Mary Conroy - Simplify Your Life: Waste Less, Value More, Go Minimalist

I sometimes wonder, will I ever be a good minimalist? Will I ever attain the level of restrained nirvana I see depicted whenever minimalism is discussed on TV or online? When I look at my eclectic collection of tea mugs, the mismatched towels on display in my bathroom, the cabbage-rose-print blouse that snuck into my wardrobe in recent years (and which I adore), it can feel as if Im failing at minimalism.

As a 44-year-old woman with a soft spot for large-print fabrics, I may not fit the bill of what a typical minimalist looks like, but I can honestly say that the principles of minimalism have served me well. I no longer loiter on fashion websites, pouncing on bargain dresses that turn out to have just six or seven wears in them; I can breeze past mobile phone shops without longing to road test the latest smartphone; and I can dip into social media without feeling slightly sullied by the experience.

As someone who has had a love-hate relationship with money for much of her adult life, I finally understand writer G.K. Chestertons observation, There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

I know that when I had wardrobes stuffed full with fashionable clothes, with my pick of cute outfits to wear to work every day, I was no happier than when, years later, my circumstances changed and I had to knock my shopping habit on the head. Living as we do in extraordinary times, more and more people are giving serious consideration to the concept of enough: why its so difficult to attain, and whether the Earth should pay the price so that we can have enough smartphones, tablets, and cars. Since discovering how I can bring minimalism into my life, I find that the clothes I already have are enough, my two-year-old smartphone is enough, my life with or without the filtering feature of the latest social media app is enough.

Minimalism has also given me a fresh perspective, and a way of reclaiming some head space for myself in a world where the mountains of stuff useless junk in our homes, data-hungry apps on our smartphones, never-ending lists of work commitments can feel overwhelming. Applying the principles of minimalism in the key areas of my life that are within my control my home, my relationships, my work, my online life, my health all help me feel on top of things, and that I have a certain amount of mastery over my fate.

Ive lost count of the number of people whove quietly confessed, Minimalism? Id love to try that but I simply couldnt. They say they wouldnt know where to start with decluttering their home. Or they have a growing family and they would never be able to enlist their partner and children. Or it just seems completely unattainable for the ordinary man or woman in their suburban, semi-detached home.

But minimalism is a practice that anybody can engage with. Although in the public mind its associated with sleek, modern design, true minimalism doesnt require you to stick to a particular look or aesthetic. But it does call for rigorous discipline in asking certain questions of yourself as you go through life. It requires a high level of honesty and a commitment to being accountable to your own standards and values. Fundamentally, it puts the onus on you to set your own path in life by setting your own goals and working assiduously toward them. Along the way, you must decide what brings value to your life and what will help you progress toward your goals. Having determined whats important and truly serves you, you can simply discard the rest.

If these actions seem extreme, its because too many of us have got used to having our wishes and dreams set aside, or pushed down other peoples agendas. Its time to turn those wishes and dreams into goals goals that you can achieve with willpower and determination.

By now, youll have experienced the liberating feeling of decluttering your home and seeing your living space becoming lighter and brighter as a result. But its vitally important that you maintain a routine of keeping shelves, wardrobes, and kitchen drawers free of extraneous stuff. Be strict with yourself and other members of the household: nothing new can come into the house unless its really needed.

On the work front, youll now have formulated a plan for attaining your professional goal and have embarked on the first few steps toward reaching it. Practice being purposeful with your time and energy, and streamline your working day so that you need not be distracted from whats absolutely essential.

As you spend some of your hard-earned cash, remember that money should work for you. If buying an item doesnt affect your long-term happiness and has no functional purpose, why are you buying it? Even if your goals in life are non-financial, try to secure a sound financial footing for your future self by saving regularly. Try also to frame your next purchase in terms of your time: you earned the money by exchanging your time and labor for your salary, so work out its value to you as an expression of hours of your life.

Examine the relationships you have in your life can you say that each relationship has an overall positive effect on your life? Sometimes friendships simply fizzle out, or curdle into something more toxic. Realize that your past doesnt have to define your future; theres a whole world of potential friends out there. All it takes to establish a bond is to harbor an openness of spirit and the willingness to take a chance by saying hello.

Offering us hundreds, if not thousands, of friends (or followers), social media has turned our lives upside down. But although Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook can help us maintain friendships where theres a genuine connection, its all too easy for the glossy nature of the medium to end up fostering resentment as we compare our own lives with the edited highlights of somebody elses heavily curated version of reality. Worse still, it can distract us from work or keep us cocooned from real life and real relationships. Return digital technology to its original role in your life: a tool thats supposed to work for you.

If our health is our wealth, isnt it worth investing in your long-term physical and emotional well-being with the right diet and exercise? Instead of mindless grazing on snacks, try to take a mindful approach to eating, treating a nutritional weekday dinner in the same manner you would a five-course feast.

Find a way to incorporate exercise into your life in as seamless a manner as possible. Remember that what you think, you become, so work on reducing the number of negative, toxic thoughts that cross your mind.

By now, you may well have implemented a range of new habits across a broad sweep of your life. If those habits are sticking, congratulations! If, on the other hand, some of your

The same research showed that the process of forming a new habit isnt as linear as you might think: there are often missteps along the way, as participants in the study found, but those instances of falling off the wagon apparently had little impact on whether a new habit became a lasting routine. The research shows that if youve been broadly diligent about maintaining the new routine, and you make an effort to get back to it, theres a good chance that youll reach the point where your new habit is an impulse that you act on automatically.