It’s crazy how sometimes one small thing will set you on an entirely different path. Some would argue it’s nothing more than the universe leading you to where you wanted to be in the first place.
YouTube’s algo planted this video on my home screen this past Monday. I guess it was because I’ve been binging travel videos about Japan for a future trip and watching lots of content about tiny homes.
Although I would never want to live as minimalistic as the man in black featured in the video, he inspired me to reevaluate my possessions. Thinking back across the past decade I’ve always had these kinds of thoughts right before a major life transition, the last being when we sold our house in 2015 and moved into a small apartment.
For me it’s always a mixture of good intentions and sentimentality that causes me to hang onto things I don’t need and will never use.
For example, I’ve kept a 2010 Macbook Pro that hasn’t worked for seven years. The battery stopped working and eventually swelled, bending the outer case and making the laptop unsalvageable.
It was the laptop I wrote my first novel on, the one I carried with me to my first trip to Europe, and then it accompanied me on my second overseas trip. This was the laptop I used to learn all about cryptocurrency and made my first transactions.
It meant a lot to me.
See, this is exactly this kind of thinking that causes me to save too many things. This is precisely why I’ll never be like that Japanese uber-minimalist.
On Wednesday I mustered the courage to cut through the sentimentality and I finally parted with my beloved laptop. I pried out the hard-drive with my trusty Leatherman multitool, beat it to a pulp with a hammer, then took the photo above just before I chucked it into our condo building’s electronics recycling bin.
It was such a freeing feeling. I’ve had this general feeling of being “stuck” on so many levels for a few years. Shedding this one material thing sparked a chain reaction. It was just the first of many possessions I’ve gotten rid of this week. Whether it’s psychosomatic or not, I feel like whatever was making me feel frozen is becoming dislodged.
I was hanging onto a piece of my past because, somewhere deep in the crevices of my subconscious I sincerely believed that I peaked and my best days were behind me. Now I feel slightly more “unstuck”, a little more ready for whatever is next.
I love this quote because I think it’s true. Not that any of us will ever achieve perfection but in our journey of becoming our truest selves it’s much more about subtraction than adding things in. By the time most of us reach middle age have this strata of bullshit weighing down our souls – false assumptions, responsibilities, insecurities, desires, goals, dreams, perceptions, worries, and the like.
If we're lucky, this journey of life is longer than we can possibly imagine. There are twists, turns, and unforeseen events. Sometimes your future can change in a blink. We don't just have one act, we often end up having two, three, or even more. We can go much further and faster if we lighten our loads. Sometimes when the future seems uncertain, all we have to do is let go of the past.
Be well and make the most of this day. Thank you for reading!
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