Бесплатный фрагмент - Sensible minimalism

Introduction

Minimalism, what is it all about? And what do we need it for? And how can we be so interested in him that we can devote a whole book to him? Especially when you consider that a lot of books have already been written about him. And this, my dear ones, is our philosophy of life and style based on simplifying and reducing redundant elements in various spheres of life, such as material possessions, lifestyle, design, art. It calls for the conscious choice of only those things that are really necessary to meet your needs and achieve your goals, and the rejection of everything superfluous that hinders the achievement of harmony and simplicity. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Pretty reasonable!

The point of minimalism is to get rid of the excess in order to focus on what is really important. This can lead to less stress, more efficiency, better financial standing, and easier physical and mental space. Why burden yourself with something extra, why incur extra costs, extra responsibility, if you can live easier and in many ways freer. After all, the less you have in your life that is superfluous, the less you dependon it all. And the less headaches you have associated with all this. Minimalism promotes a more informed and conscious lifestyle, helping people find balance and harmony in today’s world overloaded with information and needs.

Minimalism is attractive for a number of reasons, which may be different for different people living a particular life. Here are some of the main aspects that make minimalism attractive:

Simplify your Life: Minimalism offers a way to simplify your life by getting rid of the frills and unnecessary things that can be a source of stress and anxiety. It is very relevant for those who are exhausted by this life, trying to do everything in time, to do everything, to achieve everything. And then, once, an idea! Which says that it’s just not necessary. It is necessary only that and in such quantity that and how much is necessary.

Liberation from materialism: Many people turn to minimalism to free themselves from the constant hunt for material things and needs, sincerely striving for deeper meaning and satisfaction in life. Well, this is our common sense in general. We are not some hamsters who need to fill their lives with things in order to feel calm. Material values are necessary values. But not the most important ones. There are more important things. We’ll talk about them.

Focus on values: Minimalism helps people identify their true values and goals by throwing out all the unnecessary things and focusing on what is really important to them. For example, freedom, love, people. What, isn’t that more important? More important! If you understand this. We will understand this with you. That’s what this book was written for.

Environmental awareness: Reducing consumption and using resources in accordance with the principles of minimalism can help reduce the negative impact on the environment. Well, this is, of course, a global goal, but you may not be interested in it personally. But if a lot of things in your life also feel like garbage, it’s definitely a smart decision to minimize the amount of stuff that goes through you. You just need to tune in to this. And you’ll tune in. That is why this book is provided to you!

Financial Freedom: By reducing expenses and getting rid of unnecessary things, people can achieve financial freedom, having more free time and resources to focus on the important aspects of life. This means not constantly chasing higher incomes, which is still impossible, but rationalizing expenses. Then there will be enough for many necessary things. And most importantly, without spending money on any nonsense, they can be skillfully multiplied, putting, as they say, into action. And not in any junk.

Increasing happiness and well-being: Many proponents of minimalism point out that simplifying and focusing on essential things leads to higher levels of happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction. This is logical. This book will help you understand this. When the passion in life becomes less, it turns out that happinessи is not somewhere where it is most, it is already here, under your nose.

In general, minimalism is not only a lifestyle, but also a philosophy that helps people find balance, harmony and meaning in today’s world, saturated with consumerism and an abundance of information. In order not to let everything in, not to drag everything on yourself, not to overload your life, you can and should learn to do the main thing in everything. And stick to it.

I myself came up with the idea of minimalism at a time when моей жизниthere was too much stress in my life and too much, above all, psychological stress, because of which I began to lose control of myself and various other processes. And I realized, and then in the necessary literature I found confirmation of my thoughts, that life should be filtered, leaving only the important, necessary, and important things, and not trying to grasp everything. We need to get rid of the superfluous, unnecessary things, we need to go to a life free from noise and all sorts of junk, to get rid of any sensory overload in order to live normally, and not in a fuss. And this desire, and then an active desire for such a life, led me to a kind of harmony and satisfaction. Not immediately, of course, I had to go through a lot, review, abandon many habits and passions, rise above the animal essence, but the result appeared. I began to miss a lot of what I had. I no longer tried to have everything, to embrace the vast, to have time everywhere and do everything. Because it is understood that this is not necessary. I left only the main thing as I understoodit, focusing on fewer things and thereby significantly improved my life, simplifying it.

And then, of course, I started helping other people I worked with optimize their lives in a similar way. I promoted the idea of minimalism through the concept of freedom, through finding really important things in their lives with people, through setting priorities. But now, with the help of this book, I will describe the important principles of changing life towards minimalism directly through this very concept. I am sure that many of you who read this book will wonder if you need to have all the things that you already have or want to have, following your instincts and public opinion. Or it is better to live a simpler life, but with more peace and tranquility. Yes, and with greater efficiency.

I think you’ll make a choice in favor of really important things, and you won’t want everything, and even more so at once. So what we’re talking about here is a smarter life. Let’s just say that you are being asked to rise a few steps higher, higher above your animal nature. I’ll explain why to do this, and how to do it. Minimalism is a sensible thing. It leads to the harmony of life. There’s nothing fanatical about it. You don’t have to believe in anything. Everything is verifiable and measurable. Read carefully, calmly, and think about what you read. And something, yes, will change in your life after this reading. Of course, for the better. I won’t recommend anything bad!

Chapter 1. Getting started

The first thing you need to understand for a person who has decided to embark on the path of minimalism is that minimalism is not asceticism, with which it is often confused. As for asceticism, it does not attract many people and, in my opinion, is often an inappropriate extreme. Asceticism may be useful for spiritual development, but it is not very suitable for everyday life. Unlike minimalism. Therefore, these things should not be confused. Minimalism and asceticism do have similar features, but there are still significant differences between them, which include the following points:

Goal and Philosophy: Minimalism generally focuses on simplifying life and focusing on what’s really important, with the goal of achieving balance and satisfaction. While asceticism is mainly focused on the renunciation of material pleasures and focuses on achieving spiritual or religious goals.

Attitude to material things: Minimalism assumes that material things can be present in life, but they should be minimal and serve specific purposes. While asceticism usually involves the rejection of excessive consumption, the excess of which ascetics sometimes see even as a necessary norm, and also it is the refusal to own things, to own them, sinceasceticsютbelieve that material things can distract from spiritual development. This is often the case, the more things there are, the more our minds are focused on them. But in the material world, they are needed, and it is absolutely for the sake of spirituality that to give them up is to go against one’s nature. It may make sense to some, but many people are not attracted to such a life.

Connection to religious or spiritual practices: Asceticism is often associated with religious or spiritual practices, such as prayer, meditation, or fasting, and seeks spiritual purification and enlightenment. Minimalism, while it may include aspects of spiritual practice for some people, is usually not as strictly religious or spiritual. A minimalist can be just an ordinary person, with a car, with an apartment, with other similar things, but he will not work hard to have a large number of them, so that they are constantly updated without any need. A minimalist defines a reasonable standard for himself, which he adheres to. It’s like eating just as much as you need to keep your body in a normal state. And do not eat too much, so that then the stomach hurts and extra pounds appear. But do not starve like ascetics, exhausting yourself in this way.

Aspects of life that apply: Minimalism often covers all aspects of life, including relationships, career, finances, and the physical environment. While asceticism tends to be more limited in its application, it often focuses on spiritual practice and renunciation of material possessions. Therefore, I repeat, minimalists, they are from this world, unlike ascetics, in whom some people see strange personalities.

Although minimalism and austerity have their own unique aspects and goals, they can both be ways of living that aim for a more harmonious and satisfying existence. I do not belittle any of the concepts, I only point out the differences between them and emphasize the most popular approach to life among people — minimalistic, in comparison with ascetic.

And here it is important to see and understand this difference, so as not to be afraid of minimalism, wanting to change your life. You won’t have to walk around in rags and eat scraps if you become a minimalist. Rather, your life will become more reasonable, rational, and efficient. After all, if you cut off all the excess, the rest that is important will get more of your attention.

Having separated minimalism from asceticism, then a person should understand why he needs it. That is, it is important to take into account all the advantages of this lifestyle. A minimalistic approach to life has many advantages. Including the following:

Reducing stress and anxiety: Freeing yourself from unnecessary material possessions and responsibilities can reduce stress and anxiety, as it becomes easier for a person to manage their resources. It’s like not having a hundred kids and then not having to worry about each of them, but having a couple, no more. But those who like it can have a lot of children, then other areas of life will subside. So with minimalism, either a person needs a quiet life, or he will be forced to live in vain and stress. Many people, I know, want peace, quiet, spiritual comfort, they do not need extra tension. Ideas of minimalism can give them all this.

