Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life

I recently started following their blog TheMinimalists- and have loved the advice/stories on it - so when they posted about their book, I decided to buy it. I wasn't disappointed. Most people will write this book off once they see the title. They'll think it's another book that is trying to shove its doctrine down the reader's throat. Or they will just think that it's not for them: "Oh minimalism... that's not for me." Or, "I could never survive with so little." Or, "I don't have to money to be able to cut things out of my life. I have bills to pay!" Yes, the book is about minimalism, BUT - and here's the kicker - you most likely won't even notice it. The only time they really bring up minimalism is in the first and last chapters. The remaining chapters focus on five different elements that can help you live a meaningful life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution. Each section opens with a scenario to help you understand why that section is an important component to having a meaningful life. Although they use the same scenario each time and it can get repetitive, they explain their reasoning for doing so in the last chapter. I really enjoyed the book because they not only give practical guides on how to reflect on each of the five areas as they relate to your life, but also how to implement change in easy steps. From creating a list of all your relationships (friends, family, coworkers, etc.) and listing whether they are positive, neutral, or negative influences in your life to helping you uncover the anchors that are keeping you from discovering your passion, this book has tips for everyone. And that is why I'm giving the book 5 out of 5.

I recently got assigned to read a book about a subculture over the summer, minimalism being one of one of the options to later build an ethnographic study from what we learned. Perhaps one of my best reading choices yet. Minimalism is a tool in which can help you simply relieve yourself from any restraints, find that sort of freedom. Hence the book title, in which covers all components for living a minimalistic life. Authors, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, elaborate piece by piece on how their lives are shaped today due to the discovery of minimalism, and why they are finally living more meaningfully. Although the book at first may seem that you can finish it all in one day, I believe that it is formatted in a way to really provide the reader with a different mission at the end of each chapter. Missions in which you could most likely not finish all in one day. At first that was my ideal, finishing the book as soon as possible to get it over with. However, if you're going to have the same mindset as I for reading this book, I advise you to look elsewhere. Each chapter focused on a certain topic that happen to be different elements in which make up your life. Health, relationships, passions, growth, and contribution. Other than the remarkable concept of this book, the quality of writing was just as satisfying. Considering I'm only a high school student and prefer more casual of compositions rather than super advanced literature in novels, Minimalism was just that perfect match. It felt as if you were simply having a conversation with the author! It contained strong figurative language such as metaphors, repetition, parallelism, oxymorons, and informal speech just to name a few. Also, instead of being formatted as were used to seeing any chapter book, story format, each paragraph was labeled a with a creative title at the top in bold. This allowed the reader to thoroughly develop a consensus on what they're about to read, and unleash a rush of eagerness to continue reading. As you can see, it's appears to be that I am living for this book in its entirety, yet it didn't receive my full 5-star rating...and here's why. I was very pleased with the idea of the book, learning about a new subculture I never thought could be considered one in the first place. However, in some parts it seemed as if I was reading a diet magazine from your local grocery store. I did indeed enjoy reading about the crazy diets and plans they took upon themselves, but it had all seemed too familiar to be reading about. I would've preferred to see their perspective as to what being a subculture really meant to them. If it's just another ordinary word in their dialogue, or something with broad significance. Overall, Minimalism is an excellent novel full of self-empowerment, motivation, inspiration, and most importantly, meaning. It has a purpose in which any person could utilize in their daily life. It beautifully covered all of what was expected and more. Nothing too challenging or vague, you will leave replenished.

Review I loved the novel Minimalism, Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. This book opened my eyes to problems I might be facing ten years from now. Maybe I see myself living a minimalistic life down the road. I liked how this novel went into so much depth into how to live a healthier lifestyle. It makes me open up my eyes when I go to the gym and think, what have they gone through, what caused them to become so unhealthy? I liked how the book went into so much detail about dieting solutions and all of the background connections Joshua and Ryan had to all of the different diets, if it was them or someone they knew, and they had positive results. I thought it was cool how they would list different steps to become a minimalist and how to find the things in your live life that you need to illuminate. I believe that I became confused because of how the story was written. The book's story would switch between Ryan’s life and and Joshua’s life and how they grew up living in similar conditions. The novel then describes how they choose different job paths to become better than their parents. Once they became successful they both turned into minimalism, but used different methods to achieve their minimalistic lifestyle. I found this confusing how there were so many little subchapters within the chapters. Within the character change and all of the different subchapters confused me while I was reading. The quality of the writing however was done exceptionally. The authors used large words that made the sentences flow much more exceptionally. I thought it was neat, how Joshua and Ryan went into so much depth into things that could help you life a healthier life. It might be important to reread this book so that it is fully understood. I found this book useful comparing things in my life to things in this book. Joshua and Ryan were never happy until they became minimalists. Maybe I should alter parts of my life to help me live a more meaningful life. I thought it was cool how the authors would add in their writing to go to their website or another website to help promote their work so they can largely influence more people.

