Old Natural Ways - Frugal Minimalist--How to Live More Optimally by Saving Money and De-Cluttering Your Life for Beginners

Frugal Minimalist

How to Live More Optimally By Saving Money and De-Cluttering Your Life for Beginners

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing this book.

This book has a chance to change the way you live your life. Why? Because your life was meant to be something thats more than just the rat race you are currently stuck in. This book wants to put an end to that and turn your life around in hopes that when it does, your life will not be so cluttered, penniless, or devoid of purpose and support. This book is not about practicing Zen or finding God. It is more about finding a way so that you can live within your means and still enjoy life.

How is that possible?

Read this book and discover two principles that can help you manage money and clutter through optimal living. This book will tell you why you need to live that way and how to live it through frugality and minimalism. Then this book will tell you how to apply both to save money and remove clutter. Finally, it will tell you how you can begin to live an optimal life without turning you into Ebenezer Scrooge or a spendthrift.

Dont worry. The tips and suggestions in this book are both ideal and practical. They are not going to ask you to sell all you have and move to Tibet. On the contrary, they can be done by anyone who wants to begin living optimally.

Convinced? Read on and learn more.

Why I wrote this book

Why write a book about optimal living? More specifically, why write a book about frugality and minimalism as a way to get to optimal living?

Here are my three reasons for writing this book:

Theres more to life than the pursuit of wealth

Thats right. And if you are one of the millions today who spend most of their waking hours chasing after wealth, this book is for you.

But the active pursuit of wealth should not be the only reason for living. Money is not the only thing that matters and getting rich isnt the ultimate goal.

When your only lifelong goal is to replace Bill Gates or Warren Buffett as the richest man, chances are youll throw yourself in front of a train when your fortunes are upended. On the other hand, when you aspire to be the next great innovator and inventor, you wont be bothered by economic rises and falls and wealth will just be a natural by-product.

There is a point to life than just existence

The third reason for writing this book is to point out that life has a purpose. It wasnt meant to be a daily existence made up of eating, sleeping, and going to work. Life was meant to be more than just surviving from day to day.

Your life is not meant to be wasted chasing riches. Its not to be spent plodding on through daily routines. Most certainly, you are not here because you just happen to be. This book was written for you. This book was written so that you could have a life an optimal life.

Chapter 1:

The widely accepted definition of an optimal life is one that is balanced and well spent. Lets break it down further. Optimal, from the same root as optics and optimism, is a word that is best described as the most efficient or most effective. If it were balanced on a scale between maximum and minimum, optimal would be somewhere closer to the middle.

Hence, optimal living is a life that is neither devoid of challenges nor facing too much suffering. It is both a way of life and a lifestyle that is in between wallowing in indulgence and scrambling for survival.

Here are four characteristics of an optimal life:

An optimal life is one where needs and wants are on equal footing. Fun and work do not outweigh each other in importance and each has its proper timing in place. Goals and ambitions are on the same levels as daily tasks and deliverables.

Balance is more than just an equal division of time for each or a simple matter of work hard all day then play hard all night. The balance is in the timing and the prioritization. What is needed usually takes precedence, but it does not eliminate the others.

The oft-repeated phrase of work-life balance is used to describe or refer to optimal living. However, that is not all there is to it. Optimal living balances work with recreation, goals with priorities, interests with needs, and events with obligations.

Harmony is all about having no clash of priorities and or debates on the urgency of meeting certain needs. Goals may be different but they complement each other. Work supports interests which in turn fuels aspirations and ambition. Ambition does not diminish fun. On the contrary, it allows it to refresh and restore vigor to life.

All in all, everything you do has a natural flow of activities that support each other. You may be tired or exhausted but you dont get the feeling that life is pulling you in different directions.

Optimal living is one where you are content with your stature in life and the direction in which its heading.

Contentment is not being resigned to your fate; there is no such thing in optimal living. Life is what you make it and an optimal life is one where you are satisfied with the choices you made.