More free time: Fewer things means less time spent on their care, cleaning and maintenance. This gives you more free time for activities that bring joy and satisfaction. But most importantly, this is a time to think about different aspects of your life in general, you can say that this is a time for self-development and increasing awareness. After all, if you fuss, do a lot of things, you just don’t have time to think properly about how you live and why you do this or that. And when you clear your life of excess, you will have more time to think about everything that is in it.

Focus on quality, not quantity: Minimalism allows you to focus on quality relationships, self-care and personal development, instead of striving to accumulate material wealth. This is a broader view of life, a more complete approach to it. It’s like eating a variety of foods, rather than stuffing your stomach with just one thing, no matter how delicious it is. To live only for the sake of material things is to look too narrowly at life, missing out on many other things that are in it.

Saving money: Buying onlyгоwhat is really necessary helps you save money and invest it in more meaningful goals, such as health, travel, education, such as assets that can then make a profit or for charity, thanks to which a person can create a good reputation for himself, many will love and respect him that you can also invest in some business. When you are loved and respected, you will be trusted. Anything is better than buying up all sorts of junk in excess, just to get emotions or completely excessive comfort that relaxes.

Environmental aspect: Less consumption also leads to a reduction in waste and negative impact on the environment, which contributes to the conservation of natural resources and a reduction in the carbon footprint. Well, this has already become a hackneyed topic. Because of our insatiability, we have almost ruined the entire planet. We’re making it worse for ourselves. Then there will be nothing to breathe and nothing to drink, and conflicts may arise over the remaining resources that will not be enough for a barbaric and predatory lifestyle. In general, we gnaw on our planet and spoil it, and we have no other home. And for what? For the sake of new clothes, for the sake of a new car, for the sake of some trinket that we thought was funny? And then tell me that man is a rational being.

Greater awareness and gratitude: Minimalism teaches us to appreciate what we have and find satisfaction in the simple moments of life, which leads to a deeper awareness of the value of life and all that is in it and gratitude for each daythat we are given. Everyone has seen how insatiable and ungrateful greedy people can be. Everything is not enough for them, everything is not the same, real madmen. And how peaceful can be wiser, more conscious people who understand the pointlessness of self-indulgence. You can realize the importance of a breath of air not only when you are sorely lacking it, but also when you think about it properly, having fun about all your fuss. A few minutes without air and you’ll be gone. And without all the stuff you go crazy to buy, you can live your whole life.

Overall, minimalism helps create a more conscious, balanced, and satisfying life in which a person focuses on what is truly important to them. Some say that in this caseя, people will not have enough motivation to live an active life, people will study less, work less, create all the fruits of civilization that make our life more comfortable, we will all become poor and everything will be in short supply. Controversial point. First of all, motivation can always be found, but not in those lowly manifestations of human nature that make him an animal, destroying everything for the sake of the here and now, without any sense and to the detriment of long-term comfort. That’s why the replacement of conditionally old furniture with a new one should be a reason to do something? What, you can’t motivate a person with something more important than this hamster fuss? You can, of course. And secondly, what makes us think that we need a frenzied motivation? What makes us think that progress should be fast? People are already too conservative by nature, any changes cause them excessive stress, so they often resist them, even if it is a positive change in many ways, so why should we drive horses?

Therefore, while all the main advantages of minimalism as an idea of life, they outweigh the disadvantagesthat can come to mind. But the most important thing about this idea is that it is not difficult for people to adopt it, if they agree with it, if they themselves want to livelike this. To do this, you do not need to cut your hair under one comb, you do not need to influence anyone, teach anyone to live, impose something on someone, as in the case of implementing other ideas. Everyone should act this way, this way — there is no such barbarism in this idea. If someone doesn’t want to live like this, it’s up to them. And who wants to, he will be a minimalist and he does not particularly bother anyone. You тут change yourself here, your behavior, your attitude to life, regardless of other people. Others can choke on all sorts of junk, with bulging eyes chasing after all sorts of surpluses, and you will live with enough things, benefits, while being fully satisfied.

Chapter 2. Conflict of Interest

Although I say that the minimalist does not bother anyone, because he leads a more reasonable lifestyle, without encroaching on other people’s goods because of the same greed, but in fact, some people, some forces may see him as a threat to their interests. For example, those who need to constantly sell something, which means that they need active consumers or those who follow the rapid development of the economy, so it is important that people consume more, and other people, respectively, work more and producemore, so they may not be interested in such a person at least. And all sorts of freeloaders, social parasites, just greedy people, want others to work hard, so that these parasites get more from their surplus labor. This is like a boss who wants the employee to not only fulfill the norm, but also over it, so that he, this boss, appropriates this surplus for himself. And that’s why someone who doesn’t need a lotто, who can go through ten years or more in just good pantsто, who doesn’t do any nonsense, like replacing a car with a new one every three or five years, is not only not interesting to those who are obsessed with all sorts of junk, but also can even irritate them. And if there are a lotof them, who doesn’t need too many? It is obvious that society, the economy, and business will have to be rebuilt.

And then there may be a conflict of interest. And it will lead to conflicts. Greedy people will want to use those who have enough to satisfy their greed at the expense of them. Although, if you think about it, looking at the current, even local, even global conflicts, you get the impression that because of greed and insatiability, laziness and stupidity, people already have enough of these conflicts, and these conflicts look more serious, in terms of tension and consequences, than the alleged conflicts due to people’s unwillingness to play consumption and their other vicious games. For some inheritance, relatives can bite each other’s throats much faster than if some parasite is dissatisfied with the fact that he can not climb on the neck of a minimalist who does not want to tear his veins for extra junk. Therefore, no matter how you look at it, people will find a reason for conflicts, they will have interests in neither one nor the other. ТSo you should not be afraid of these conflictsif someone decided to change their lifestyle and become a reasonable consumer, that is, a minimalist. But you need to be able to respond to them correctly. After all, any aggression against you requires a reasonable response. So that they don’t get bitten.

For example, based on my experience, I can say something about women, especially attractiveones, because of which men often strive for too much and even risk their lives for this, getting into various conflict situations. Such ladies are wortha lot and want a lot. They will not put up with the minimum that a man can offerthem, as a reasonable amount of resources for a normal life. A woman will ask for more, especially a crazy woman who is unable to realize her senseless greed. Some of them, let’s put it bluntly, need a donkey that will plow on them from morning to night, for the sake of satisfying all their endless desires. In return, they offer their bodies, which for men who are obsessed with sex is the only valueof life, sometimes the only one, because they do not know about others, they have not fully feltothers. But not for all men, intimacy with a woman is such a great valuethat for her sake they deprive themselves of their freedom. You can live with women and simpler, who have more modest requests, and even better, with like-minded women to live, for whom such a way of life, where you are content with a minimumof om and om необходимого, and not choke on greed, wanting to have everything that is possible, is also a value.

Then you don’t need to do too much for the sake of women and risk a lot, no matter how gorgeous they are, because they are not worth it. But this is if you think rationally. Feelings that arise in people because of attraction, in particular, a man to a woman, usually go against common sense. And women know it. They know that if a man talks about love, then he’s on fire. And then it depends on the woman what she will do with it. Either use it in a parasitic way, or it will respond in much the same way — with feelings. But the man is already on the hook if he has lost his head. Therefore, it is important to try not to expose yourself to temptation and avoid close communication with mercantile and obsessed with material values women. Well, so as not to be lost. Such women do not need a man anyway, he is only a source of benefits for them, a kind of lemon that they intend to squeeze to the last. Therefore, it is necessary tothink ten times whether a man needs such an expensive doll, which not only requires resources in abundance, but even worse-a man is ready to exploit mercilessly and substitutethem for them. And since men often do too much precisely because of women, including committing crimes for them, it is important for a man who has decided to embark on the path of a minimalist to first deal with his relationships with women and with his attitude towards women.

Because there will definitely be a conflict of interest here. If a woman is chasing material goods, she will not get along with a minimalist who does not need much. She’ll either break it, or she’ll take it out and finish it. And then a man will either do something stupid out of emotion, or break up with such a woman, but at the same time there will most likely be a wound in his soul that will prevent him from living a normal life.

Chapter 3. Freedom

The main thing that gives minimalism is freedom! And freedom is valuable in itself. This is a great value that many people do not fully realize, because they are not properly familiar with its taste.It is always relative, subjective, illusory, but when you feel it, when your life becomes less completely unnecessary obligations, debts, restrictions, you definitely become happier. Even the acquisition of expensive and beautiful things, the same houses, cars, fashionable clothes and other things, will not make a person as happy as the freedom thathe will find thanks to minimalism, among other things. Of course, I agree that it all depends on the configuration of the brain. Some people long to be in chains, to feel calm and comfortable, because this worldview was instilled in them with their mother’s milk, because they are used to unfreedom. And even if they have to plow for ten people, they consider it normal, because they have not seen anything else and do not know. But a life free from the burden of unnecessary responsibility is better, because such a life is easier and calmer, as well as more diverse and beautiful. When you’re chasing more things, more possessions, you’ll never get enough. This is an objective law of life, which is expressed in the subjective experience of each person, who is always not enough. Getting rid of the feeling of dissatisfaction is like starting to breathe deeply.

