I recently had a helpful conversation online with someone I’ve never met.
I posted a post about minimalism on social media (as I normally do) and she or he responded with a comparatively common response: “I’m just afraid of eliminating something I want later.”
Of course, there aren’t any quick and straightforward answers to this fear – especially once we’ve never met. I do not know where she lives, what number of things she has, how she imagines her ideal life, and even her tendency to throw away things she’ll need later.
So I offered a typical one-sentence answer to this query: “Aren’t you afraid to carry on to more stuff than you wish?”
Her answer went something like this: “No, it is a silly thing to be afraid of. Why should I be afraid to carry greater than I want?
In her response, I used to be quickly reminded of 1 belief that motivates all minimalist pursuits:
Over there is the danger of getting more material goods than I want.
The specifics of this motivation may vary from individual to individual.
For example, we’d think:
- Having too many things prevents me from spending quality time with my family.
- Having too many things prevents me from achieving financial freedom.
- Having an excessive amount of means I can not share with others.
- Having an excessive amount of is a threat to the environment.
- Having an excessive amount of means my priorities are within the unsuitable place.
- Having too many things slows down my faith journey.
- Having too many things deprives me of the chance to pursue greater passions.
The specific motivation may change, however the overarching understanding stays the identical:
This is the bulb moment that motivates minimalism.
Over there is the danger of getting greater than I want:
Danger of losing one’s life chasing after things that do not matter.
