Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus
Book: Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus
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Authors: Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus
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made great new relationships, started pursuing our passions, and contributed to more people than we ever had before. We didn’t know that making this many changes was possible in such a short period of time, but when we look back at it, we’re thankful we decided to take gradual daily actions that changed everything for us in just a couple of years.
Raise Your Standards
What seemed impossible yesterday, will often seem easy tomorrow. So if you want to continue to grow, you must continue to raise your standards. Otherwise, you’ll plateau. Or worse, if you ever lower your standards, you’ll begin to atrophy.
While you’re taking your daily incremental actions, it’s important to raise the bar just a little each day, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Getting outside your comfort zone is an important part of growth. You needn’t raise the bar too high, but just high enough to make your change a little challenging and a little more difficult each day. Over time, your gradually raised standards will add up to changes larger than you could have imagined.
For the two of us, the most glaring example of raising our standards was with respect to our health. Once we made the decision to change our diet and exercise, and we started taking daily actions to improve both of these areas, we would also raise the bar just a little each day, especially with exercise. There was a point when neither of us exercised at all. In Joshua’s case he couldn’t do a single push-up or a single pull-up. At the beginning, he learned some techniques that allowed him to do modified versions of both exercises until one day he was able to do one of each. One push-up turned into two, which turned into 10, which eventually turned into over 100 in a row. The same was true for other exercises as well. If he would have attempted to do 100 when he started, he would have failed. That failure would have presented with it a considerable amount of dissatisfaction, discouraging him from continuing his growth. He likely would have given up. Instead he gradually raised the bar each day, building more and more on the days prior.
Consistent Actions
While you continue to raise your standards, it’s important to focus on consistent action. Said another way, it’s easier to raise the bar a little each day than raise it seven times as much each week or 30 times as much each month.
For example, it’s important to strengthen your relationships each day. You will get a lot more benefit from being nice to your lover today and tomorrow than you will from yelling at them today and buying them flowers tomorrow.
The same holds true for all areas of your life. The key to real growth is consistency. Consistent gradual action taken every day is the way we changed our lives. It feels like a slow climb at first, but once you build enough momentum you won’t want to stop growing. It’s the growth that makes you feel alive.
CHAPTER 6: CONTRIBUTION
The Importance of Contribution
Contributing to other people in meaningful ways is the most important of the five dimensions of living a meaningful life. Don’t believe us? Let us prove it.
Imagine winning the lottery, getting into the best shape of your life, finding your soulmate, establishing the most meaningful relationships possible, paying off all your debt, moving into your dream home (on the beach, of course), finding the thing that makes you the most passionate, discovering your mission in life, and finding new ways to grow every day.
Now what? Bask in your wealth, fortune, and fame at the top of your mound of money, swimming through your cash and coins like Scrooge McDuck? Not hardly.
Growth Leads to Contribution
As you grow, an something amazing tends to happen: you have more of yourself to give. It’s an incredible cycle: the more you grow, the more you can help others grow; and the more you help others grow, the more you grow in return.
Beyond Yourself
Growth
Raise Your Standards
What seemed impossible yesterday, will often seem easy tomorrow. So if you want to continue to grow, you must continue to raise your standards. Otherwise, you’ll plateau. Or worse, if you ever lower your standards, you’ll begin to atrophy.
While you’re taking your daily incremental actions, it’s important to raise the bar just a little each day, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Getting outside your comfort zone is an important part of growth. You needn’t raise the bar too high, but just high enough to make your change a little challenging and a little more difficult each day. Over time, your gradually raised standards will add up to changes larger than you could have imagined.
For the two of us, the most glaring example of raising our standards was with respect to our health. Once we made the decision to change our diet and exercise, and we started taking daily actions to improve both of these areas, we would also raise the bar just a little each day, especially with exercise. There was a point when neither of us exercised at all. In Joshua’s case he couldn’t do a single push-up or a single pull-up. At the beginning, he learned some techniques that allowed him to do modified versions of both exercises until one day he was able to do one of each. One push-up turned into two, which turned into 10, which eventually turned into over 100 in a row. The same was true for other exercises as well. If he would have attempted to do 100 when he started, he would have failed. That failure would have presented with it a considerable amount of dissatisfaction, discouraging him from continuing his growth. He likely would have given up. Instead he gradually raised the bar each day, building more and more on the days prior.
Consistent Actions
While you continue to raise your standards, it’s important to focus on consistent action. Said another way, it’s easier to raise the bar a little each day than raise it seven times as much each week or 30 times as much each month.
For example, it’s important to strengthen your relationships each day. You will get a lot more benefit from being nice to your lover today and tomorrow than you will from yelling at them today and buying them flowers tomorrow.
The same holds true for all areas of your life. The key to real growth is consistency. Consistent gradual action taken every day is the way we changed our lives. It feels like a slow climb at first, but once you build enough momentum you won’t want to stop growing. It’s the growth that makes you feel alive.
CHAPTER 6: CONTRIBUTION
The Importance of Contribution
Contributing to other people in meaningful ways is the most important of the five dimensions of living a meaningful life. Don’t believe us? Let us prove it.
Imagine winning the lottery, getting into the best shape of your life, finding your soulmate, establishing the most meaningful relationships possible, paying off all your debt, moving into your dream home (on the beach, of course), finding the thing that makes you the most passionate, discovering your mission in life, and finding new ways to grow every day.
Now what? Bask in your wealth, fortune, and fame at the top of your mound of money, swimming through your cash and coins like Scrooge McDuck? Not hardly.
Growth Leads to Contribution
As you grow, an something amazing tends to happen: you have more of yourself to give. It’s an incredible cycle: the more you grow, the more you can help others grow; and the more you help others grow, the more you grow in return.
Beyond Yourself
Growth
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