So when people who have earned enough money to provide for themselves with the most necessary things, say that they still have little money, then we can safely conclude that they will always have littlemoney, no matter how much they do not haveit. And they don’t get it often. Therefore, they will always suffer, no matter how much they receive. They will live their entire life or most of it in a state of dissatisfaction. And this state will not differ much from a similar state that occurs when a person really lacks the means to live, when the necessary resources are not available and he is simply forced to suffer. The situations are different, but the feelings are very similar. This can also be understood by the crazy things that people do because of dissatisfaction. For example, people who, for example, lost five out of ten million, according to my observations, are more likely to attempt suicide or do something else crazy withделатьthem than people who simply have nothing to eat. ПBecause the contrast of emotions is different. Negative emotions are stronger when you lose something than when you don’t have something.It always hurts more to fall from the top than from a small height.

So, financial freedom and mental freedom are two different things. One doesn’t necessarily lead to another. Otherwise, many people advertise financial success многие, as something perfect, instilling in people that if they разбогатеютget rich, and it doesn’t matter how, then everything, their life will become paradise. But nothing like that. Not only do people get rich in various ways, some of which make their lives dangerous and stressful, but the sword of Damocles begins to hang over them, so the state of mind may not change after you have the most. You will still be hungry to much and suffer, you will be nervous, as if you have nothing to eat, there is nothing to feed the children, you are not at home, you live in the basement.

But the minimalist knows for sure that the state of mind is primary, the rest depends on him. If you are determined to feel good, you will not beannoyed by the fact that your apartment is not big enough or does not exist at all, that you can not afford all the things that advertising imposes on you, that you are a beggar just because you do not consume according to some rules. there are standards. You will understand that your sense of happiness does not depend on it. It depends on your ability to be content with what you need and, if possible, to acquire and achieve more, just to the extentthatit is boring, so that you do not become a slave to money and do not confine yourself to the fact that the pursuit of resources has become an end in itself. You don’t have to chase luxury, you don’t have to chase fashion, but you won’t go without pants, of course, because it’s not poverty that drives you, but a sense of proportion. The golden mean for you will be a lifestyle that will give you freedom from different extremes. You are not a poor man who can’t afford anything, but you are not a rich man who is all business, all worries, and only formally considered more free, but in fact many and many are on the hook.

How does minimalism lead to freedom? Not all people see the connection between one and the other, unlike, say, the connection between wealth and freedom, when you can afford almost anything you want. But there is such a connection. It points to the most important symbol of freedom-choice. It all starts with a person telling themselves or coming to the realization that they don’t owe anyone anything. He should not be rich, successful, have some property that is difficult for him to get, should not meet anyone’s requirements and standards. He has the right to live as he likes. Of course, if a person does not live in such a country, in such a society where people are forced to meet certain standards, although even in this case he can find an opportunity to change his place of residence so as not to adapt to such requirements, then in a normal society he can choose to fight for more and more resources and greater influence by never being complacent or living in a calm, measured way, having what you need. That is, in the matter of freedom, it is important to understandthat you don’t owe anyone anything. This already expands your choice of how to live.

They may force you to do something, threaten you, intimidate you, or use force on you, and I may bribe you, lead you to the right actions, including through manipulation, but this in no way means that you have to do something. There is no debt. There is forced submission, yes, when someone who is stronger forces you to do something that you don’t want to do, and everything else is a matter of choice. But strength is also relative, for every force there is another force, every force can be outplayed and any force, for example, the same power of wealth, it is also dependent, like weak people. Therefore, there is no complete comfort at any level of the social hierarchy, everywhere there are difficulties, fears and problems. But when you choose a certain way of life, in particular, realizing that you do not owe anything to anyone, so you can not do what you can afford not to do, you enjoy the freedom of choice and it brings you satisfaction. And there are still no guarantees about anything else.

If you want to, you should owe someone something, but if you don’t want to, don’t think about any debts and don’t accept them. Minimalism, as a means of purifying the mind, both from your own passions and from other people’s suggestions and manipulations, is an excellent option for a free life. This concept, idea, way of life tells a person that you can afford to live easier, more interesting, calmer, freer, happier, but whatever you want to call it and perceive it, the main thing is that you can afford such a life себе. Just do not do like others, live by your own rules, the essence of which is not to be a hostage to your passions. And such a life will be smart enough, because a person will make an informed decision, deciding to tame their passions and not succumb to the influence of others in order to live a more comfortable life for themselves. It is not forced to fight for some heights, it is not forced to strive for success, which is available to everyone, but which, obviously, not many will achieve. To tear or not to tear the veins for the sake of excess is a human right, which he can consciously give himself.

All the examples I know of in this area, when people consciously became minimalists, not because someone said, set an example, and you just repeated it without thinking, but because they thought about this idea properly before following it, indicate that a person sees benefits from such an image life. This idea does not say that you should live this way and that, it says whether you want to live like this, so that… well, then the person decides for himself why he needs it. No one will forcibly drag a person into such a life. Well, except when the authorities cannot feed their people because of their unwise policies and therefore force them to live modestly, contrary to the wishes of the people. But this is not minimalism, this is, you know, a forced measure, this is an imposed ideology, propaganda of the life of society that is beneficial to the authorities, which has nothing to do with freedom of choice. And so, to understand that by giving up too much, you free up, at least, time for more important things, this is something that anyone can do.

In a world where people use violence, fear, and manipulation to constantly force each other to do something in order to use each other, this «whether you want to livelike this» seems like a completely humane proposal. It reflects respect for the freedom of people, no matter what, but freedom when a person has a choice of how to live. If you don’t want to be a minimalist, don’t. You can choose a different life, you can упахиватьсяget drunk, strive to meet someone’s requirements, expectations, desires, you can choke on something, constantly envy someone and hate someone, because they have more, better, more beautiful, this is your business. Or you can define a reasonable measure in everything and stick to it. And at the same time, pay more attention to what is important, and all this mouse fuss, just as much as is required. This is the freedom of our life, when you don’t even have a choice, but feel it.

Chapter 4. Children

Now let’s talk about children. Some people with whom I talked on the topic of minimalism told me that if one person does not need so much, then for the sake of children, for the sake of their bright future and a normal present, you still need to try to work more and better, in order to earn money properly, to pay for everything they need, for example, the same education, without which you can’t get a normal job in life, all sorts of toys, good food, medicine, and so on. It sounds reasonable, but there is an important point that people do not take into account when talking about the duty to children.

This important point boils down to the fact that a person who invests more than necessary in their children simply deprives them of the motivation to take care of themselves. He feeds them, spoils them, prevents them from becoming stronger, so that they can fight for the necessary benefits, and not wait for some handouts from someone, just as they learn to expect this from their parents. After all, when you get used to feeding by hand, you will not be able to feed yourself later, without the help of the owner. And the owner can get caught very bad. Maybe you will live a normal gray life, modest, mediocre, but it is unlikely that it will become happy for you, primarily because you are not the masterin it. Of course, children should eat normally to grow up healthy, they should be taught if they get sick, medicine should be of high quality, this is all obvious. But they don’t necessarily have to eat deliciousfood. You don’t necessarily have to eat too much, especially with all that advertised stuff made out of beautiful tea bags. And if we talk about the benefits, then what, do children who are given money for food eat healthy? Yes, they buy themselves all sorts of nasty things, although they have the opportunity to buy something useful. In the same cafes, they eat garbage food, which does not add to their health, but reduces it.

It’s the same with education. Even in the best schools and universities, not everyone studies well, but mostly those who want to study, who have motivation and who try to do it, and not just go to an educational institution. The rest of them hatch out the necessary crusts, like an educated person, if they remember the tops and get a piece of paper. So you can have a hundred formationsиметь, but you don’t know anything about tolom. You may be able to get a job somewhere for money or money, but you won’t be particularly valuable in the labor market. Therefore, investing a lot of money in a child’s education does not always give any significant result. But if you develop a desire to read the same smart books in him, he will teach himself a lot. If only there was motivation. Minimalism can give such motivation when you want, even if not necessary, but still an alluring and desirable gadget to have, but there is no money. We need to figure something out for them to appear. And not something illegal, if your parents were able to clearly explain to you that crimes are often followed by punishments, but something acceptable. Then all that remains is to develop your brain in order to get what you want. Well, or start looking at the world with different eyes, so as not to give free rein to your passions from an early age. You can learn in different ways. So, paying a lot for education is not so important, because it is not always useful.

