1298: [Part 2] Minimalism by Mark Manson on Leading a Minimalist Life

It's a minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily Episode 1298, Minimalism, Part 2 by Mark Manson of markmansin.net and I'm Justin Molick. Happy Monday, happy first of July if you're listening in real time and welcome back to Optimal Living Daily or the OLD podcast where I read to you from some of the best blogs I can find and get permission from. Today's post comes from Mark Manson and this is a continuation from yesterday actually, so if you're new here, I recommend listening to yesterday's episode 1297 first. Now let's get right to Part 2 and continue optimizing your life.

Minimalism, Part 2 by Mark Manson of Mark Manson.net. The second factor, loss aversion, is a sad fact of life. Psychology has shown that humans perceive the pain of losing something to be much greater than the pleasure of having it. This is true for everything, relationships, possessions, competition, and it's hardwired into us, all of us.

So that poker chip said I won, swore I had to keep and felt crushed when I had to get rid of it, is actually something I haven't thought about or missed once since discarding it. Loss aversion motivates us to expend more time and energy maintaining what we already have than the actual pleasure we derive from having it merits. To think of it in numerical terms, something may give us five points of pleasure, but loss aversion will cause us to perceive 15 points of pain if we lose it. So instead of investing five points worth of effort to maintain it, we invest 15 points of effort into something that gives us five points of pleasure, such as the curse of loss aversion and such as the benefit of being attached to as few things as possible.

Happiness studies consistently bring back a couple of findings. Number one, that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions. And number two, that we're better off investing our energy in our relationships than the things we own. Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can therefore indirectly improve our quality of life through the following ways.

Number one, frees up more time and money to spend on experiences and with people. Number two, forces one to invest more of their identity in their behavior and attitude and lessen objects around them. Number three, removes the stress of loss aversion and trying to hold on to what one already has. And number four, saves money, always a stress reducer.

I'm sure one day I will own property and need to furnish a small apartment or house or something. But when I do go back to having permanent possessions, I'm sure that I won't be invested in them in the way I used to be in the way most people are. What can you get rid of today? Now comes the fun part.

Let's talk about the useless you have that you can get rid of today. I'm gonna start with the easiest objects to trash and move to the most difficult. Number one, 90% of what's in your storage closet, attic, or garage. This is the easy part, the spring cleaning part, those old golf clubs you never play with, the rusty toolbox, the beaten up board games, the bicycle pump for the bike you don't have anymore, the old pool toys, the posters from college, Mon and on and on.

This is the stuff you would have thrown out ages ago except you told yourself, well, you never know, or you stopped because they brought back a really good memory or two. Look, if you haven't used it in the past three months and don't think it's likely you'll use it in the next three months, toss it, don't think about it, don't reminisce, just toss it. You won't miss it, I promise. Number two, CDs is 2019.

Get with the times and put all of your music on your computer. A few years ago, I sold my collection of 400 plus CDs for $500 that paid for a plane to get the Panama. No brainer. Number three, video games, about half of my readers just gasped when they saw this.

Yes, video games are fun and they're nice to blow off some steam every now and then. Most people who play them, particularly young men, play them way too much. Not only are they a massive time sink, but they waste a lot of money and all but kill your social life. Ask yourself, if you spent half the amount of time you spent playing video games out socializing the past five years or reading books, what would your life be like?

Chances are your stomach dropped as soon as you thought about that. If it did, then it's time to put the Xbox and PS3 on Craigslist. Delete Diablo 3 after your hard drive. Get living.

Number four, television. Yeah, there are some good TV shows, but you can watch them on your computer for free whenever you'd like. Forget the television. Having around only encourages you to get sucked into pointless, like sports, go watch your favorite games out of sports bar.

Watching sports with other people is 10 times better, even if they're total strangers. Number five, books. I'm a bookworm and love the good old glue and paper as much as anybody, but buy a Kindle or iPad and start downloading your books. This one hurt me a lot and I resisted it for a long time, but I'm glad I did it.

Number six, clothes. For guys, all you need is three to four dress shirts, three to four t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a nice pair of pants, some shorts, exercise shoes, dress shoes, a coat, a jacket, a sweater, maybe a sweatshirt, socks and underwear. For women, I know this sounds crazy, but you don't really need a whole lot more than most guys. Instead of dress shirts, maybe just three to four dresses if you're into that.

And the great thing about dressing for women is that accessories can really change the whole look of an outfit. So with a few scarves or pieces of jewelry or hats or whatever, you can mix and match the same few pieces and still look like you have an endless closet. Number seven, furniture. Now we're getting serious, that nice chair you never sit in, the dining room set you touch once a year, the extra table in the office, the bookshelf that held the books you just sold.

When you toss your unneeded furniture, you're likely to find that you can easily live in a house or apartment half the size of your current one. That may be a traumatic realization for some of you, but if you can handle it, you can use the money you make now to live in a smaller place in a far better location. Remember, experiences bring happiness, not stuff. So what's gonna make you happier?

The futon grandma gave you for a graduation present or living down the street from your favorite concert venue. Number eight, car. If you live in a better location and live in a city with good public transportation, chances are you don't need a car anymore. I haven't owned a car in nine years, and I think it's very unlikely I'll ever own one again.

My friends think I'm crazy, but they've never lived in a city with quality mass transit. If you don't own much stuff, you can live in the best location in the city and then use buses or metros to get where you need to go. Not only is it far cheaper, far more convenient, and far more enjoyable, but it leaves a much smaller carbon footprint. The only situation I can even fathom wanting a car again is if I one day end up with four little kids and need to shuttle them back and forth to football practice and dance recitals.

But let's cut this article off right there before I start envisioning my soccer mom future, but a little bit too clearly. You just listened to part two of the post titled Minimalism by Mark Manson of markmanson.net. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology.

Learn more at about amazon.ca. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health. What supplements to take hours of sleep? What my diet should focus on super power finally takes the guessing out of it.

One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers in their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins. Plus it used to cost $499 right now. It's just $199 and head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. One thing Mark mentioned that I do want to emphasize is those happiness studies showing that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions and that we're better off investing our energy and our relationships than the things we own.

Just from my own personal experience of actually tracking my mood every day for about a year or so, this is definitely true. Relationships and experiences made for the highest mood days for me probably also the lowest because arguments or feeling bad can really only happen when you're around people, at least in general. But you can only have those highs if you have lows too. But days without friends or family, those usually in the four to six range out of 10.

So basically just average mood, maybe lower if I was sick or something. But being around people whose company I enjoy, that's when the eights, nines and tens appear. I really don't think you can have that without some people and some relationships in your life. So something to think about, maybe try tracking your mood with a quick description of what you did that day and see where the highest days are.

But I'll leave it at that for today. Hope you have a great rest of your day and start to your week and month. Thank you for being here and listening to me and for subscribing to the show. It really means a lot and I'll be back tomorrow where you're optimal life.

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