One day it’s over. Don’t forget that man’s life is short compared to mother nature. For an example take a look at Wikipedia’s list of oldest trees. How do you feel now? It shouldn’t be negative to be aware of our short life time. Let’s use it to our satisfaction, inspiring us to enjoy the present.

I believe that you have big plans for your future. There is so much to do, enjoy or accomplish. It’s really to much for one life time, isn’t it? But I want you to understand that you will never get it done. There is always something more to see. I hope you now it already so you don’t need to become depressive about that. There is no point in feeling sad about all the things you will never see. Instead of that focus on the things you want to see in this life. And because you’ll never get it done, there is no point in trying to gain happiness through accomplishments. Comparing the time you use to accomplish a goal and the pursuit of the same, it would be stupid to focus on the destination instead of on the path towards it.

If you never get it done, enjoy the ride itself. That’s the simplest key to happiness.

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. – Buddha

It is tempting to give in and to strive for excellence, isn’t it? Every one on this planet wants to be an expert on some topic, wants to be the best, wants to stand out. We cheer on such people who stand out, who reach for the highest good. Who break all limitations ordinary people have. Don’t we all want to be excellent in some way?

But before striving for being excellent in your job, your hobby or your purpose, what about yourself? Are you excellent being yourself? Because no one really can be a better version of yourself, you are the only one who really can be you. That’s why there is a very high rate that you’ll have the chance to be excellent, be the best, be the one.

Have you ever considered to start at yourself and become the best you, you ever can be? Be excellent, be yourself.

This is the most important and best personal development advice ever. I don’t care what you want to achieve, change, or fight for. Anything you need to succeed are only two things, I’m serious. let’s start – you need:

• the ability to be aware of the present, your actions and your thoughts.
• the ability to stop immediately anything you are doing.

Just in case you do not understand what I mean, I will provide you with some real life examples.

Health & Weight Loss:
To lose weight you need to control your eating habits and body exercise. Be aware of the amount and the quality of the food you are eating. Be aware of the amount of exercises and movements you do. If you’re aware and catch yourself doing something wrong, use your ability to stop it immediately. Then refocus and try some other way.

Money, Work & To-Do Lists:
Be aware of what tasks you are doing right now. You could do the most important tasks or you could use unimportant tasks as an excuse. Also be aware of the results you get. If you catch yourself procastinating, immediately stop what you are doing and choose another task.

Relationships:
Be aware of your way of interacting with other people. Be aware of what they say, listen to them carefully and speak consciously. Be able to stop any wrong behaviour immediately to change your way of interaction positively.

Exercise:
Be aware of your body movements and do them conciously, listen to your body and push yourself, but be aware of the limit. Stop immediately if you are doing it wrong, focusing on losing time or recognizing negative thoughts. Your body deserves your full attention when exercising.

Creativity:
Emerge yourself fully into your creative process and lose sight of anything around you. Become your creative output, leaving your position as the creator behind and blending with the creation.  Be aware of the beauty, but stop immediately and focus again if you recognize doing it only half-assed.

Spirituality:
When meditating, be aware of your thoughts and the stillness between them. Just be aware of all that is, be the observer of it. But if you start to identifying yourself with your thoughts again, stop immediately the second you recognize it and grow your awareness again.

That’s all you need. Go get it!

I often feel uncertain about what to do next, what to do about life in general. Which path do I want to go? There are endless possibilities and the discovery that I could be whatever I want doesn’t help me much. I still need to decide which path I want to follow.

Everyday I hear sentences like “I don’t know what to do. God give me a sign. Higher Self what is my life purpose? What do I really love to do?” in my mind and believe me, that is not empowering!

I am uncertain about my future. But Steve Pavlina said in his article called Abuse of Power that certainty is a creation, not an observation. That would mean that my act of looking FOR certainty is senseless. You just need to create it. What a shame.

“It’s foolish to act like a victim of your own uncertainty when you’re the one who’s creating it in the first place.” – Steve Pavlina

Okay. I’m certain. I know what I want to do with my life.

This month I want to take a quantum leap in taking action outside of my comfort-zone, having courage and living consciously. Let’s see if this decision will affect me on March 31st.

It’s weird, isn’t it? We are seeking happiness everywhere and through anything. We tend to eat to be happy. We buy more stuff to be happy. We exercise to see ourselves in the mirror and feel happy. We work hard to watch our seeds grow and feel happy. We contribute to the whole to be a part of it – and feel happy. We are doing so much stuff to feel happy, but happiness is right here waiting for us.

We only need to choose a though that feels a little bit better than the last one. By lifting our emotional vibration on step at a time, we feel better on step at a time. From pain to hate, from hate to frustration, from frustration to sadness, from sadness to pity, from pity to hope and from hope all the way up to joy. One step at a time.

It’s so weird. But all we need to do is to choose to feel good now. Mh..