In general, I believe that children are a test for every parent. Atthe sametimeт, what lifetests, who it puts to the test for responsibilityе, who is tested for decency, honesty, resilience, adulthood, and who is also tested for firmness of character. To bring up a child with dignity, you need to resort to the rod from time to time, if there is no way to avoid it and to deprivation. As it was said in the movie «Angelica and the King»: «I love my sons too much to feel sorry for them.» There should be no pity if it contributes to weakness. Here, of course, it is necessary to approach education without excesses, so that children are not downtrodden, but still, rigidity and even cruelty towards them is sometimes simply inevitable. This is required for them to grow up to be strong and worthy people. But if you give in to emotions and be weak, and therefore too kind, then you will indulge your children in everything and fill them up with gifts, spoil them with entertainment, after which they will grow up to be arrogant, selfish, narcissistic and at certain moments weak people who, instead of achieving their goals in different ways, will only whine, complain, whine, quickly give up and ask for help at the first difficulties. Thisalso, of course, helps you get settled in life, but not in the same way as if you yourself learned to take everything you need from life. The strong have more opportunities than the weak, this is obvious.

Adhering to the concept of minimalism, a person not only brings his life to a reasonablebalance, so that everything in it is in moderation, but also the lives of those who depend on him in one way or another, in particular, their children. Here’s what you самое need, kids, and everything else you can do on your own. That’s what life is given to you to achieve something in it. Let some toy appear in such a child already in adulthood, when other children have already playedсьwith it, but he will buy it for himself. On their own, they will get what they wanted, and not so that they will get it for free, just by asking. Then their own forces will be used, for which they must first appear, which means that they will need to be developed, and there will be no oversaturation, like some overfed majors who, fed up with everything available, begin to mess around with dope and get hooked on the same drugs, kill the time of their life with unsafe entertainment, and sometimes even get drunk. themselves.

Any excess often goes to the detriment of people, especially such unreasonable, unconscious ones as children. So, the desire for an abundance of benefits should not be covered up by the need to raise and educate children. This will be either a delusion or manipulation, when not children actually need extra things, but an adult who refers to their needs, covering up his unreasonable greedwith them.

Chapter 5. How Minimalism Cleanses the Mind

If you interact with different people for a long time and a lot, you can see how much we can differ from each other, despite the many things that we all have in common. For example, someone has what is called a mess in their head — a bunch of unrelated thoughts, fragmentary reasoning, mutually exclusive beliefs, in general, a complete mess. And some people have a rather complex picture of the world, in which most of their thoughts are well connected with each other and the chains of reasoning are quite long, so many of their beliefs are not based on nothing and look quite reasonable, even if they are unusual. And when you see this, you want to understand why such a difference in thinking and thinking can exist, why some people think in a harmonious way, and others in a chaotic way, why some people have more or less everything is logical, and others have one belief that contradicts another. And here, it turns out, there is a clear connection with the way of life of people.

People who have a more or less consistent picture of the world, had enough time and desire to understand, if not all, then at least the most important things in their lives, the most basic beliefson which their picture of the world is based, they thought about what they were thinking. And those who have a mess in their head, picked up chaotically all sorts of impressive statements, these people did not have the time and desire to think about them and delve into them, so they just dumped it all in a pile, believed in a lot of what impressed them and live with it. Of course, they will make a lot of mistakes, since they don’t know much about anything well enough. If a person does not think about the nature of things properly, he will stick to everything that makes the strongest emotional impression on him. Emotions will prevail over logic. And on emotions, you can accept any nonsense, even if it does not fit into the already formed human picture of the world. Well, and behave accordingly.

Therefore, in order for order to be in the head, life should be moderately calm and measured, without any overload, without fuss and mess. There should not be thousands of things to do, thousands of hobbies, throwing from side to side, trying to do everything in time and get everything done. It is because of this chaos of life that a person gets a kind of kaleidoscopic thinking, with a bunch of all sorts of thoughts that are completely out of sync with each other or are too poorly coordinated. Vanity has never been conducive to order and careful consideration of even very important issues, which is why all sorts of scammers and manipulators always tried to load their victim, cause chaos in her head, and then cheather. There’s no time to assess the situation, no time to think, so you make mistakes. In addition, those people who want too much are subject to vanity, who, as they say, have eyes in life that constantly run away. The more you want, the more you have to fuss. And the more fuss you make, the more your attention is diverted. And the more you disperse your attention, the less time and effort you devote to important things, and also you only superficially grasp and perceive a lot of things, so you often act primitive, predictable, chaotic, and make mistakes because of this.

Information garbage in the head distracts from important thoughts, distracts attention, so people act primitively, instinctively, and in the simplest way react to certain things instead of deliberately acting. And if you do not clear your mind of all unnecessarythings, for which all unnecessary things must be removed from life, then life will pass in a half-dream. I did something, but I don’t understand why. Many things will happen randomly, many things will not be understood, and there will be little control over life.

There are also situations when, due to too complex ideas about life, people do not see enough primitive motives in someone’s behavior. They’re so overwhelmed with all sorts of information that they can’t see what’s right in front of them. For example, one man still could not understand why his wife left him, because they lived quite well, they had a lot, he treated her normally, appreciated her, took care of her, and she betrayed him suddenly, leaving you don’t understand to whom. Whatever materials he studied, whatever versions he did not consider in order to understand this. And then I found out through my wife’s friend that everything is extremely simple, even primitive. It turns out that his wife did not experience an orgasm with him, but with the one to whom she left, she is experiencing it. That’s all. That’s the only reason she left.

In her opinion, for the sake of such a pleasure, you can leave a small child, and a good person, and give up a normal life, because she had such a system of values. And there is no need to look for any high matters here, because the woman herself is primitive. Most people are primitive, они самыми простыми способами обслуживаserving their animal instincts in the simplest possible ways. When you understand this, you don’t idealize people, you always look for simple explanations of their behavior first, and only then you consider something more complexas a possible reason for someone’s actions. But in this example, it is also interesting that the man did not want to accept such an explanation of his wife’s act. It didn’t suit him for several reasons, including that because of his busy life, he didn’t want to try to see the world through other people’s eyes in order to understand that people can want different things in life. He thought that if he didn’t do it because other things were important to him, then others shouldn’t do it either, including his wife. She should also appreciate what he appreciates, but not anything else. But it turned out that with other people everything is different. Therefore, if you live in a very dynamic world, you will only judge it from your bell tower. And until you remove all the unnecessary things from your life, you just won’t have time to climb another belltower to see something else. Consequently, mutual understanding with people becomes greater when a person’s life becomes easier, less eventful, as in the case of minimalists.

Learning new things and learning in general is also easier when you take the path of minimalism. You are no longer rushing from side to side, now learning this, then that, overloading yourself with all sorts of information, you choose something reasonably important for you, think about it important to be sure that what you are studying will be relevant for many years to come and study it well enough. Everything else is studied on a residual basis. Or you can go through different topics in turn, get acquainted with different areas, different directions, then choose something important, the main thing that will be given the lion’s share of attention and dive deeper and deeper into this area. Not forgetting the breadth of knowledge, of course. I have never believed that a person should be a narrow specialist, know only their own business, and trust everything else to other people, often supposedly professionals and supposedly honest and decent specialists in their field. I believe that it is necessary to delve into everything and study everything that comes into contact with, but as necessary. But the lion’s share of time and effort should be devoted to what you have chosen for yourself, as the most importantthing that you want to understand very, very well.

A narrow specialist is vulnerable in the world of lies, meanness, manipulation, betrayal, but it is still impossible to be a good versatile specialist in allx areas. Too much knowledge is needed, too much reflection, we are not capableof this, we do not have enough lifefor this. Therefore, there should always be something in the form of a backbone, some basic type of knowledge, and you always need to learn something new in the remaining time in order to maintain learning ability. But definitely not to grab everything at once, push everything into yourself and then be guided by this information mess in your life. This is not only not an effective approach, but also harmful. You’ll pick up some knowledge at the top and think you know and understand everything. And this is not the case. Like some people, they have picked up Freudian theory and are looking everywhere for the root of the problem in childhood. Everything supposedly comes from childhood, any problem. Nothing like that. Something can come и from the present, and something from the future, some terrible expectations, and something from the very near past arose, because of some traumatic situation, but not from childhood. Or here’s how other people throw out a word like «aware», but still behave instinctively. If you were aware of what you have a problem with — there would be no problem.

