Wong - Make space: a minimalists guide to the good and the extraordinary

Copyright 2017 by Regina Wong

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Jenny Zemanek

Cover photo credit: iStockphoto

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2141-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2142-5

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:
The Heart of Minimalism

Chapter 2:
Stuffocation

Chapter 3:
The Art of Decluttering

Chapter 4:
Empowerment through Self-Knowledge, Focus, and Intention

Chapter 5:
Enhance Your Emotional Well-Being

Chapter 6:
Financial Well-Being Is Freedom

Chapter 7:
Crafting and Curating an Extraordinary Life

Chapter 8:
Closing Thoughts

Dedicated to my mom, and to all that is essential to my happiness.

Introduction

Most books are about morehaving more and doing more. This one is about lesshow one can live well and better with less. That is, less stuff but the right stuff. It is about how minimalism and living more simply can transform your life and help you make the most of it. This book is not just about getting rid of stuff and clutter; it is also about changing your mindset and looking at life with a new perspective. It is a guide to transforming your life in a holistic way.

The fact that you are reading this book points to a need. A need for more happiness, better mental and emotional well-being, more clarity and control over your lifes purpose, and greater fulfillment. Contrary to general belief, the meeting of these needs lies not so much in adding more to your life but rather in having less. Most of us have been programmed to think that in order to be happier and to make the most out of our life, we need to have more money, more possessions, more gadgets, more friends, bigger houses and cars, bigger job titles The list of bigger is better goes on.

If this were indeed the case, we should be talking about making more money, consuming more, aiming for the next big promotion, and singing the praises of retail therapy. Doing all of these gives us a little high, but before long, a feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction sets in once more, and we look again to having even more as the route to happiness. The cycle repeats itselfthe high moments get shorter and more stuff is needed to sustain them and satiate us.

Greater wealth, material consumption, and more choices have not made us any happier compared to our grandparents time, when people owned and owed less. Rather than rising levels of well-being, we have seen mounting credit card debt and increasing numbers of self-storage facilities to house the things that we compulsively buy.

Compared with their grandparents, todays young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology, notes Hope College psychologist David G. Myers, PhD, author of the article, The funds, friends, and faith of happy people, which appeared in the American Psychologist . Our becoming much better off over the last four decades has not been accompanied by one iota of increased subjective well-being.

Life is too short for such short-term remedies; we need a cure, not a Band-Aid. We need something that provides us with a holistic and long-term solution. Minimalism can be that solution.

Minimalism is not a deprivation, but a joy. It is about getting rid of excess and the nonessentials, and the act of distilling to what is essentialthat which gives us joy, value, and purpose to our lives. It is a practice in evaluating what the constituents of our happiness are and focusing on these essentials for optimal fulfillment. We are not just talking about decluttering the excess physical stuff; we are also talking about our mental and emotional states and how they can be improved. We are looking at achieving a change in our mindset and perspective and creating new habits to bring about a positive and holistic transformation in our life.

A little about myself

So, who am I to tell you that minimalism works? I write a popular blog on minimalism and simple living at Simple and Minimal (simpleandminimal.com). I also run my own businesses, including Live Well With Less (livewellwithless.com), which focuses on helping others live happier and fuller lives through minimalism. In addition, I also head up The Minimalists London Meetup Group, which provides friendship and support to both aspiring and experienced minimalists through social media and various meetup events.

In my previous life, like many, I was also on a success- and consumption-driven journey, but I found little joy and satisfaction. Minimalism has transformed my life, and I believe it can transform yours, too.

After university, I spent many years as a corporate warrior in the telecoms industry, with stints in Asia and America before returning to the UK. At first, the money and prestige that my career brought me gave me much joy and purchasing power. Whenever I felt unhappy and stressed, all I needed to do was go for retail therapy. There were quite a few occasions when I liked a piece of clothing, couldnt decide which color to buy it in, and so bought them all (it makes me cringe just to think about it now!). As the years went by, I worked harder, traveled more, and earned greater sums of money. Incomprehensibly, I felt unhappier, emptier, more stressed, and increasingly frustrated. Weekends became sacred, as these were the only two days I actually felt happy and in control of my life, and they were for doing my favorite thingslike browsing in my favorite bookshops and buying books I hardly had time to read. In a nutshell, I only truly lived two out of seven days in a week, and I was not happy.

In my darkest hour, I realized that I have other options in life. I didnt have to work at a job I hated that didnt align with my values and passions. I could pursue my interests and make a living out of them. I didnt have to live a life I dreaded in order to look forward to retirement (which is not guaranteed for all postbaby boomer generations!). I didnt need the stuff that kept me rooted in a life and job that sucked out joy, hope, and energy.

Instead of subscribing to conventional beliefs and benchmarks, I could define how I want to live my life and what makes it successful. I realized that by reorienting myself to the right priorities, by making different but better choices, and by living with less, I could live life with more freedom, awareness, fulfillment, and intensity. I am now living morewith less. If you have not found what you are looking for with more, why not embrace less and see what it has to offer?

Genuine happiness can only be achieved when we transform our way of life from the unthinking pursuit of pleasure to one committed to enriching our inner lives, when we focus on being more rather than simply having more.