Love People, Use Things - A Lesson In Minimalism

What if everything you've ever wanted, you don't actually want?

All this 'shopping'. All these meaningless choices.

It's OK to 'want' things, but how often do we ever stop to ask ourselves 'why'?

What gap in our life are we filling with that 'stuff'?


These are questions posed in a documentary I've just discovered on Netflix. 

Here's the  trailer:





Minimalism is worth a watch, when you're snuggled on the sofa on a cold Sunday afternoon!


It's left me thinking and reflecting...

"You will not be happier by consuming more."

Many of us in the western world are trapped in a cycle of compulsory consumption that is tearing apart the fabric of society and destroying the planet.

We've grown up with this lie - sold to us by corporations whose only motivation is to make money - that we need more 'stuff' to find happiness.
 

I could get political and talk about the rise of Neo-Liberalism since Thatcher and Reagan in the '80s, and the Capitalist Economic Model, but in truth, politics bores me (in fact it irritates me). 

I don't want to be preachy here, I just want to share lessons learned for my own life - to inspire myself, and perhaps others. 


It starts with rejecting the undercurrent of consumerism. 


To create a template that works for us. 

To do more with less.

Get Serious

If I'm truly serious about spending more time traveling, experiencing new places and new adventures, I need to learn to let go. 

I need to travel light. 

I need to practice minimal living.

I don't want to be lumbering around carrying baubles and trinkets who's only purpose is decorative.

I'll have to accept that I don't need 50 notebooks, hundreds of coloured pens, shelves full of books, 20 pairs of shoes and a wardrobe full of cheap clothes!


This will be an evolution for me, rather than a revolution. 

Evolution Vs Revolution

I'm not suddenly going to go from a 4 bedroom house with my husband (Graham) - full of stuff accumulated over our 23-year relationship - to living from a backpack! 

I'm not sure, at my age, I can reduce down to 51 things in the entire world (and I don't think I want to!) 

And I certainly don't expect Graham to do this either.

Finding A Balance At Home

I'll admit it, I'm not going to make out I'm all worthy and puritanical about only having what I need!  

I love cosyness. I love softness. I love cushions and fairy lights. I love scented candles and house plants and soft bedding. I love the look and smell of a fully loaded bookcase.

I don't want to live somewhere cold and austere - I'm not intending to renounce all worldy possessions anytime soon and spend my life wearing sack-cloths and sandals!  

(This is not my home and nor would I want it to be!)

All that being true, the whole point of a life as a roaming entrepreneur is to live from a different perspective. 

To experience true freedom, and that means being free from the responsibility of too much 'stuff'.

It's not only about letting go of clutter and trinkets, it's also about making the physical space to create the mental space.

It's something I'll need to practice at home, in my every day life. Something to get accustomed to. 

To live with less. 

To declutter.

A Minimal Movement

Finding this trailer on YouTube, made me realise just how much content there is out there on this idea of relinquishing stuff for the sake of stuff and living a simpler, more sustainable life.

The journey towards simplicity

To start that process of decluttering my home, my life and moving towards a more portable existence, I'll need to resolve some fundamentals.

Every possession must serve a purpose or bring joy. I need to evaluate what I have and ask, "Does this add value to my life?".

It's not about living an 'easy' life, but a living a simpler one.

Affordability. Simplicity. Sustainability

 

If we can reduce our life, we can reduce our overheads. Our debts and outgoings. 

Our biggest debt is the mortgage. 

When we returned to the UK from Bulgaria (a story for another time), we had nothing but a car full of stuff. 

For a month we lived in a friend's spare bedroom, before moving into a 1 bed flat.

Of course, we then had to fill that flat with furniture! 

Then we moved to a 2 bed house, with a lodger and 2 cats, which involved buying more furniture to fill the rooms.

Then we moved to our current house, with 3 bedrooms and an attic room. More furniture. More stuff. 

It's amazing how quickly you can fill a newly acquired space!

With acquired space is acquired responsibility to service the debt for that space. 

Servicing that debt to contain our stuff currently involves being at work.

At least, being self-employed, I do actually spend a lot of time in that house. Unlike many people, who have a house and most of the time (except when they're asleep) they're not even in it because they're out earning money to pay for it!

To enable us to travel, we can cover this responsibility by renting the house out - being in a popular urban area. 

We need to declutter to rent the house. We don’t want to be paying to store stuff (anymore)! 

Step 1 - What do we have and what do we need?

Living deliberately: Not ‘consuming’ is not about taking away. 

It’s adding responsibility for the resources we use. 

Adding intention. 

Adding quality. 

Adding value.

Remove the unnecessary and all that remains is what’s important.

Letting Go Is A Process

Step 2: Work shelf by shelf, draw by draw, cupboard by cupboard, room by room.

