My Journey to Essentialism - it's the new craze

I know I said I didn't have any New Years Resolutions, and I don't I promise, but there are for sure things I'd still like to work on this year, and as the weeks in January have gone on and people have started sharing their goals for 2022 I've been flooded with inspiration and ideas for how I'd like to live my life today, tomorrow and in the future.

One of the things that has really caught my eye is ESSENTIALISM. Minimalism hit the scene and blew up a few years ago, and after decades of keeping up with the Jones' people were inspired by this idea that you could live simpler. Forget buying everything you see, minimalism is about living with just what you need and creating much needed s p a c e.

I suck at minimalism.

Look, I like to shop, and I like to have things around me that bring me joy. I don't want to give up all my books because I could just download them onto kindle. I don't want to own only 3 tops, because I enjoy experimenting with my look too much, and I definitely don't want to stop buying plants. Don't even go there.

Essentialism brings a new idea: choosing things that bring you joy and being more mindful about the things we are consuming and investing our energies in. It's not just about stuff, but about a general attitude to life - does this things benefit me or is it added fluff that I could do away with? Is it a good use of my time? Is it something that brings me purpose and fulfillment?

It's a whole concept of creating boundaries around our lives in order to focus on the things that matter the most to us. We really can't do everything (believe me, I've been trying to for the last decade) so in order to achieve the goals we have for ourselves we need to do away with the things that don't bring us any benefit.

It's all about priorities and principles rather than a list of rules to follow and I like that. The principle is that you focus your life around your priorities, and anything which doesn't bring you closer to your priorities needs to go. If it doesn't bring you joy, get rid. If it doesn't help you achieve something, throw it out of your headspace. If it stops you from reaching the next stage in your journey then cut it out. 

So what might this look like? Well, I can't speak for anyone other than myself (it's principle based, you see), but it's made me think about the goals we've had as a family and the dreams I have for the type of mother and wife I'd like to be. For so long I've been bumbling along kinda hoping things would just kind of happen, but that's not really how life works for the majority of people so I guess it's time to start including more things that will enable me to reach those goals - and that means sacrificing things that don't.

This is the start of my essentialism journey - my road to less in order to gain more. I want to document it all; the decluttering; the time management; the routines, and see where this thing takes me over the next year. Is it really possible to streamline your life? Let's see.

Until next time...


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