There are different types of minimalism. There is minimalism in art, minimalism in music, and minimalism in decor. But in living your life, it is minimalism in lifestyle that applies. This type of minimalism promises to improve your life. But there is much confusion about what it is or how to apply it. To clear things up, I will start by defining it. I will state what it is and how it applies to other fields. I will then clear up some misconceptions about minimalism. So let us begin by defining minimalism:
Here are some of the ways to define minimalism
There are different ways to define minimalism as a lifestyle. But many of these definitions are very similar if not identical. Here are two such definitions:
Removing whatever is useless
Focusing on what is valuable by removing whatever is not
In both of these definitions, “what” or “whatever” can mean tangible or intangible things. There is also the emphasis on removing whatever is useless or of no value. Removing something useless or valueless is the best option. To understand why let’s look at the other options:
Option 1
You can keep the useless thing. But if you keep it and don’t use it, then you are wasting your time, space, and other resources on it. This is because it will give you nothing in return.
Option 2
You can create a task to make it useful. But creating an extra task to have a use for it doesn’t make sense. It would mean adding to your workload when you don’t need to.
Option 3
You can use it for a task that you are already doing. But using it for the task that you were already doing doesn’t make sense either. The fact that you were doing it means that you already have something else that works for that task. This makes the item redundant.
The point here is that getting rid of something you don’t use is often the best way to deal with it. It wastes fewer resources than keeping it.
Minimalism is a tool for improving efficiency
The fact that minimalism wastes fewer resources means that it improves efficiency. But to learn its true value, we should see how it’s used in different fields:
How it applies in aerospace design
No sane engineer would include useless components in the design of an aircraft or rocket. Useless components would add cost and complexity while adding nothing of value. Even worse, they would add dead weight that degrades performance and efficiency. A good engineer would remove all useless components from the design. This is a classic use of minimalism.
How it applies in high-level competitions
No competitive athlete would want sports equipment bogged down with useless components. This is true for cyclists, speed skaters, or any other athlete. Every part of the equipment should help to win competitions. The equipment design will exclude everything else. This is another use of minimalism.
How it applies in nature
The term “use it or lose it” applies to living things. Useless skills diminish and unused limbs atrophy. Our bodies don’t waste resources on what we don’t use. Mother Nature is a minimalist.
Getting top performance and efficiency out of any system means cutting inefficiencies. And useless resources are the most inefficient things. So excluding them is necessary to improve performance or efficiency. So minimalism is useful for getting top performance or efficiency out of any system.
It is a tool for improving your life
As I said before, minimalism is useful to improve the performance or efficiency of any system. So you can use it as a tool to improve the performance or efficiency of your life.
Efficiency is the ability to save resources while doing a job. So improving your life’s efficiency means needing fewer resources to live in comfort. Resources are things like time, space, money, or effort. So here are some ways that you can use minimalism to save resources:
If you buy fewer unnecessary things, you save money and time.
If you get rid of useless things, you save space in your home.
Having fewer useless things means that your home takes less time and effort to keep tidy.
When you use fewer resources, you have more left to do what you want. This means having more resources to pursue your passions and your purpose. On a side note, your life’s performance is about pursuing your passions and purpose. So minimalism allows more resources to improve your life’s performance.
Minimalism is only the tool
Minimalism is not the task or the goal
As I said before, minimalism is a tool for doing a task to achieve a goal. But the tool is neither the task nor the goal. As an analogy, you can use a hammer to drive nails to build something. In this case, the task is to drive nails and the goal is to build something. Also, the hammer is not the task or the goal.
In a real-world example, a competitive cyclist would buy a bicycle that is free of useless parts. This means a lighter bicycle and is a clear case of minimalism. The lighter bicycle will help the cyclist with the task of riding faster. The cyclist rides faster with the goal of winning. In this case, minimalism is the tool. It is neither the task nor the goal.
On a side note, many high-level athletes are lean, especially the ones who depend on speed. In a way, being lean is a type of minimalism applied to the body.
Minimalism is not deprivation
Many people think that minimalism is about deprivation. But this is far from true. Minimalism is a tool for simplifying your life and making it easier. Also, minimalism works by removing whatever you find useless or don’t value.
Deprivation is very different. Deprivation is about removing what you value and find to be useful. Deprivation complicates your life and makes it more difficult. For example, your life would be more difficult if you didn’t have indoor plumbing.
Minimalism is not a universal standard or belief system
Many people look at the images on social media to see if they are using minimalism the right way. But different things are useful to different people. And many variables affect this. These variables can include your profession, your family size, and many other factors. The result is that minimalism varies with the minimalist.
Remember that minimalism is a tool for simplifying your life. It is no more of a belief system or moral code than a screwdriver is. So you shouldn’t worry about meeting someone else’s standard of minimalism. What matters is that it simplifies your life and makes it easier.
In summary, you can define minimalism as focusing on what you value by removing what you don’t. You can use it to simplify your life and make it easier by removing whatever is useless to you. Removing useless parts helps to improve the performance and efficiency of any system. This is because useless things waste resources while adding nothing of value. So minimalism can help to improve the performance and efficiency of your life.
But it’s important to know that minimalism is only a tool. You can use it to do a task for a goal. But it is neither the task nor the goal. Also, minimalism is not about deprivation. Minimalism makes your life easier while deprivation makes it more difficult. You should also remember that minimalism is not a universal standard. It is not a belief system either. It is a tool that you use to improve your life. So you should use it on your own terms.