It sounds like a joke, but my to do list for becoming a minimalist is very minimalistic. In fact it contains just one task I focus upon until it’s finished. Then I search for the next thing I can do to become, feel, behave and live like a minimalist.

One Step at a Time

it’s easy and much more fun to do anything one step at a time, having a glimpse on the endgoal from time to time when motivation starts to fade. But the true strengh of this method is that I avoid feeling overwhelmed and stressed by reducing clutter. As I began to declutter my room, I faced a great amount of paper, notes and old bills I needed to read through first. It was really overwhelming seeing that stuff and knowing, that there is plenty more of that waiting for me right after that. But through focusing on that task only, I could create momentum, be productive and stay joyful. The task itself wasn’t even that hard but more like a passive meditation hour. “Sit down my Padawan and read through all of this stuff to exercise your focus on the present moment.”

Your Joker is Your Goal

But most of the time your task won’t make any fun. Your motivation shrinks, you get distracted easily and loose focus. This is the time to tap into your vision of your endgoal, in my example the clean and stuff-free room. You need to know why you want that goal and intensely feel it. Create a good feeling, providing you with positive energy and excitement about all the things you could do after through completing that task. This should push your motivation to a higher level again. That’s my Joker, my way of breaking my own whining.

This post ist short. There is nothing more to say about that.

Go and create room. Create freedom. Create clarity.
One Step at a time.

Author’s Note: This is the start of a series about Minimalism and my pursuit of it. Feel free to share it via twitter & co.

Author’s Note: This is the start of a series about Minimalism and my pursuit of it. Feel free to share it via twitter & co.

The first time I heard about Minimalism was reading Zen Habits. I really like the idea of it being an extension of the known “Simplicity lifestyle”. Minimalism leads to freedom, clarity, true abundance and focus. Somehow, you gain more through having less.

I get clarity.

“The things you own end up owning you.” ~ Tyler Durden

Who am I? I’m defining myself like many others by the possesions I have. But who am I under all this stuff? I get clarity in my mind by creating clarity in my life. I want to relate only on truly important things, saying proudly: “That’s a part of me, of my life.” With Minimalism I can see easyly what I own and why I own it. If it doesn’t bring me joy, comfort or freedom, it needs to go. I declutter my mind by decluttering my space.

I get freedom.

I see myself traveling through foreign countries, only with one backpack with all my stuff. If you do not own much, you are able to move with nearly all of it from space to space. But I also sense another form of freedom. I’m free of attachment. I can not only know but experience that I do not need all of these fancy things to be happy.

I get focus.

No distractions on your desk. Sharp focus. Intense clarity. Deep calmness. Flowing creativity leads to impressive productivity.

I get true abundance.

I feel abudant independently of any circumstances around me. I don’t need to spend much money on stuff, so I safe more. I don’t need to spend much time on stuff, so I have more. I don’t need to spend much space on stuff, so I see more. Minimalism is creating pure abundance in my life.

Clarity, Freedom, Focus, Abundance and Joy. That’s why I love Minimalism.

it’s really simple:

1. define what you would like to experience and how it would feel.
2. focus on the pure feeling and believe you will experience it.
3. be happy in anticipation of what is coming to you.

the anticipation should make you feel great right where you are.

Source: Abraham Hicks

Again, my mind starts to talk to me:

“You need to find a solution. You need something great for your life purpose, some sort of career you can focus on daily. You need to achieve something. Search for the answers, you are nearly in trouble. Soon it could be to late.”

My mind often starts telling me what I should do and why I can not focus now on the present moment. Because I have things to get done. My life needs a shift and I can not relax now, how dare I?

But in reality there is no problem. My mind is the one who creates the problem just to push me to solve it. My mind cannot survive in the present moment very long. It isn’t needed that much at all as it is used to when I stay in the present. It is far more efficient when I choose to deliberately use it, instead of when it takes me over and creates concerns about my future.

My minds problem is: there is no problem.
And that’s how I can quite my mind. By telling myself that there is no problem now, no need to worry. If something needs to get done for the future, there still is no need to worry, I can solve everything with calmness.

Even no need to live only for the present moment to avoid a worried mind. Be wise, stay calm and you are able to plan everything without worry.

Simple facts: Do 20 push-ups and you feel great afterwards.

I’ve discovered this little truth a while ago. Putting effort and energy into the present actually can create great pleasure afterwards. I never was a big fan of investing energy now for pleasure afterwards, but somehow I discovered that the process itself can be fun, too. I focus on the present moment, the movements, the process itself, instead of on the goal – and get the results I like while having already pleasure. In the past I focused on the goal and got frustrated with the process of exercising. But today everything was new for me. I never really felt my body while exercising, never focused on how it feels to literally cause pain to yourself and holding it. How long do I stand? When do I give up? How much control do I have over my body? New insights in every present moment.

Why discover the world already if you don’t know yourself?