There’s a good chance that your life’s work is holding you back
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

From an early age you’ve been indoctrinated into a society that values things above people.
We are what we own, or so you’ve been told.
They all told you that you wanted the two-car garage. They told you to fill one side with stuff you couldn’t fit inside your house. Indeed, one quarter of all Americans have a two-car garage in this condition.
The stuff just sits there. You walk by it, and wish that it would disappear. Secretly you wish someone would burn your two-car garage down, so you won’t have to make the decision to get rid of that clutter.
We find so many ways to keep us from reaching our potential. Stuff is just one of those ways. We don’t want to deal with the harsh reality of our lives, the fact that we haven’t really done anything important.
So we refocuse all of our attention on the endless burden of resorting our stamp collection.
A friend of mine, the brooklyn hip-hop artist D.O.V. of Verbal Graffiti, repeatedly loses his life work every couple of years. In 2003 his house burned down. In 2009 his laptop was stolen from his living room without a trace, containing years of un-backed-up recordings.
The loss is always devastating to him. He tells himself that this is the end of his career and he’ll never make another beat again.
But this wasn’t the case, there was no devastating repercussions. Six months after the loss of his computer he had a new album on the streets.
The beats weren’t on his computer, they were in him. By clearing away all the years of junk on his computer–all of the beats that never had any potential, but he continued to mess with,–he was able to free himself to create a new album.
A clean slate can be a powerful drive to create.
What if you were able to harness this ability for a lifetime?
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D.O.V. is DJing a dance party in Bushwick Brooklyn on Saturday (tomorrow, Jan 23. 2010 10pm-4am) night. If any readers are in Brooklyn, the details are here. I’ll be there and I’d love to meet you.
Interview by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
Every once in awhile I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist. A couple of prominent minimalists I’ve interviewed in the post: Leo Babauta on the liberation of being minimalist, and Colin Wright about working from anywhere in sexy shoes.
This week I’ve had the pleasure of talking to Karol Gajda, the blogger behind Ridiculously Extraordinary. Karol is a perpetual traveler, living out of a bag and working from everywhere. He leaves for India in a few days. He hopes to help 100 people begin to live extraordinary lives through his blog.
We discussed tips for traveling lighter and supporting yourself while you’re on the road.
Everett Bogue: What made you decide to live a ridiculously extraordinary life?
Karol Gajda: It was either that or continue being normal.
But seriously, initially my only goal was to not have to get a job out of college by working for myself full time. That was almost 10 years ago. I didn’t really take advantage of the Ridiculously Extraordinary freedom I had by traveling extensively until recently.
Everett: You’re headed to India in a few weeks, according to your travel itinerary on your blog. Can you give us a short rundown of your travel plans?
Karol: I have a one way ticket and very general plans. I don’t even have my accommodations set yet.
My first month will be in Goa. A guy from the UK set up a little guitar building school there and I’m going to build my own guitar. If I love Goa I’ll stay there for a while after that.
Otherwise I’m not sure. I may visit Thailand after India, but again, it’s all up in the air. I am definitely visiting Poland when it starts warming up. I was born in Poland, but haven’t spent an extensive amount of time there. I do speak the language, but I’m looking forward to learning to speak much better.
Everett: I recently watched your interview with Baker, where you discussed traveling with three quick-dry shirts. Can you explain more about your approach to clothing while you’re traveling?
Karol: My approach is simple: take the absolute bare minimum and hand wash everything.
Having less makes my life easy. My single pair of convertible pants may look funny, but I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear tomorrow.
Everett: What other essentials do you travel with?
Karol: My laptop so I can get work done. I do enjoy seeing the sights, of course, but I also love working in new places. To some that defeats the purpose of travel. But that’s the beauty of being free. I can do what I want.
If I want to work on the road perpetually I can. If I want to come back “home” (which is nowhere at the moment) I can. I’m not bound by the limits of savings. That said, I’m a pretty budget conscious traveler.
Everett: Can you recommend one way that we can all travel lighter?
Karol: Yes, my best tip if you want to travel light is to get a smaller carry on. Preferably a backpack. Mine is 32L. Then force yourself to fit everything you need in there.
Everett: One of the hardest aspects of traveling is being able to support yourself financially on the road, how do you accomplish this?
Karol: I’ve been working online for myself for almost 10 years now. It’s a little bit more difficult while traveling because of sometimes spotty Internet and because there are a lot of cool things to see and people to hang out with. I’ve found that it’s incredibly difficult if I’m constantly on the move so I’ve reassessed my travel goals. From now on I’m staying in each new place for at least a month. (Unless, of course, I just don’t like it.)
Everett: Can you suggest one method we can employ to support themselves financially while we’re traveling abroad?
Karol: That’s a great question, and one that’s at the forefront of a lot of prospective traveler’s minds. A lot of travelers I met in Australia saved up enough to travel for a few months and then found jobs along the way to extend the travel.
If you don’t already have an online business and want to get started traveling right away, I think that’s the easiest way.
Everett: When you first started traveling, did you bring anything with you that you thought was a necessity, but it turned out not to be?