Order should be in everything, it is he who does and gives us what we understand by normal life, without unnecessary stress, without unpredictable situations, without absurd threats, without losing unnecessary and other unpleasant and bad things. But order requires a special approach to business. Order is the result of effort, not something that is given by default, from birth. Nature has its own order, human life has its own order, and the mind of a particular person has its own order. Fussy people, rushing from side to side, can not restore order, they do not have the necessary control over themselves. Their state of mind is notthe rightone. Their attention is too much scattered, there is no discipline, there is no proper awareness. They require some training, and sometimes even и training, to complicate and thereby improve their worldview. And with this complicated worldview, when you see and understand important things, you can already begin to simplify your life, without succumbing to weaknesses that force you to make primitive, chaotic, destructive decisions.

Minimalism begins with a change of mind, when a person decides not to collect everything and everything in his life, but on the contrary, to start throwing away everything superfluous in order to leave only the most necessary. This is putting things in order. This requires courage, determination, and an understanding that this is a movement in the right direction. Immediately, you need to cope with a lot to start living like this. You can overcome your weaknesses, the same greed. Greed for everything is fear. Greedy people live in fear, afraid of missing out, losing, not gettingsomething, they are always not enough, because they think that if they don’t have enough, they will be weak, they will suffer. They grab on to everything because they are afraid that if they miss something, lose it, give it away, they will make it worse for themselves. In fact, they are more likely to harm themselves with their greed than they are to help themselves.

Purifying the mind requires purging everything of everything superfluous. So, you need to start with small things that are feasible for a particular person. From quantitative criteria that determine our well-being, we move on to qualitative ones. The workplace should be in order, only the most important, most necessary, most valuable, most often used should be on it. Well, Ilya should be in order, it should not be filled with all sorts of junk-a bunch of clothes, shoes, as if a person is going to live ten lifetimes, if we are talking about womenwho like to collect clothes and shoes. Andwhetheryou don’t need to hammer the house with any equipment or tools, as is the case with menwho have their own weaknesses before things. You have to be brave and smart to get rid of half of all these things. Only what is used should be available, and all the junk in reserve is the thinking of a weak, insecure person who thinks that he will not be able to provide himself with the necessary resources in the future. So, minimalism, it is not for weak, not timid people. But on the other hand, isn’t that something everyone can do?

Chapter 6. Minimalism and Power

Have you ever thought about theregularities of the rise to power of certain people, especially those who can not be called normal by a number of qualities? If you look at some rulers, even in the present, even in the past, you can see that they are nothing special, both externallyand internally, they are not particularly smart, they have no talents, they are not geniuses, but they have received or taken power and can hold this power for a longtime. And why? And how? It would seem that there are so many smart people around, worthy, excellent specialists in the field of the same people management, but they do not reach great power. And all these… not the most worthy, they somehow have it. How so?

And the point is that here, too, the idea of minimalism shows itselfроявляет, because to a large extent it gives such people power, at least to those who strive for it, and not to whom it has fallen on their heads. The whole point is that such people throw everything on the altar of power, just as people with an animal type of psyche throw everything on the altar of pleasure. The latter, I think, is not difficult to find out. Get drunk, get drunk, get drunk набеситься– this is an aspiration for animal people. They are the ones who don’t keep their money, they immediately spend it on all sorts of nonsense, they are the ones who get into debt up to their ears for entertainment. But to do everything to become stronger, first of all by developing the ability to influenceть people in order to gain power-this is the desire of those who no longer have anything to strive for. They are also madly doing everything for power, just as primitive people do everything for primitive pleasures. And this fanaticism, when nothing else matters to you except power, helps you gain that very power. It turns out that such people are also minimalists, because they give up everything except what they consider important for themselves.

Mostoh, relatively normal people, more or less balance their lives. They pay attention to different things, the same entertainment, in adulthood a lot of attention goes to the family, if people create it, children, if они they start them, some hobbies for the soul, learn different things, in general, their attention is distributed in such a way that it is enough for a lot. In addition, many people try to do something at least more or less pleasant, without causing stress, so that life is joyful, so that they can live in a state of goodness, and not anger and hatred.

But power-mad people often limit themselves in many ways to throw almost all their resources at achievingе power. Of course, they will succeed better and more than those who are not willing to sacrifice a relatively normal life to achieve such a goal, which is natural. If you are doing a certain business, giving up everything else or almost everything, then sooner or later you will achieve some success in it. But you’ll also lose something else. And it can be traumatic for you.

What’s interesting here is why some people become such power-obsessed people. Usually, according to my observations, according to my research on this issue, they compensate for their dissatisfaction with life, with themselves, they treat themselves in this way from the pain of the soul и слабость, they seize up their inferiority and weakness with the power they strive for and come to, and also express their fear, and sometimes hatred for people, through the acquisition of a new identity. power, with the help of which they then recoup all their grievances against everyone in a row. These people are forced minimalists. They are psychotic in a way, because they narrow down their perception of life so much. Although they often don’t understand it themselves. They feel that they have chosen the right path for themselves, because it will give them great opportunities that others do not have. Butthe trouble here is that the very meaning of power, especially large power, implies that someone alone controls a sufficiently large number of people. Although и not alone, but still, he has a lotof opportunities. This means that the chance to achieve significant success in this business is not great. After all, there may be so many people who want to have power that it is impossible to provide it to everyone. Who then to rule, over whom to rule?

Consequently, someone, despite all their sacrifices, will remain in certain positions in life that are not high enough to be fully satisfied with them. Butat the same time, such a person will launch all other areas in his life такой человек completely. He might get some small power, but it clearly wouldn’t be worth the sacrifices that were made for it.

In addition to this, there is another problem. It lies in the fact that having come to power, for which a person has sacrificed almost everything, that is, other joys of life, time of life, he may not getить the proper satisfaction in the end, not solve his internal problems. No matter how he manages this power, even if he promotes some ideas that he considers correct, even if he harms people if he is afraid of them and hates them because of old grievances, even if he tries to make people’s lives better if it helps him get rid of his inner pain, often the expectations of such a person are not justified. Even a very beautiful life, all these palaces, food, luxury, entertainment, will not be so great a reward that it will take a long time to rush to it sometimes not in the most pleasant ways. And everything else that is in life, that you could enjoy in your time, is already all over, behindyou, you can’t return it. Everything is given for power. And how to live? How can you live if you understand that the authorities didn’t give you what you expected from them?

You, when you fought for power, when you curried favor in the current pyramid or created your own, risking your life in the fight against the existing system, when you did everything for your superiors to get to the top in the end, or as soon as you didn’t substitute yourself to displace someone, and in the end, it turned out that this is nothing didn’t work? Hit one and get another. отел одного, а получил другоеAll the opportunities that the authorities gave you, they did not solve your problems, did not satisfy your hunger, did not remove the negative that weighed on you. So, the idea of minimalism, embodied in the concentration of a person’s attention on one direction only, in this case, on the desire for power, does not always give the desired effect, if the main thing that a person refuses from excess, from his point of view, is not as important as it seems to him. It seems that you lived with only one goal — power, but the goal was not so important when you achieved it.

And at the same time, the same idea of minimalism can be implemented in a different way — to learn to live in a way that does not require too much sacrifice from you and thus come to the necessary peace and satisfaction. Well, resentments, failures, all sorts of dissatisfaction, these things are not necessary, or even not necessary to jam. They need to be addressed in other ways. So what is importanttounderstand and what is superfluous is not always easy to understand. A minimalist can be any person who is focused on one thing or a little. Only this one, thing does not always justify itself. Even if it’s something as important as power.

Chapter 7. Minimalism and Wealth

I’ve had conversations with people about wealth and how being a minimalistcan be richat the same time. It seems that one thing excludes the other, because a rich person has more resources than necessary, so how can he be considered a minimalist? In addition, you need to be moderately greedy to become rich, strive for more, want more, and not stop at what you have achieved, ponyav that you have enoughof it. Therefore, it seems that one cannot be connected with the other. But I think these things can still be combined.

It’s all about what to strive for wealthfor. Chtoby, like a monkey, repeating after others, behaving accordingly-buying big houses, yachts and then following the template to be what a rich person is supposed to be. Andwhether to implement some special idea that stands above these basic animal needs, while leading a modest lifestyle, and direct all resources to the implementation of this idea. In this case, the pursuit of wealth will not be a manifestation of greed and immoderation, but a way to achieve your goal, which requires the availability of resources, opportunities, and possibly the same power.

I don’t claim that this is correct, but I believe that this is how minimalism and wealth can be combined. For example, if I were very rich, I would spend most of the money I earned on some scientific developments related to artificial intelligence and something that can massively develop people. So that people no longer fight, do not kill each other, there was no such aggression, such violence, such cannibalism in its various manifestations, as it always was and still is. So that for the same descendants it was quiet. Otherwise, why invest in the future, if people will remain animals and someday destroy themselves.