Fortunately, we don’t have expensive hobbies or expensive tastes, but we've still managed to fill cupboards and storage boxes, and wardrobes and drawers in every room!

Maslow on Motivation

Watching the film and reflecting on the notion of 'Life Editing' reminded me of a motivation model I've studied in my career practice as a trainer, mentor and coach...

Maslow's Heirarchy Of Human Needs

Image source: Wikipedia

In this commonly used model for human motivation, Maslow proposes the phsychological theory that on our journey to self-actualistion (fulfilling our potential) there are various needs that must be met first:

Physiological: Shelter. Food. Water. Sleep.

Safety: Personal, financial and emotional security.

Love/Belonging: Family, friends, companionship, intimacy.

Esteem: Status. To be accepted, valued and respected.

Once these needs have been met, self-actualisation is about the accumulation of experiences and wisdom, not 'stuff'.

More To Life

More to life than bills money and work. 

More to life than working to buy stuff. 

More to life than having a massive debt for a building to store stuff in, and working to pay that debt.

Less is more. Be Intentional. Stay simple.

Step 3: Now all we need to do is live deliberately, with less, and see where the journey takes us! 

A lasting word from the Minimalism film...

Love People, Use Things - because the opposite never works!

The Dangling Baskets of Naples

Naples, summer of 2018.

We're falling into step with the ebb and flow of people meandering along the oversized cobbles of the street.

Broken glass and cigarette butts nessle in the cracks, wear flip flops at your peril around the old part of the city!

1.5 million people live and work on top of each other here, and tourists swell their ranks in the summer.

Crumbling apartment blocks, from every era, crowding along on the narrow streets, creating shaded canyons radiating from sun soaked piazzas.

For all its busyness, to the observer, Naples doesn't cut a prosperous figure.

Boxes and battered crates teeter in festering piles in the back alleys. Graffiti, fly posters and OSB patch boards are the patina of these grimy streets.

Scooters zip through, weaving between pedestrians like bees about to swarm.

Every vehicle is dinged and dented, dust caked and forlorn in the sensory-battering throng of the streets. The song of this city is the buzz of Vespa engines and the impatient blair of horns.

Moments of tranquillity are rare in such purposefulness. Then we strolled into the Quatro Espanol, the Spanish District - named after the Spanish soldiers Garrisoned there during the reign of Ferdinand of Aragon.

We watch as women lower plastic baskets down from their balconies to street level.

Vendors take the money from the basket, replace it with goods the customer has phoned ahead for, and the basket is then hoisted back up these UNESCO protected tall apartment blocks.

Colourful, cheap plastic baskets dangle from so many of these windows, while below, people walk past unawares.

Built in the Renaissance, these, tall, slender apartment blocks don't have lifts and who wants to walk up four flights of stairs in 28 degrees for a loaf of bread and a bottle of beer from the shop!

Vision or Vanity?

Every business needs a vision, but not every entrepreneur has to be a visionary.

If you close your eyes and imagine where you would like your life to be in, say, 5 years, what might it look like?

Life in 5 Years

Each time I've done exactly that, what I see, where I imagine myself, is not in the front of my computer in my attic office!

In those daydreams, I've been on the prow of a speedboat, or laying on a bed of fur in a yurt, or cruising along the Amalfi Coast in a vintage convertible,  big bug-eyed sunglasses and a flowery scarf billowing behind me, Audrey Hepburn Style.

Where The Future Takes Us

This is where I imagine my future will take me. But these aren't one-off holidays - a few days hiatus between long spells of air-conditioned offices - No. 

The overwhelming feeling I've had in all these flights of fancy has been that these are high points of everyday life. 

Freedom of self-employment has allowed me to live a nomadic lifestyle.

This is the vision for my business. The vision for our life.

What's stopping this from being my life right now?

Is It Vanity?

This is where I find myself thinking of it as just 'vanity'. 

I can't only think of myself, I have a husband and a mortgage. A husband in a full-time office based job which pays that mortgage!

The thing that stops this being my reality is my responsibility to my life partner, in all things.

The challenge therefore, is to find a way to be true to both.

Is it Vision?

Writing about the 'vision' for my business is the first step to making these changes.

The first steps towards creating a reality that suits both of us.

Being Blogger

Blogging has served me well as a means to an end, doing the thing I'll do anyway... writing.

I started my first blog in 2013, the year I published my first book, when my worlds as an author and business advisor collided in 2015, I started my consultancy business. 

That has since evolved into Learn To Love Your Words and my specialty is as a blogging mentor for business.

Building my marketing around content was the obvious solution. 

The first blog was about becoming an author - I still keep this blog on my author website.