I originally got this book for my study on a certain subculture. I chose minimalism because I was interested in the lifestyle prior to reading. As soon as I started the book, I knew that I wouldn't be able to put it down. I spent hours just reading and highlighting. I highlighted parts that were meaningful to me and made me reflect on my own life... so I basically highlighted the whole book. For me, this will not be a one time read. This is definitely one to revisit every so often to see how your outlook on life has changed and what you can work on. The first time reading it was a real wake up call. It slapped me in the face with accountability and realization. "Have I really been worrying about this my whole life? It isn't even important". Joshua and Ryan educated me on every day "needs" that we have. It turns out that we don't need them at all. We often worry about money and material things. When I reflected on just how much of anxiety is caused by money, for the first time I had asked myself "why?". This is an example of how the book changed my perspective. There's not one rational reason for me to worry. They really emphasize societal norms and how we all seem to be brainwashed to think that we need money and jobs to live life. Many other instances like this happened during my reading session. I would 100 percent recommend this to every human on earth. Whether we admit it or not, we all have fears, we all have our own "anchors" in like that hold us back. Joshua and Ryan truly inspired me to do what they did and work on cutting my anchors loose in order to focus on what really matters; health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution. Truly life changing.

I really want to like these guys. Their principles are great and they are walking the talk. Some of their ideas are brilliant and they present as a stylish duo to appeal to the 30-something urban hipster. But a lot of what they peddle is rehashed from self-help gurus who forged the path. Ryan in particular seems to have read a lot of Anthony Robbins and both love to use the word 'curate' as much as they can. One of the disadvantages of self-publishing is the lack of a professional editor. Joshua is passionate about writing. And good on him. If you read some of his 'essays' you'll see that they are mostly over-explained purple prose using anachronisms such as 'taking joy in his labour' (debt free essay). A high school teacher would write 'full of cliches' on this and hand it back. Joshua takes online writing courses. I prefer these guys talking even if I hear all about Joshua's bad back and Ryan's snowboarding. If you appreciate great writing these books might frustrate you. If you persevere you'll find some gems. Sorry guys - with a bit of professional editing and less pretentiousness you could be amazing.

If you need to declutter, these are the experts. Their personal stories are just different enough that some of their experiences will probably resonate with you, in a big way. And that's what I keep going back to... their personal moments of self-discovery, and observations about habits so many of us have acquired through generations of holding onto "keepsakes." This isn't a harsh, get-rid-of-everything philosophy, but these minimalists share insights that can help you face your vulnerabilities when it comes to clutter and... well... just owning too much stuff.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought that it was an easy/quick read and had a lot of concepts in the chapters that I had already known. I was able to gain better understanding of what it takes to live a meaningful life and was surprised at what values you had to achieve in order to be happy; health, relationships, passions, growth, and contribution. This is simply the best and most important book I have ever read. Just ask yourself, “Are you happy with your life? Do you have everything it takes to live a meaningful life?” This book will wake you up to the priorities that are upside down in your life, and show you what is preventing you from being happy. I found that it has personally helped me with trying to figure out what my purpose in life is and whether i'm living a meaningful life or not. The guys that shared their experiences obviously are not perfect and have had a not so good life and this is how it all started. They wanted to see what was causing them to not be happy. I think this was a great choice to read because I love hearing these kinds of stories of people learning their true identity and focusing on the important values of life whether than trying to get what they want in life. I highly recommend reading this book if you want to find out for yourself what it truly takes to live meaningful life. This book is like none other and definitely sets a new perspective of living a purposeful life.

Honestly these guys aren't always the most relatable - we don't all have 6 figure jobs we can walk away from and quickly pay off our debt - but the insights here are universal. Don't focus on what you don't have in common with Joshua in Ryan, instead look for the common ground and those "YES" moments that make you realize that we are all drowning in stuff, commercialism and "busy," and we just don't have to. This book is a great place to start, and their podcast is also great. Yes, sometimes they come off as pretentious. but these guys got me into minimalism 4 years ago and it has made a drastic difference on my quality of life. When I find myself getting overwhelmed or bogged down, I come back to this book for a refresher and to help me recenter.

Je commente en Français ;-) en gros ce livre est certainement un des meilleurs si vous vous cherchez et que vous ne vous sentez pas heureux. Si vous sentez qu'ils vous manquent quelque chose. En fait c'est un peu un livre de développement personnel. Mais qui te fait prendre conscience de petits trucs en plus comme par exemple le fait que on veut toujours plus de choses inutiles ... C'est du dev perso en mode minimalisme (en mieux) qui va à l'essentiel.

A great book to read when reconsidering what really matters in life. Plenty of food for thought. Definitely worth a re-read.

I absolutely loved this book. It's very inspiring and tells you so many truth things about minimalist, how to live better and find the right way to happiness.

I really enjoyed reading this - It has given me loads to think about. As a newbie to minimalism it's nice to read about what to focus on to live a meaningful life. I like the idea of the 5 dimensions and how just making sure things you do fit in to these will help you on your way. It was nice to read more about the authors too and how they arrived at minimalism. It's not a book about only owning a certain number of things - it goes deeper than that. I will read it many times I'm sure. Thanks for a lovely book :)

Excelente libro, de gran utilidad para todos los consumidores que no hacen más que comprar y comprar, ayuda a no caer en tentación