AI can solve many of people’s problems, including minimizing or reducing conflicts to zero. Well, it’s the same with the development of people. If, for example, it is possible to make sure that future generations are much smarter than us, so that they can rise above their animal nature at the expense of the mind, then it makes sense to do this. Then there may be no crime, there may be no wars, there will be enough for everyone, there will be no envious people, and many other things that cloud our existence.

This is what makes sense to do, for this you can work hard, striving for the possession of a large number of resources. But simply stuffing your guts beyond measure, acquiring all the things that it is customary to acquire while being rich, as rich monkeys do, without understanding why they should follow such a pattern, is a dubious goal, from the point of view of striving for it at all costs. That’s probably why so few people do everything in their power to become rich. Although in words, almost everyone wants it. But in fact, only a few. Most, as you can see, will live well without yachts, and without palaces.

Minimalism helps us adhere to the norm in various cases, for the sake, of something else. That’s why a person в чем-тоshould deny himself something? Just for something else, right? Say, a momentary pleasure for the sake of a long, longer, stable pleasure. And then everyone, in accordance with their views on life, determines for themselves what is more important for them, what is valuable and what is worth sacrificing for this. Someone denies himself, for example, in sweets in childhood, in order to save up for some expensive toy. Someone saves on everything to ensure a decent life for their children. ую жизньSomeone for the sake of quality education completely ignores all entertainment, does not spend any money or time on them, so that later they can make their life better and take a worthy place in society. We always give one thing in return for the other. In particular, by giving up something here and now, we get the opportunity to gain something in the future. That’s how O. always was. Without sacrifice, important and even more so great things are not done.

People sacrifice their lives, both others ' and their own, in order to achieve some grandiose goals. The main thing is to make sense of it. So, wealth can become a tool for achieving some great idea that stands much higher than the basic everyday tasksthat most people’s lives revolve around. Everyone works all day to survive, to create comfort for themselves. And if you rise above all this household stuff? If you want to promote some ideas? But this is difficult to understand for those who manage the stomach, sexual organs and strive only for bodily pleasures, setting themselves some basic goals. Buying an apartment, getting a car, getting a job done, getting a promotion, starting a business to gobble up-it’s all just a basic level of fuss. Thisis, in a sense, from the field of animal life. That’s fine, but it’s simple. But to change the world, to change people, to introduce some new orders, to make some discoveries, to create something great — this is already a matter for a human creator. This is a higher-level goal. In fact, many of the great achievements in this world were made and created by idealistic creators who received special satisfaction from the way they lived their lives. It’s just such a scenario of life, with its own satisfaction from success, with its own, so to speak, high.

But this cannot be explained to those who are driven by too simple desires. For those for whom one of the most important goals is to make new repairs in the house, and the most remote one is to go somewhere on vacation next summer, such idealism seems something strange, incomprehensible, meaningless. You don’t even need to try to explain something here. A person simply does not look at life from such a height as to understand this. It’s like proving to an alcoholic that in addition to drinking, there are other important things in life and a much better pleasure, not as destructive as his, but stronger. He wouldn’t understand it anyway. This is beyond his comprehension. And in his eyes you will be some kind of fool who does not know how to live.

So for those who row under themselves to choke on luxury later, only pleasing themselves with bodily pleasures, any high goals will be something incomprehensible, they do not recognize them, do not understand them, they see stupidity, infantilism, altruism and other things that are not smart in their understanding. They may also be alien to the idea of minimalism as such. Therefore, until a person expands his consciousness sufficiently to understand such things, it is better not to talk about them with him. It’s just that everyone sees what they can. And there is no point in talking to a person about what he does not see and cannot see. That’s кwhy we don’t talk to children about what they are not able to understand correctly, because while they are still children, and in adult life, various things, interests, joys, and ideas exist for their own level of development. When you reach this level, you are able to appreciate it. Like, the same art. And if you’re not old enough, you enjoy what you can do. Who needs comics and who needs philosophy?

Thereforeэтому, we can conclude that wealth for a minimalist canbecome a tool for achieving some important goal in life. Not to go on a yacht, because others go, not to dress beautifully and eat delicious food is important for a minimalist, this will not tempt him to a fanatical desire for big money, but something else that has a higher meaning. And here different ideas can arise in a person’s head. Therefore, the desire for wealth can be combined with a minimalistic approach to life. After all, different people manage money in different ways, whether small or large, depending on the breadth of their consciousness. Those who do not have it very much expanded will simply build a bigger house for themselves and buy softer furniture. And those who have it expanded a lot will do something special with their own money.

Chapter 8. See more

I remember the firsttime I wasimpressed впечатление люди — by minimalist people, when in certain situations they saw much more than others. I thought at the time that the whole point was that they know a lot, well, sort of well-read, educated, so they can see more. And they were just more attentive, because they were used to not being sprayed out on a lot of things and concentrating on the main thing. Knowledge can be obtained every day from the environment, if you are sufficiently attentive to it. Starting with elementary details that can be noticed, for example, in acertain place, room or in people, and ending with what can be called psychic abilities, although in reality this is just a calculation, all this can be done by a person who is simply focused on the important, main, mainthing.

No mysticism, just a person, when his head is not clogged with a bunch of all sorts of garbage thoughts that create a lot of noise and distract attention, is able to direct more mental resources to something specific. For example, to study a person, to observe their behavior, facial expressions, gestures, words, and emotions. Then it can be better understood. Similarly, you can predict the future by remembering all the details of the past, so that you can simply use them to more accurately assess the present and understand where everything is going and how it can end.

A minimalist always tries to concentrate on the most importantthings, because this is the only way he can determine what and how much will be enoughfor him, and what is not worth his attention, strength and nerves. Thisapproach to life is becoming a habit. The minimalist then extends this approach to the perception of the world around him to everything in his life. And therefore it is easier for him to distract from everything unnecessary in order to see everything that is necessary in the right place. Just as he is not afraid of being left without some things, he is not afraid of not thinkingabout something, not knowingabout something. That’s why he doesn’t thinkand doesn’t know. It focuses on something that is closest to it, something that is fundamental and therefore most important. And he sees it more than anyone else.

Any person, if he sets up his mind in this way, then, say, when reading the same book, he will learn much more information than a person who is used to being dispersed into thousands of different things and thoughts. Or, when studying a situation, it will be able to notice more important details. That is why it happens that no training gives a person the desired result, because of which, of course, he does not scold himself, but teachers and sources of information? But because he is not used to focusing on the main thing. Hence the low efficiency of training. On simply can’t focus on the important things in his training, because he is too distracted by too much, too emotional, his thoughts run in different directions, then he wants to think about this, then about that. Therefore, such a person needs to learn first of all to calm down, get carried away with the same meditation, so that, like a minimalist, then direct their attention only to important things.

True, sometimes it is useful to be distracted in order to unload the brain. I did one thing for a while, then another, a third, and then something else, so that I could keep my interest in the mental activity itself, so that I wouldn’t fall asleep or get too tired. But at the same time, the main thing is never forgotten, it is always in the center of attention and is always more important than anything else. In fact, if I get distracted when I’m doing something, it’s only to keep me upbeat in discussing the main issue. It helps. It’s like when you’re talking about something, you can start somewhere, go in different directions to get a better overview of the topic, and then go back to where you started, tying all the ends together. The main idea is not forgotten, it can only get the necessary branches to better understand it.

So to see more, you need to focus your mind on something specificthat is important. The minimalist knows how to do this, because he constantly discards everything unnecessary, this is his way of life. It is as if he is constantly struggling with his hamster nature, which encourages him to fill his mink with resources, necessary and unnecessary, all the time, it encourages a person to focus on quantity, and not on quality. And he, being a minimalist, struggles with this nature, constantly throwing garbage out of life and out of his head, so as not to be distracted by it. As a result, the head is bright, it has enough resources and a person can use them to study something important for him. Seeing in this more than all the others who have information and mental garbage in their heads is full!

Chapter 9. Wars

I see two options for saving humanity, which sooner or later will destroy itself, being less intelligent than many other living species on this planet, м which at least does not have the intelligence to kill their own kind en masse. The first option is the development of artificial intelligence that will surpass human intelligence, and not only in all sorts of toys, such as chess or in the idiotic endless production of paper clips, which those who frighten people with such intelligencetalk about, but in general in understanding life. When a truly advanced AI takes control of life on the planet свой and, in particular, controls the madness of non-intelligent people, they will not be able to destroy themselves, as it will deprive them of such an opportunity, just as parents separate fighting children to prevent them from harming each other. And the second option is maybe biological, or maybe partly or largely the evolution of the person himself, or maybe even it will be revolutionary changes, after which the person himself will become at least a little more intelligent and learn to control his aggression and hostility. Then people will not be able to arrange a global war, which will bury them.