The second blog was to grow my influence as a writing mentor and build a business.

This (third blog!) is about challenging my reality and sharing my love of travelling.

I have an innate curiosity. I love exploring and discovery. I love meeting new people and having new experiences.

I want to discover more of this amazing, diverse and fascinating planet we inhabit.

Life's Little Luxuries

However, I also enjoy a little luxury! 

I don't mean traveling 5-star, I mean not living out of a backpack and sleeping in bug infested hovels.

I mean travelling, but maintaining a comfortable life. Earning enough money to enjoy eating and drinking out, Cafe Culture and sleeping in a comfortable - private - bedroom.

Being able to enjoy the trappings of travel, as well as living with the locals.

I would hate to travel to a once in a lifetime place and not be able to afford the entrance fee!

Perhaps this blog will turn out to be an experiment in vanity? 

Or perhaps I'll achieve the vision of location independence - of being a Wandering Entrepreneur,  a Roaming Entrepreneur? 

In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as the journey is enjoyable!

Say Hello to a Roaming Entrepreneur!

Enter, a new chapter in my blog journey...

Since starting this original blog back in 2013, it's changed and evolved.

Originally, it was 'Idea-ism' - suffering the syndrome of too many ideas!

Later, I used it exclusively for my writing blog, having published my fiction novels as Amy C Fitzjohn. It was connected to that website. 

Now I have a writing blog as part of my Amy C Fitzjohn webiste, this one can evolve once more...

I dream of being location independant. 

To be able to live, work and travel around the world. 

The ultimate freedom. The ultimate escape.

My husband, Graham, and I try to travel as much as we can, but are restricted by his full time job in the UK, and my business, which currently does most of it's work in the South West region of England.

We've lived abroad (Bulgaria - you'll read about that on here!), we've trvelled to many places - cities in particular - and we now live in the city of Bristol.

Bristol is a city we love, we will always keep a home here, we will always come back here, but that doesn't weaken my wanderlust instincts!

I dream of building my business to a point where it can sustain us both and allow us the freedom to make choices. To live, work and explore with purpose.

Say hello to a 'Roaming Entrepreneur'! 

What Makes a Good Beach Read?

With the summer upon us, and thoughts turning to vacations by the beach, what will be on your reading pile?

Personally, I still like a paperback, but when your hand luggage is weight restricted, you have to choose your books carefully!


eBooks are far more practical if you are away for a couple of weeks and will be feasting on books while you sip a Mojito by the pool or a chilled beer on the beach!

Grab your Kindle and make sure you pack it with some great reads!

As I write this, I have that classic summer song playing, 'Club Tropicana' by Wham. 
Have a listen as you read :)



"...Fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone!"

I wrote previously on my 'Cocktail for a Perfect Holiday Read'.

Here's my latest recipe:

• Into your solid, well-contained plot; blend a complementary mix of tasty characters

• Add a generous shot of action

• Muddle in some adventure

• Drop in a dash of violence

• Sprinkle in some sensuous sex

• Shake vigourously to mix in all the subtle flavours of sub plot

• Finally, serve chilled with a twist

 

I've just returned from my summer vacation, with thoughts of starting a travel blog!

I was part way through 'Warlock' by Wilbur Smith, and being the size of a small brick, there was plenty left of it to keep my occupied!

Recent favourite reads have been:

Time and Time Again, by Ben Elton



The Taxidermist's Daughter, by Kate Mosse



I've also loved the Giordano Bruno books by SJ Paris. I think I may be a little in love with Bruno, the spy/ex-monk! All three books are availibale as a box set:




If binge reading is your thing on vacation, the bumper 4 in 1 Sherdian and Blake eBook Boxset is perfect.

All four books in one:

• The Bronze Box
• Solomon's Secrets
• Gabriel's Game parts 1 and 2

Happy Summer!

Blogging FAQ - for Writers

Blogging is awesome when you are an author!

You get to do all the, "horrid marketing and business stuff"* by doing the one thing you were going to do anyway... write!

*Actually, I rather like all that marketing and business stuff. 

All marketing really is is telling people the story of what you do and why you do it. Being in business is a fantastic way to meet lots of interesting people - ripe fodder for narrative and character ideas!

My blog is the spine of my businesses. 

Everything I do extends from the blogs I write, whether it's for businesses wanting to be more creative, or with writers wanting to be my business-like.

There are six questions I'm commonly asked by new bloggers:

1. How often should I blog?

2. What’s the ideal length for a blog?

3. What shall I blog about?

4. How do you make the time to blog?

5. What are the benefits of blogging?

6. How do I get people to see my blogs?

    

Read more, and discover my simple, no nonsense solutions, HERE

https://authorpreneur.amymorse.co.uk/six-blogging-faq/