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Thursday, April 6, 2017

Minimalism

                                     

What should one choose?

Minimalism or regular life or creation of wealth?

Am struggling to find an answer and trying to have a thought process diarrhoea to ease my mind.

One’s life is running on auto mode usually, the catch word is usually, until the graduation days.

Well, you are born, and barring certain calamities, the physical, life-threatening ones have been almost eradicated thanks to advances in science and technology, the socio-political ones keep surfacing randomly and we hardly exercise any control over them, one reaches, in most cases, the milestone event of graduating.

Once you graduate, you reach a pivotal point of how to sustain yourself in your life.

More bluntly, stop being a burden to your parents (there is a message here, which I shall try to explore during the course of the article) and look after yourself.

One can do many things at this juncture, but historical evidence shows a clear herd mentality of choosing what has been safely tried before.

Job, marry, children, possessions……………

The starting point is “What should I do with my life”, and every act that follows, most of the times, takes the life out of the life that we are trying to live.

I shall focus here on what happens in the “most of the time” cases as exceptions are, well, exceptions.

What is right has no answer.

What should be done is not possible to be answered with certainty too.

Would I have done differently if I were to start at 20 years of my age is more hypothetical and often cushioned with the comforts that one gets to enjoy that only retrospect provides!

Let us explore all three options that I listed at the start and see where it takes you.

To avoid empty verbiage and volumes of texts, let me build a table.

A cue from minimalism.

Trigger
Minimalism
Regular Life
Wealth creation
Mobility
Absolute
Limited
Limited
Change courses
Snap of your finger
Laborious
Limited
Marriage
Not considered necessary might happen
Usually yes.
Almost certainly yes, you need heirs to carry your kingdom on
Children
Linked to above, chances are less
Almost certain once the above box is ticked as yes. Again planned.
Certain, though limited in numbers, a maximum of two.
Hobbies
Numerous
Few, more to flaunt.
Selected, usually with an end game in mind.
Need to have money
Usually, the last priority, need little to move on.
A central obsession. Saving is key. There is never enough. What if…. drives you to be a hoarder. Often one ends up as a dog in the manger.
Classic case of the tail wagging the dog. You don’t have a control. You must earn and make more. It is a given.
Smiles
Frequently, and often without what society would call as a valid reason.
Rationed. Often reserved for occasions. One gets to a point where a reason is required.
Non-existent. Often finds no reasons to smile. Need a camera to elicit one.
Charity *
Tends to give away what one has at the first sign of a genuine need.
Like everything else, this is also planned. Once a year. Or when calamitous events happen. Or a tax exemption is seen.
Usually yes. More towards a brand image. An accounting tool too.
Help others. *
Instinctively yes.
Selective.
Selective.
Travel
Often. With minimalism as a way of life and often single, it gets easier to travel. The travels are more life-enhancing.
Planned. Rarely life enriching. Of the “I have been here..” type. Photo uploaded on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. Game over. Till the next cycle beckons.
Taken as a deserved break. And be connected with the empire/kingdom 24X7.
Manipulative
Usually no
Depends on individuals
Usually yes.
Hypocrisy
Usually absent
Practiced often. The pseudonyms “diplomatic” “compatible” “social animal” are used to camouflage.
Blatantly practiced.
Need to impress others
Absent.
Usually present.
The other way about. Needs others to impress them, else life is considered meaningless.
Capacity to love.
Unlimited.
Restricted to a select band.
Not considered necessary. Time can be put to better use.
Friends.
Not counted in lists. Befriends everyone. No long term associations.
Meticulously tracked. Loses as many as earned. A moving flux.
Come with a purpose.
And an expiry date.
Financial freedom.
Needs are less. Nothing amassed. Normally free.
The extent varies. But mortgages and liabilities are omnipresent. The obligations never cease. When absent, they are artificially created. Never free!
A paradox. Should be free. But usually no, and even more strangely the financial affluence is not savored as it should.
Kindness quotient
High.
Selectively kind. Can be surprisingly cruel.
Does not consider this as a necessary attribute.
Animal lover.
Yes.
If affordable a pet is kept. And loved. In general no.
Outsourced.
Faithful
As there is no need to impress or accommodate anyone, the concept is never in question. Usually honest and forthright.
Selectively. And a very flexible moral scale to justify inconsistencies.
Often a matter of convenience.


The above link is provided to support my two triggers that were asterisked in the table.

The above table is just representative. As we mentioned at the start, there are always exceptions. A diligent reader may be able to dig out a sadistic psychopath who practices minimalism or leads a “hippie” life or an extremely well behaved, altruistic, benevolent person in the category 3.

In the corporate world, we often say we build a qualification matrix knowing what we want as a result of the exercise of the qualifying round!

So it can be seen here that my way of constructing this table blatantly favors minimalism. It is my opinion that a lifestyle that reduces your materialistic attachments and obligations can be more fulfilling than the one that centers around it.

My socially conscious friends will be sharpening their knives, ready to launch on me with accusations that I encourage a lack of responsibility, a structured life, and chaos to reign.

I simply profess freedom to live, a life worth living and order as one sees it, not as the society has decided.




4 comments:

  1. Good article.
    It's ironical that ppl are reaching for more and more (money, power...) and what they at the end get is stress, anxiety and messed up life. The thing that brings true happiness is somewhere else ��.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Veronika - I think it is you - glad you liked it. Shall discuss more next time we meet :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. thanks Santosh - feel free to share if you want

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