I don’t see any more exits for people. Otherwise, the descent is a dead end. A person, if he develops, is too slow, but weapons create more and more destructive and in increasing numbers, and his anger does not weaken, despite the ever-increasing quality of life of most people. And if you change a person, his thinking, worldview, with the help of chips or biotechnologies, then definitely the closest concept to which it will need to be adjusted will be the concept of minimalism. So that a person knows the measure in everything and does not go crazy. People make wars out of greed, stupidity, and laziness. They want to live well at each other’s expense. It is easier for them to use force than to negotiate, so they use it. They are easier to destroy than to build. They don’t want to find hard, correct solutions to their problems, they find easy solutions with devastating consequences. As long as it’s faster and easier to do something, that’s what people want. Hence, local conflicts, small-town, even let’s say situational-two morons did not share something and got into a fight. And global-wars of different scales. Primitiveness takes precedence over intelligence.

And who will think after thatthat a global war that will be the end of humanity is not a matter of time? It will happen. Military spending breaksrecords every year. Military technologies themselves are evolving. And, perhaps, more intensively than any peaceful technologies. People hate each other too much and are too afraid of each other to refuse to self-destruct. And they can’t use their minds to rise above their fear and hatred. It is easier for them to give in to the power of their animal nature. Weapons are becoming more destructive, and fear and anger are becoming stronger. It is obvious that one day-нибудь these weapons will be put into action, in a bloody and insane case, in a case that will bury humanity, perhaps completely.

I’m not even talking about the romance of war, what kind of civilization of people, what kind of culture can we talk about if such a thing as war is romanticized by cinema, historians, writers? We beat these, these beat those, we won, we are stronger, we are better — this can be heard in different variations from adults in different countries and cultures. Including from people who are scientists, who seem to be more intelligent than the rest, as if they are some schoolchildren talking to each other, bragging about who is cooler than whom. People, like children, praise what should be condemned and eradicated, and then suffer because of it and criticize the consequence of what they themselves have partly caused. The idea of minimalism is one of the links of common sense. One of the biggest links of common sense. If people become more modest in their requests, learn to be content with a sufficient amount of goods, their greed will not force them to harm each other in order to parasitize each other and cause hatred for each other.

And there will be fewer reasons for hostility and war.

Chapter 10. Consumerism

An ideology or culture, or even a cult of consumption, seems to be the opposite of minimalism, the opposite attitude to life, the opposite model of human behavior. Consumers consume without any measure or purpose, they consume for the sake of consumption, this, one might say, is their meaning of life.

I can’t say that I have such a bad attitude towardsconsumerismto criticize this phenomenon. Because, if you thinkabout it, тоwhat else can most people do but consume, what can they do if they don’t change the tiles in the bathroom, don’t buy new furniture, throw out the old one that is quite suitable for themselves, don’t update the cars for some unknown reason, and so on? Well, not to think about high matters for everyone, not to expand their horizons, when life is already going well, at least by the standards of consumers. To consume and only consume isthe lot of a certain part of society. Perhaps most people do nothing but consume. In something more complex, only a few people find the meaning of their life.

Therefore, this is not a problem if consumption does not lead to negative consequences. But the trouble here is still the same immoderation, when people are always not enough and they try not just to consume for themselves, but also consume for others– wanting to be higher, better than others. It only encourages greed and aggression. After all, it is important for a person to surpass others in consumption, and not just enjoy buying a new thing, even if it is not needed. So there is aggression expressed in consumerism. The neighbor doesn’t just have a better car, to hell with it, that it’s better, newer, who cares, I like mine. But this is difficult to accept when the neighbor in one way or another constantly emphasizes that he is better than me, that he is taller than me, because he has a better car. This makes me angry, anxious, and I also want to get a new car, so that at least I don’t have to be worse than him, or even better. This is where consumerism manifests its destructive power.

Well, about the ecology, the limited resources of the planet, which, due to high consumption, can be used beyond measure, perhaps it is superfluous to say. These problems are already unheard of by everyone. And theseproblems can be solved if, for example, we make consumption virtual, when people measure themselves by buying not physical, but virtual items. Similar tohow gamers do it in games, buying all sorts of weapons, armor and everything else that is sold in different games продается to gain an advantage over other players. So, само по себе consumption itself can be upgraded so that people consume something without harming the planet.

But how to solve a psychological problem? How can we help people stop feeling bad just because they don’t have something, because others have something, and because others belittle them? How to solve the problem of some people’s desire to rise above others and cause these other people pain because of this? People often feel inferior because they don’t have what othershave, because it makes them feel inferior to them. And if you are worse, you will be treated badly. And no one wants that. That’s what’s hard to deal with-people’s desire to hurt each other in order to make themselves feel good. And consumption, things, property, is just one of the ways to do it.

Therefore, often people buy many things not for themselves, but for others. To be, at least, not worse. That’s what lies behind the facade of the idea of consumption, that’s really the problem. The hostile attitude of people towards each other-this is really the problem of consumption at its core. It doesn’t matter that people are obsessed with buying things, it’s not a problem that they behave like children, bragging not that they created something, but that they bought something. And it’s not even a problem that the environment suffers and the planet’s resources are being used up. All this can be dealt with. But the fact that people have a desire to belittle each other and assert themselves at each other’s expense друг is really difficult to change, it is difficult to influence it.

As long as it’s not worse than your neighbor’s, otherwise… Otherwise, what? The neighbor will belittle you, humiliate you? Wehave been dealing with this train of thought since childhood. In the same school, they like to poison those who are at least a little, at least in some way different from others and at the same time have a complex because of this. If you’re poor and you’re not sure of yourself, you’re bound to be turned into an outcast. Then they will unite against you and mock you. This scares peoplethe most, they don’t want to be victims. That’s why they want to keep up. In particular, in consumption, in fact, in the senseless desire to buy all sorts of things. And marketing and advertising use this fear for their own purposes-instilling in a person a sense of inferiority, because he does not have something there-the latest model of the phone, fashionable clothes and other things.

So, the idea of minimalism can solve this psychological problem, if a person is completely convinced of its correctness. Well, and, accordingly, will begin to follow it. Consumption is just one of people’s games in which they want to outperform each other. It’s not just about the hamster instinct, I want this, I want that, it’s about rivalry, competition, struggle in the field of consumption. But thepursuit of minimalism in everything can also be a game-changer. And minimalism is not just a person’s choice, in which you can be a minimalist, or you can not be one, it is also efficiency. You can become a minimalist to become more efficient, solve different tasks better, and thus surpass other people, including specialists in different fields.

Minimalists can be very effective, particularly in the same business, by focusing only on those processes that are directly related to profit. For example, in negotiations with business partners. Or on the motivation of employees, in order to increase their efficiency. And all sorts of secondary and third-rate tasks should be assigned to someone else. Especially bureaucratic procedures, which, although necessary, can take a lot of time and effort and do not give anything useful. A good businessman doesn’t have to be a plug in every barrel. They should be able to delegate authority to the right people, and spend their time only on the most important things.

What is not the embodiment of the idea of minimalism? And what is not a way to surpass others, when instead упахиватьсяof getting drunk, trying to embrace the vast or not the most legitimate ways to get money for the sake of thoughtless and insane consumption, you can strive to be as effective as possible due to a minimalistic approach to business, to life? This is also a game, also a way to be better than others, better in the ability to manage a minimum of things when solving different tasks. Efficiency is when we get the maximum out of the minimum and this maximum is enough to solve specific problems. You can constantly improve in this business.

We assume herethat theLDI will still strive to compete with each other. It’s in their blood. The only question is how to make this competition the most convenient and harmlessм for them. Which plane to move it to. It’s like with computer games that help teenagers vent their aggression in the virtual world, and not in the real one. As a result, no one from the real world will be harmed, including the gamerhimself. So it is here. By increasing efficiency by following the idea of minimalism, a person will not go crazy with consumption, for the sakeго of which people sometimes get into crazy debts that poison their lives. Of course, to do this, you need to have a certain strength of character and self-confidence. After all, for the current model of the economy, minimalism is not profitable at all. Therefore, бизнесом crazy amounts of money will be spent on promoting consumption by businesses, so that people will continue to develop just such an economy with theirknowledge. Minimalistsы can only set their own example against this propaganda, confidently adhering to their own behavior model and not paying attention to consumers. Then other people will gradually adopt this model from them. Anyone who can’t and won’t play consumers can play minimalists. In my opinion, this is a much more reasonable game.

