Why Extreme Minimalism Is Materialism
I just gave my personal development blog a makeover. Please head over and let me know what you think about it. At first, I tried so hard to have a minimalist design. The blog theme is just skin and bone. There is no side bar, no fancy banner nor any crazy design. It is just black text on a white background. The last part of the makeover is social media plugins. I tried so hard to convince myself that I don’t need a floating social share bar, a call to action or related posts. The blog can speak for itself. Sadly the marketer inside me couldn’t agree. If people cannot easily share my blog post, nobody will read them. If I cannot convert visitors into readers, I am a horrible marketer. At the end, I wasted a few good hours for a pointless debate. I decided to forget trying to be a minimalist and keep being a marketer. I do whatever works and makes me happy.
Lesson: Extreme minimalism sucks.
Being minimalist can be good for someone else, but it doesn’t mean it will work for you and me.
If you live in middle of nowhere on a farm, where you cannot even see your neighbor from your house, giving up a practical car like Ford Explorer just doesn’t make sense. Most likely the closest bus stop is a few kilometers away and walking to the closest town would take you hours. Keep in mind, there are no street lights at night I don’t think a bicycle headlamp will be enough. Not owning a car in this situation won’t simplify your life, it makes things more complicated. The car is a necessary. It makes your life easier and more enjoyable. It helps to make a lot of things possible.
I have a hard time finding ways to adopt the lifestyle of an extreme minimalist. I can’t see myself giving up my closet with all the beautiful vintage furs , comfy sweaters, my giant hat collection or shoes. There is no way for me to wear 6 items or less in a month. I make money from wearing free clothes. For me giving up clothes also means giving up a source of income. At the end of the day, I have a mortgage to pay and a family to feed, I cannot do that.
Extreme Minimalism is Extreme Materialism (click to tweet)
Focusing on possessions is materialism. It doesn’t matter if you are buying 100 shirts or trying to give, sell or burn 100 piece of clothes to reduce the size of the closet, your mind is still focusing on the possessions. Please don’t get me wrong I enjoy reading about Dave Bruno’s 100 thing challenge but I don’t think it is for me. When you care too much about the amount of things you have instead of their values, it is not healthy.
Sometimes too little is too much. To live with very few possessions, you can waste too much time and energy to make it possible. You can make your life harder. Some people can manage to live happy being an extreme minimalist, but most people can’t.
In my opinion, instead of focusing on the quantity of possessions, we should focus on the quality.
Spend most of your time focusing on the important things in your life. (Click to tweet)
Stop torturing yourself trying to count how many things you have (unless that is what makes you happy). Simplify your life. Get rid of things that doesn’t add a lot of value to your life and focus on the things that makes you happy. Everyone is different. Someone can be happy with 100 things or less. Other people can’t live with less than 1000 items. Do whatever works for YOU.
It can be a splurge, but it is okay as long as you don’t do it everyday and forget about saving. If you think a Ferrari will make you happy and you can afford it, get one. Just don’t build your happiness with borrowed money.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is not the number of possessions you have but how happy you are.
Be happy !
This post is sponsored by Ford.
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