So! I have been listening to a lot of non-fiction audiobooks since last summer. I am not totally sure, when and where it started. But I do know it started with reducing my financial illiteracy, which led to decluttering, which led to figuring out what’s important to me and my family. Below I included a table of recommendations I composed for Andreea. For me, simplifying happens within four categories: Money, Things, Mind, and Kids. Of course not prioritized in that order, and I am not neglecting my partner either.
Now, I believe, I am at a point where I need to fill the time that I used to spend shopping, and later used to declutter with more meaningful things. I consider myself very lucky that I found „my thing“ at the same time I discovered the two big „Isms“, Minimalism and Essentialism. Even though it makes me insanely happy, it’s a big project and very time-consuming. Therefore it’s also very daunting, and I have been feeling more and more frustrated because I could never find the time. There is just so much to do: family, friends, farm, job, random things, unexpected things, paper things, sleep, and so on.
Then I heard this gruesome saying: How do you eat an elephant? – Elephants are very dear to me, and I could never eat one, not even one bite at a time. – So I made a plan to work on it for 30 minutes each morning. It worked sometimes, but often it didn’t. I used up my precious free morning time for other… things.
Until it finally clicked at the beginning of this week. I don’t even know how or why. It just happened, but I accredit it to the Isms. I made it my priority. I did my mini-workout, my ten minutes of meditation, and then I wrote for 30 minutes. Only after those minutes were up, did I work on other things. It was magical! My mood changed. I was a better person. I didn’t stress myself, nor my kids when we were running ten minutes late. The extra cuddles were well worth the time, and stressing about being late, doesn’t make things too faster either.
Then today, I didn’t make it! My day was horrible. I was horrible. And it just proved my concept, theory, whatever you want to call it. But I didn’t give up. I stuck with it, and finished those 30 minutes, before doing other things, I didn’t necessarily have to do. Even if it meant writing this blog post at night instead of during my daughter’s dance class. It’s a lesson learned, for sure. Now I believe, it’s not just about what is essential to me, but what is the essence of me.
| 1st | Next | After that | Advanced | ||
| Money | The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey | Mindful Money By Jonathan K. DeYoe | The Millionaire Next Door By Thomas J. Stanley | I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi | |
| Things | The Minimal Mom (Dawn Madsen) on YouTube | Joshua Becker (YouTube or his first books) | The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning By Margareta Magnusson | ||
| Mind | Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown | Things That Matter By Joshua Becker | The Happiness Project By Gretchen Rubin | Digital Minimalism By Cal Newport | The Untethered Soul By Michael A. Singer |
| Kids | Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff | Simplicity Parenting By Kim John Payne |