- Hi, family!
Thank you so much for being here.
I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend.
Today I wanna talk about
a really cool topic
that I've been thinking about,
and that's how minimalism can
affect your decisionmaking,
which eventually affects your life.
(pizzicato electronic music)
This weekend we went camping.
We had a lot of fun.
One of my friends asked me
sort of a loaded question,
which is: "What is the
single most important thing
"that you do that you
feel like really makes
"a positive difference in your life?"
And, when I thought about it,
I realized that it was minimalism.
The practice or philosophy of minimalism,
which is to keep what adds value
and to remove everything
else that doesn't add value,
has really added the most value to my life
in a moment-to-moment basis.
I wanna explain why this is
and how it is that I practice this.
We talked about the areas of minimalism
outside of materialism,
and you can check that
video out right here.
If you want to simplify this
form and really have it be
the most impactful, basically
what the video is saying
is practice this in all areas of your life
on a moment-to-moment basis.
What I told my friend is that
it's not about waking up in the morning,
and assessing how you want the day to go.
It's not about a monthly
thing that you check into
and make sure you're on track.
It's really every single moment.
And some moments you don't
make the right choice,
and other moments you react
before you can even ponder the question.
But, at the end of the day,
if you have it on your mind
every single moment, it's
going to change the way
that you behave, interpret,
and conduct your life,
and it really changes very fast.
So I'm gonna give you an example.
The example might be
that my friend chooses
to pick up a rock, and throw
it at the back of my head.
At that moment, before
I choose to respond,
before what even translates in my mind,
I have the ability to ask myself:
"What can I do right now that's gonna add
"the most value in my life
at this given moment?"
I can turn around, I
could throw a rock back.
I could turn around, and say:
"Hey, what's up with
that?", and get upset.
I can turn around, and ask:
"What was that about?",
and just assume that it was an accident.
I could shrug, and say:
"Oh, somebody must've
accidentally did it",
or "Rocks might be falling from the sky",
and continue on with my day.
Either way, I have a choice.
In every moment, whether
it's choosing what to eat,
choosing what to wear,
choosing what I say,
how to feel, how I wanna respond,
and how I interact with people,
we have a million different
choices every single day.
Every single moment we have a choice.
My friend asked me what I felt like was
a really crucial question, which was:
"Well, sometimes you don't
make the right choice."
And, that's true.
Sometimes you make a choice,
and it's not exactly the thing
that adds the most value,
but then the cool thing is,
at that moment that that choice results,
you have another choice, which is how
you're gonna choose to respond to that.
Other times, you might
just react right away,
and you might be like:
"Hey, what the heck?
"You threw a rock at my head!
"That's not cool!"
And you have a choice now to say:
"Oh, wow, this doesn't feel good.
"This feels really bad."
Or: "Now this person's upset at me.
"And what can I do right now
"to add the most value going forward?"
That might be the choice to apologize.
That might be the choice to
cool off, and take a walk,
and say: "I just need a break
because I can't function
"in a positive way, and I
just need to have some space."
So there's all different kinds
of choices that we can make,
and if you stop as often as
possible throughout your day,
and ask yourself: "What
adds value to my life?",
you not only begin to move
forward in a positive direction
but you start to build what I
call a solid infrastructure.
What I mean by infrastructure is,
and we've talked about this
in other videos before,
but basically your
foundation that you stand on.
Your ability to be resilient
or to make positive choices
or to make the right choices and feel good
about how you perceive
and receive the world
has a lot to do with your infrastructure.
And this goes right back to the five areas
of health that we talked about,
which is your physical level.
Where is your body at?
This is the vehicle, and your brain,
and the chemicals that
are released in your brain
are all connected to
how we emotionally feel
and perceive about life, and
hence how we respond to that.
Because sometimes it's hard
to make the right choice,
and a lot of that comes
down to our resilience.
So, in order to become more resilient,
we have to have the right infrastructure,
and if it starts by, it's 9:30 p.m.,
and it's rolling around,
I'm starting to feel tired,
should I stay up and
watch Game of Thrones,
should I stay up and get on social media,
or should I go to bed early,
the question is, what's gonna add
the most value in your life.
And most of us know
that we need more sleep,
so getting to sleep on time
is going to help create
that more positive
resilient infrastructure.
So if you just practice
this one simple thing,
I think it's going to
make a huge difference.
Currently in my life, it's
the number-one most important
thing that has made the most
positive difference in my life.
It isn't as easy to get started with.
Sometimes it's just breaking it down,
and starting with, say,
your diet, or your bedtime,
and we talked about that, too,
and how to master any new habit
or any new resolution
or goal you might have.
So it might take one step at a time,
but if you continue to do this,
and you continue to pile
it on one step at a time,
you begin to get stronger.
My friend asked me: "Well,
"doesn't that become too
much or overwhelming?
"Isn't that taking on too much,
"and like it's just not
healthy or good for you?"
I describe it as this.
If you are starting to work out,
and you've never worked
out in your life before,
using five-pound dumbbells might
be really really difficult.
But imagine that you
continue to workout regularly
on a daily basis, and you
continue to do your best.
As we all know, if we continue
to workout consistently
and we do our best at it,
we're going to improve.
And maybe a year or two down the line,
25-pound dumbbells doing
the same exercises,
like curls or back rows, it's
going to be just as easy,
if not easier, than when you did it
with five-pound dumbbells,
and five-pound dumbbells
feel like nothing.
Just like mental and emotional health,
we grow the same way, in continuing to add
a little bit more to our plate
and to be able to be resilient.
But you do need that right infrastructure.
Just like working out, you
could work yourself to death,
and if you don't get the
right diet, food, and sleep,
then it's gonna be really hard
to improve and get better,
and you create a lot of acidity,
and inflammation goes on,
and then working out doesn't feel good.
So, same goes for mental
and emotional health.
And so, I hope with this small thought,
you guys find a lot of value
in it just like I have.
Really fun thing to
think about and go over,
and just something that I wanted
to share with you guys today.
Thank you so much for being here.
If you did like this video,
make sure you give it a thumbs-up.
Let me know what adds the
most value to your life.
What is the single most important thing
that you feel like you do right now
that makes a positive difference?
In the comments below.
If you've just subscribed,
welcome to the family.
Thank you so much for being here.
If you haven't, subscribe so that
you don't miss any more videos.
Remember, be good, be great, be grateful.
Thank you guys so much for being here.
I love you guys so much.
And, yeah, happy minimalist Monday!
I'll see you in the next video.
Chow.
(easygoing optimistic music)
(mumbling)
