Goodbye, things.
Last week, i picked up a book from the book store called "Goodbye, things" by Fumio Sasaki. You might have guessed it correctly, it’s a book about minimalism. I gotta be honest, despite having seen this book on display for quite a while, i didn’t have any interest whatsoever about the book.
I thought, here comes another book about minimalism, probably saying the same thing about decluttering your stuff or getting rid of some stuff. Or probably that you should dress in monochromatic tones. Or something that is more to do with the aesthetic of ‘looking minimalist’. ’Minimalism' is an overused word everywhere, just like the word 'millennials' is.
Regardless, as I was browsing the book store alone, killing time (one of my favorite things to do to relax), I picked up a copy that wasn’t wrapped in plastic. Common practice in Indonesia is wrapping all books in plastic, so you typically don’t have a choice to read up some chapters, you have to buy it first in order to read it. I thought, why not, I ’d give it a try.
I stood there for 5 minutes, reading through first few pages.
There’s something i really like about how the author wrote the book. It’s very simple, straight forward, and it feels very genuine. The author definitely didn’t try to sound genius or to write something totally groundbreaking. He just told a story of how minimalism helped him to live a better life. Very simple.
Of course the book had mentioned about getting rid of inessential stuff, as well as telling the beauty of an almost empty living space instead of a cluttered living space. But more than that, it put emphasis on the minimalism mindset. About how to live in the moment, about being happy with what we have, about making space (and time) for what matters the most in our lives.
The writer is Japanese, so naturally his writing allows us to understand how minimalism adopted or resonated with his lifestyle in Japan. For me, I could identify myself with a lot of his reflections in the book.
It first began with questioning ‘why minimalism’ and ‘why we collect so many things?’
He then continued to discuss how we tie our self-worth to owning things, and what it means to our lives.
As I did with the other books, I took notes of a few ideas I really like about the book:
1. Human brains are the same with how they were thousands years ago. Human bodies didn’t evolve as fast as technology, or as fast as the information flow. Yet we try to fit so much information, memories, and distractions to the very same brain with the same capacity as it was thousands years ago. No wonder we find it more difficult nowadays to be able to focus on one thing. By decluttering, we give more space to our brains to function better.
2. Feeling grateful can beat feeling bored. This is particularly important because we live in a world where we have this need to be constantly distracted. We fill our brain with unnecessary information to avoid being bored. There’s a better way to fight the boredom, by focusing on the feeling of gratefulness. Grateful of where we are now and what we have now.
3. (To be) Grateful isn’t a method. It is the happiness itself.
4. (This point I might’ve adjusted to my interpretation) Our physical condition contributes 50% to the feeling of happiness, 40% comes from our actions (when we know our actions are aligned with our life values and purpose), 10% comes from external factors, and materialistic things. Why worry so much about the materialistic things that we have, if at the end of the day, it will only contribute to 10% of our happiness. Even when you win the lottery today, the happiness won’t last, as you need something else to top it off in order to feel happier than before.
5. Happiness is not at the peak of mountain, neither at the finish line. When we achieve something, we might feel happy to achieve it, until it becomes something we take for granted. And we get bored of it. And we are not happy anymore. We can decide to just be happy here and now regardless of what we have or have not achieved.
6. Minimalism isn’t the end goal. It’s a way of living.
Of course the points above are just what I picked up among tens of other ideas explained in the book, that will help your journey to minimalism. These points are not new, and you might’ve read them already somewhere else, but I would still recommend the book if you feel like you could use some decluttering in your life.
