of several books on the same topic. And he owns fewer than 288

things, people. That's right. Only 288 possessions total. How might your life be better with less? It's a counterintuitive question at first, right? Because we're always thinking about more. How do I get this? How do I bring this into my life? How do I achieve that? How do I take on this new responsibility, this new project? How do I get this promotion? But how might my life be better with less? That's a different question. And for me at first, it was less commitment, less financial obligation. For me, I had all that debt. And so the first benefit for me was regaining control of my finances and developing a plan to deal with that. And to do that, I had to be less focused on the

stuff. I had to sell a lot of stuff. I had to stop accumulating and buying things because the price tag is one cost, but then there's all these other costs as well. You have to have the space to store it or to clean it or to take care of it or to charge it or to whatever, put gas in it, all of these things. And so by asking that question, how might your life be better with less? You identify what the benefits are for you. And they're different for everyone. I had a 93 year old come to our last event in San Diego and she came in the hug line afterward and she goes, I just want you to know that she brought three generations of daughters. So her daughter, her granddaughter and her great granddaughter with her. And she goes, I just want you to know that I'm 93 years old and I am finally simplifying my

life for the first time. We had a 13 year old show up in Omaha, Nebraska. And I'm like, Hey buddy, did your mom drag you out here? I see your mom, you're with your mom here. He's like, are you kidding me? I dragged her out here because I thought maybe my parents could find some, some value, some benefits in this minimalist message. And what I learned is the benefits are going to be different for everyone, but we're all asking the same question. It's how do I live a more meaningful life? And part of that has to do with just changing our focus to figure out what's important. For me, minimalism isn't a radical lifestyle. It's a practical lifestyle. And my version of minimalism is going to look different from your version. It's going to look different from Leo's version who has six kids.

His will necessarily look different. I'll tell you this. Leo is the ultimate minimalist. He washes his shirts in the sink still. No way. He doesn't make his family do that, but he does it as a ritual to show that he can. He doesn't have to have this attachment to these things. I like the washer and dryer.

Amen. No, I have a washer and dryer. I do too, but he finds value in that ritual. And so that the washer and dryer. No, I like simplicity. I have a washer and dryer. I do too, but he finds value in that ritual. And so that that's different for him. And what I've realized is that as a minimalist, everything I own serves a purpose or it brings me joy. So, so whether it's serving a purpose, like the equipment that you have here, that all, those are all tools or they bring you a joy, like aesthetic joy. Like you have, you know, these photos and artwork and things on, on, on the walls and hangers and things like that, that, that serves an aesthetic purpose as well. And so it brings you joy in some way. I think that's

great. I don't want people to deprive themselves or think that's necessary. Now you can temporarily deprive yourself. I think sometimes that's, that's helpful. If you remove something from your life for a temporary period of time, like I did with the cell phone, to figure out when I bring it back in, does this actually add value? And if so, how can it add the most value to my life? Number one, let it go. It's just stuff.

Number two, you can't change the people around you, but you can change the people around you. And number three, love people and use things, because the opposite never works.