The keynote speakers at our NAPO conference were the Minimalists. (http://www.theminimalists.com/) I had been looking forward to their presentation and I was not disappointed.
They told their life stories and the lessons they learned. Both men had great six-figure jobs, nice cars, big houses, all the latest electronics, and lots of stuff. It dawned on them that they were really caught up in gathering stuff and status. They were actually spending more than they were making. And they were not happy or contented. In fact, they felt stress, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and worry over growing debt. What was worse was that they didn’t have control of their time and thus didn’t control their own lives.
So in 2010 they took back control using the principles of minimalism to focus on what was important to each of them.
They reminded us that minimalists don’t focus on having less, rather they focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, and more contentment. Clearing out clutter made that room.
A few bites from their talk that I loved were:
You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.
Love people and use things – it doesn’t work well the other way around.
Feel comfortable getting rid of anything that is under $20 and less than 20 minutes away.
The final take away was that getting started is as simple as asking ourselves one question: how might your life be better if you owned fewer material possessions?
Jonda S. Beattie Professional Organizer