pithy insights from the best books on simplicity and clutter-free living [3/3]

• Minimalism in its core essence is living a meaningful life and when we focus on the five values — namely health, relationships, passions, growth, and contribution — we set ourselves up for success.
• Once we give ourselves permission to stop becoming a “superhuman” and try to do it all, only then we’ll be able to focus on things that really matter and perform the daily tasks that reflect our values and take us towards our goals.
• Instead of repeating our misaligned, hamster-wheel patterns, we can start walking on the path of Essentialism, which is nothing but a disciplined, systematic approach for establishing where our highest point of contribution exists, and then making execution of those key things almost effortless.
• The more things we try to accomplish, the more rushed we end up feeling. Instead, it’s best to focus on fewer tasks and do them exceptionally well. In that way, we perform better and produce more.
• Living an aligned life, whether it is professional or personal, is the best decision we can make for ourselves.
• Rather than trying to do everything, we can only focus on things where we can tap into our genius; the more we spend time in our genius zone, the more streamlined our life becomes.
• When we find our ‘one thing’ and only do that with a laser-sharp focus, we cultivate true mastery in it.
• In the end, it’s all about flexibility and adaptability, and knowing and executing what’s important in the current phase of our life.
• If you feel constantly overwhelmed by parenting choices and decisions, then it’s wise to learn new perspectives and strategies that can help you enjoy the modern family life by doing less.
• The more we know ourselves, our family, and the values that drive us, the better we can re-evaluate and tailor our parenting so that we live a conscious, intentional, and aligned life.
• Each child is unique and your parenting decisions need to take your own children’s needs into account.
• Instead of following the popular advice unconsciously, it’s best to trust your instincts and follow your gut.
• If we get too caught up with making things perfect, we lose the beauty and rawness of our present moments and are not able to enjoy them fully with our loved ones.
• We need open, unstructured chunks of time where we can get creative, brainstorm ideas and extend our imagination beyond the daily grind.
• Tidying up only works if we have a clear objective in our mind that we’re trying to achieve.
• The more we get rid of unwanted things, the more space we get for things that bring us joy.
• Instead of tidying up one room at a time, the right approach is to first get all things of a particular category at one place.
• Whenever in doubt, don’t hesitate to throw it away; the ‘what if’ mindset never helps anyone in the tidying process.
• When we start optimizing, outsourcing or automating our personal and professional tasks, we can free up chunks of our time that we can put to a better use to maximize our performance, productivity and overall success.
• Building boundaries for ourselves and deliberately limiting ourselves is one of the most freeing things that we can do for ourselves, as paradoxical as it may sound.
• We need to equip ourselves with a fit body, mind and spirit in order to tackle the stress that we face in our everyday lives.
• Both minimalism and zero waste have a common goal ― a conscious and intentional reduction of consumption so that we are able to have space in our lives for more meaningful pursuits.
• A powerful thing that we can do for ourselves is to become aware of how media and our culture and peers influence our thought process and our buying decisions.
• The mindset of minimalism mainly comprises of three components: routines for taking actions, obsession for executing ideas and prioritization for ensuring growth.
• In this world of access and abundance, prioritization is one of the most important skills that we can master.
• Our physical space directly influences our mental well-being. Outer order contributes to inner calm and inner self-command.
• A clutter-free life helps us feel more confident, more energetic and more creative, and at the same time brings more calm within us.
• As we declutter our way to happiness, we also need to understand one important thing: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
• We all thrive in different environments and that’s why each of us needs to strike the right balance, so that we not only have a clean and ordered home, but also a place where we love to spend our time and are in touch with the happiness within.

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If you enjoyed these insights and align with the notion of simplicity and clutter-free living, I’d encourage you to read my book Daily Minimalism (The Daily Learner, Book 4). The condensed timeless knowledge in the daily meditations will help you navigate through the complexities that come with modern living and guide you in your quest to living a happy and meaningful life.