My life is changing, forever…

Okay, so I’m sure you know that this is my desperate attempt to get more people to come check out the blog, because I’m already out of ideas. I’m just kidding. Sort of…To be honest, my intention with the blog is to get engagement with others to help build on ideas and conversations formed through what I and others share. So, if you have something on your mind, if I say something that you relate to or anything at all, please send me a message or reply and I will make an effort to expand on it. 

Okay, so now to the real point…

Earlier, I said, my life is changing forever. Through my physical form (whether I like it or not), my mental processes and my brain knowledge. Those are changes I can’t really control, but they are changes I can grow or challenge. Which is what I intend to do and explain. Last year, my life while productive, didn’t seem to touch the areas that I found most important when reviewing my principles and values. A few weeks ago, I took time to sit down, review and re-establish the goals and principles I have in my life. In some part it was encouraging to recognize that I have a lot of good intentions. While on the other hand, it was humbling to see most of which I wrote, I hadn’t performed to the best of my ability. Will I ever? While I can strive to, I believe that the point is not reaching perfection rather striving towards upward progress regardless of the downward falls that may occur. 

What is my intention?

In the title I say that I am going to “sell everything”. That was clickbait, obviously. Who do you take me for? As much as the lifestyle in Into the Wild seems challenging and productive, the ending is just not my cup of tea for me. If you don’t know what I’m referencing, please go watch the film and come back and you’ll get it. My intention for this is to explain a new lifestyle I am taking on in Minimalism. I haven’t adopted a label or a set of instructions for this process as it is certainly a personalized version. I’d rather have a personalized version than no version at all and I will explain what I aim to do. My goal is to live my life, in a different practice. Before I get into that, I’d like to build on what that lifestyle looks like.

Minimalism

• Material Possessions
  • I want to change my spending habits immensely, living a lifestyle that can challenge me in a few ways.
    • To appreciate what I have. Use it well, understand it and discover new things about it to encourage me to find satisfaction and relevancy in what I may consider irrelevant currently. 
    • To give more, whether it be charitable or to forming certain things that lead to the benefit of others and not myself. Instead of elevating who I am, I’d like to elevate others to see who they are. 
    • To learn to live within my means, not expecting anything, rather prepared for anything. By creating a standard of living now, it will allow me to progress in all other areas without myself being the biggest problem. 
• Values
  • I want to realign my values with scripture and morals that glorify God and encourage others rather than myself.
    • Having less of a focus on what I want and what I need and more on the opposite can and will lead to the progress of good morals and values built. Encouraging others to do the same. 
    • When I put my focus on internal things, it allows for whatever is in proximity externally to be used for the right purpose and intention. It will come together and have meaning versus a surface level effect.
• Mindset
  • I want to restructure my mindset which I know will be the hardest of them all due to the comfort barrier which I touch on more later.
    • The mindset I need is one that doesn’t search for material success, rather spiritual fulfillment and emotional connections. Being fueled by that is an eternal happiness versus a momentary high. 
    • Shifting the subconscious. Creating habits and innate actions that serve out the principles and values I hold to create a better surrounding. 

The hardest part

• Comfort
  • This attribute of life is the most appealing that I think we all strive for. Often, it distracts us from what we dream to do. It limits our boundaries and puts walls on our mindset to create “discomfort” anywhere outside.
    • Boundaries are essential. But, the boundaries I am referring to here are the ones that limit your potential and ability. It is easiest to stay within these boundaries because predictability and routine is often what masks it. Which again are good virtues, but it may be better to just give an example.
      • Each morning when I wake up, I have a daily routine that I set out to do. It is often orchestrated in conjunction with the time of day. I was recently challenged by someone to shift my mornings to a much earlier schedule, to which I responded, “Absolutely not.” Why would I want to wake up earlier if the negatives seem to outweigh the benefits in my mind due to the shift in schedules and having the morning mood. As I considered the idea, I realized that a lot of my time in the night was dedicated to things such as social media consumption and laziness. So, while I knew where I could make time to wake up early, I chose not to immediately because my brain doesn’t want to make such a drastic change. In reality, the “drastic change” is limiting my social media consumption which doesn’t really have much of a positive effect on my life. I’m sure at some point I will build more on this.

In conclusion

This journey will be challenging. It is a journey not taken alone. For those of you who’ve made it this far, you are part of it. As I continue to make these, I will update on what is happening. If you are in my life personally, you will hopefully see the change. It is never easy and it’s often hard to see the meaning when there is so much left to go. I won’t be completely consistent, and I won’t make all the changes immediately. The importance in this, is to acknowledge it, set it in place and work on it. The rest does fall into place with that. 

At this point, I want to have the chance to hear from you. What are your thoughts, suggestions, personal experiences or even disagreements? I’d love to talk to you, even if it’s grammar suggestions (because I make a lot of mistakes) anything is accepted. Thank you for listening and continuing to take this journey. I hope to hear your journey and anything else you may want to share. Until then, stay class. 🙂