Such a life does not necessarily have to interest most people and somehow change the world. Let people who want and can, continue to play consumers, let them plow, buy, throw out and buy again. Some people can only stop when they are in great pain. Until then, no common-sense ideas will appeal to them. Therefore, let them live as they want. Minimalism, as a way of life, нужеis necessary for a person, who does not want or cannot consume, but who needs to feel normalplaying his own game of life. Thisidea is an alternative to consumption. This is a different game, a game for those who don’t like the consumption game.

In order not to feel worse, not to feel inferior, because you don’t have something, you can focus on minimalism and set an example for others with your lifestyle, becoming more effective, more productive, calmer, more confident in yourself, because you go your own way, and not together with everyone on the road that you are following. the shepherd drives. You need to play games that you can play and that make sense to play. Then at least you won’t lose.

People can competeчать in this game with each other, increasingяtheir efficiency, by measuring not cars and houses, but the ability to feel good, having not so much, but as much as it takes to solve all the important tasks in life. And you can live next to someone who has a lot of things, very much, without experiencingть any inconvenience and some uncertainty because of this, because you will not care, you are in a different plane and think, you have your own goals and priorities in life. And you will not even be afraid of the opportunities of richer people. No need to think that money solves everything. Everything is decided by the mood of a person, his determination, confidence in himself and his capabilities. Where there is no money, the head can compensate for everything. You can use it to deal with various problems and questions. But for it to work well, you need to believe in the correctness of the idea of minimalism and think not about what you don’t have, but about how to properly dispose of what you have.

Or you can explain to yourself the correctness of this idea, if just believing in it is not enough. The main thing is that there is such an alternative path in life and it is accessible to everyone. If everyone can be rich, but not everyone will become rich, then anyone can and will become minimalists, if they want to.

Chapter 11. Minimalism in Thought

This is the main purpose of this book. We are talking about the therapeutic effect achieved through minimalism. Above was, so to speak, a saying that has already shown what this idea gives a person, how it can lead to a sense of freedom, which in turn gives a sense of happiness. Now we will talk about how to properly savor this idea in your thoughts in order to feel great, no matter how life develops. And for many, it is not quite the way they would like it to be. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

To achieve many of their goals, including the overall goal of getting rid of everything superfluous, including and above all in the head, a minimalist needs awareness. It will help to separate the wheat from the chaff. And чin order to realize something, you need to concentrate on it properly and study it as best as possible. This is time and effort. But the main thing is that nothing distracts you from, first of all, searching for this most important thing, on which you should concentrate your attention in order to study it.

Then all sorts of unnecessary thoughts begin to interfere. After all, many people have too much extra stuff in their heads, which distracts their attention and requires resources to solve tasks that are far from the most necessary for these people. Even just thinking about something, even if superficially, can only be spent on this time and some effort. And why do this if what a person thinks means nothing to them and their life? But we do this because other people and life give us food for the mind, unnecessary food. So it turns out that we often carry extra weight in our heads, just as people who are overweight or with bags full, suitcases in which there is nothing useful, carry extra weight. Until you get rid of this excess, you will not be able to properly understand some important things. So you don’t realize them. And you will live without sufficient confidence in what you are doing, why you are strivingfor something, why you are trying, why you are spending resources on certain goals. And because of this, people are often dissatisfied with their lives, even if they are generally doing well. All the time it seems that something is missing, you are doing something wrong.

But you want to know where you’re going and why. Especially in difficult moments, when something distracts you from the simple joys that are available to you. When you know this, then it is interesting to go, and any stop on this path is perceived with understanding, any segment of this path gives you a sense of satisfactionwhen you understand that what is happening to you is the norm. And дeven if you don’t get anywhere in the end, you will still feel normal, knowing that you went to the right place. This is how a person perceives life when he is sure that he is doing everything right.

С чего жеHow do we begin to purify the mind? The examples that I know of, as well as my own experience, tell me that you need to start by freeing your mind from all the limitations and constraints that society has instilled in it. These are all sorts of postulates, morals, ethics, traditions, rituals, unspoken rules that shape human behavior. He is not fully aware of how all these thoughts imposed on him affect him, so he cannot think about their necessity for himself. You can’t do this, but you can do this, it’s right, but it’s not. On such and such dates it is necessary to do this, on such and such dates it is necessary to do this. In general, when there is some automatism in behavior, some sense of duty is burdensome, then a person is already limited in his freedom and can do a lot of unnecessary things and at the same time harmful to himself.

Here we sort of look for the important things by sifting out the unnecessary, superfluous, harmfulthings that are imposed on us by other people, driven by their own selfish interests. After all, people, in order to get rid of competitors, direct them on the wrong path. It’s a great way to beat everyone else. Do the wrong thing, I will do the right thing, then you will lose, and I can win. Hence duplicity, hypocrisy, and manipulation, all of which help steer others in the wrong direction. To use other people, you also need to get something into their heads that will encourage them to act in the interests of others, in the interests of those who use them. And a person, a minimalist, in order to gain freedom, in order to correctly adjust his coordinate system, needs to get rid of all these imposed thoughts. And a pragmatic approach helps them do this. In this approach, we look at what needs to be done and what should not be done in order to achieve the goalsthat have been justified for many generations. In other words, history, other people’s examples, and cases are the best reference points. Especially such examples are important, which are time-tested. If from generation to generation some scenarios of life develop in a similar way, well, then there is reason to trust their truth and use them to create your own plan for life!

For example, in order to succeed in creative activities that give you incredible pleasure, especially when everything works out for a person, he realizes himself as a creator, you need to start completely ignoring all critics in orderto break out of the limits that limit the creative mind. Мнение любых ничего не стоит, потому что люди, способные только рушить, and criticism is destruction, in principle they are not able to understand something new. While true creativity is always something new, it is giving out what has not yet happened. And the critics are conservatives. They almost alwaysbase their criticismon the foundation of past achievements, on what they already know, so it does not apply to something new that has generatedла creative activity. If you listen to the critics, you will never let your creative thought go beyond non-creative activity, which means that you will not allow it to develop and create something brilliant. It may not happen the first time, but it will happen if you send all the critics to hell. And especially the critics.

Or, let’s say, power, wealth, if we see that in addition to useful connections, which are also established through marriage with the right partners, in addition to pleasinga, other techniques that allow you to rise in a particular hierarchy system, communication plays an important role, because in order to establish the same contact with the right people нужными установитьto develop it, to bring it to the desired state, to become related to them, to persuadeдить them, to subordinate to their will whom they should, you need to be able to influence people with the help of words first of all, then, you need to pay special attention to this skill. And any secondary skills that, for example, allow you to master a certain craft, they are less useful or even useless in this case. ПTherefore, they can be ignored. Why waste time and effort on something that will not give the desired effect? But communication will give a lot. And do not think that people are born with the ability to speak beautifully. They learn this. Even if a person is introverted by nature, this will not prevent them from learning how to communicate effectively. Well, accordingly, you willbe able to communicate well, you will be able to build a path to power, and you will come to wealth. And in my personal life, it often helps. This is proven by many generations of people, so this skill can and should be considered important, unlike many other things that you can safely remove from your life without fear of losing something valuable.

And so you need to look at any activity, at any scenario of life, in order to see what has best justified itself over many generationsвсего, and what has not. And then leave the necessary, important, valuable things in your head, throwing out everything else. It is necessary to study people who have done something and are now doing it successfully, if possible, to communicate with them, compare their words with their deeds, with the deeds and words of other people who are doing the same thing, in order to weed out the false and erroneous, leaving the true. Because it is easy to say that the mind of a minimalist is focused only on what is important, and it filters out all the superfluous, unnecessary things. This superfluous and unnecessary still needs to be found, as, in fact, important. After all, if you make a mistake, then even if you don’t have anything superfluous in your life and in your mind, you may not have anything necessary at the same time. After all, there are many people who are focused on something specific, in particular, they lead a hermit lifestyle, but at the same time it does not give them much. They just believe that it is necessary and as long as their faith is strong, they live their lives. And when they realize that they were wrong, it will be too late.

I suggest that in order to purify the mind or even to say-to purify consciousness-to pay attention to the most emotional images in memory, associated with some events, with some information. After all, these are best remembered, because emotions enhance the meaning of any information. And it is through emotions that something unnecessary is shoved into people’s heads, both intentionally and accidentally. Why, for example, does a person believe in something that is easily destroyed by logical reasoning? But because, he once perceived this information on emotions. And now no amount of logic can erase this imprint in memory. Or rather, it won’t erase it if the person doesn’t want it to. And if he still decides to clear his mind of all unnecessary things, then logic will help him. You can use it to sort through any of your old memories to see where your emotions have affected your belief in something that doesn’t exist.

In other words, you can’t trust anything emotional. You always need to double-check all this. Emotions interfere with critical perception of information.