Karol: Well, a couple of years ago I went on a 3 week US tour with my friend’s band, and I took a full suitcase. Not a small one either. I think I packed a full 2 weeks of clothes. 14 shirts, 14 underwear, 14 socks! Plus an extra pair of pants and 2 hoodies.
I’ve always been fairly minimalistic in other aspects of my life so I don’t think I ever had any other extras to take besides too many clothes.
Everett: And finally, can you think of one aspect of our lives that many of us can change, which can help us lead to life that is more free?
Karol: It’s difficult to state something that everybody needs to change. And my goals aren’t really aligned with telling people what to do. The most important advice I can offer someone is to take action. If you want to start a business, start it. If you want to write a book, write it.
If you want to travel the world, buy a ticket and go.
Karol Gajda writes the blog Ridiculously Extraordinary, a must read resource for anyone who wants to get unstuck and begin living to the fullest.
Your time is the most valuable commodity that you have. Don’t give it away.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
In the modern age we’ve managed to find hundreds of thousands of ways to use as much time as possible.
We’ve come to a point where people cannot slow down. When they do, it is uncomfortable for them to sit still.
It’s impossible for some people to dwell in the present moment, without fiddling with a distraction.
We think we need to be constantly connected. We think we need to answer every email as soon as it arrives or society will leave us behind.
We think we need to madly dash from the subway, to the coffee shop (red-eye please), to the office every single day, or someone will think we’re not valuable enough.
None of this is true. In fact, it’s becoming readily apparently that the people who decide to opt out of this system of constant stimulation are far more effective people than the ones who are constantly plugged into the matrix.
Right now, in this moment, we need to reclaim our time.
Some of the most effective people I know, such as Leo Babauta and Tim Ferriss, have realized that being constantly connected is counter productive. They’ve both written in great length in their books The Power of Less, and The 4 Hour Workweek [aff links], about how blockading your time can generate far more intrinsic worth than by not.
The reason for this is simple: if you’re constantly connected, you’re also constantly reacting. Every single request that comes in needs to be answered immediately. This means you’re dividing your time between the important projects you’re working on, and little stupid things that come in.
For instance, I may get two @evbogue requests on Twitter in the time I take to write this. They will be simple questions, or requests to promote things. If I answered all of these requests immediately, wouldn’t have written these last couple of paragraphs.
Alternatively, if I wait until an hour from now, my work on this story will be done. I’ll be able to answer 5 @evbogue tweets and any emails all at once.
Constantly flailing from one activity to the next is only making our lives less valuable.
Time is probably the most valuable asset that we have left in this world, and it is rightfully yours.
This is the moment to take a stand, regain our valuable time for yourself.
How to firewall your time: 14 ways to save your valuable time, so you can use it appropriately.
1, Set dedicated work hours. Many people let there work hours extend into every odd hour of the day. Freelance web workers, like myself can fall into this trap even easier than someone who works at an office. There’s always something else to do, and never enough time to do it all. Set specific times when you will work on work, and stick with them. For instance: today I’m working from 1pm-5pm. After that time, I’m going to go enjoy the lovely weather and read Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin.
2, Pretend you’re not here. Lock the door, don’t let anyone in. Hide under the desk. This is easier if you work from anywhere, or have your own office, but there are many ways to pretend you’re not here. Be creative!
3, Answer emails decisively. I write about this often. Don’t sit at your computer hitting the send/receive button over and over and over again. Work is not about how many emails you can reply to, it never has been. Work is about thinking about unique solutions to problems, unless you’re a widget maker, which many of us aren’t anymore because all of those jobs are in China now. You need dedicated time to work on solutions, you can’t do this if you’re constantly waiting for a new email to come in your box.
4, Make dedicated Twitter time. Just like email, stop hitting the update button on Twitter. Trust me, it does no one any good if you stay constantly up to date on the 50 140 character messages that flew into your box in the last 30 seconds. Actually, while I’m on this topic, don’t follow 50,345 people on Twitter. I can’t take people who do this seriously. There is no possible way they will ever see my Twitter messages if they’re following that many people. Follow 150 people max. Dunbar’s law applies to Twitter too. Follow people who interest you, unfollow people who don’t interest you. It’s that simple.
(If you want someone to follow you on Twitter, try retweeting a few of their stories. That’s usually the best way to get them interested in your own personal work. There are many ‘bots’ on Twitter, and it’s hard to tell who to follow sometimes.)
5, Refuse to put out fires. I wrote about this last week two. There will always be non-urgent work emergencies, but you aren’t the fire department. These fires usually drop onto your desk at 4:49pm, and can take hours to deal with. Most of the time these emergencies could have been dealt with before they became emergencies if someone had just got in touch before they spiraled out of control. Make it clear you don’t deal with these. When ‘emergencies’ come, unless they’re actual life or death situations (these don’t happen often, but recognize when they do.) Handle them just like an other work request. Don’t panic, just do the work. If it’s 5pm and you’re going home, it can wait until tomorrow.
6, Make yourself unavailable. Some people make themselves always available at the office, or online. This is a trap, because people expect that you will be available at all times if you usually are. A better approach is to avoid broadcasting when you’re online and when you’re not. This might mean keeping your office door shut, or always keep headphones on if you work in an open office. It might mean finding more time to work from home, so you can get important projects done.
7, Always take a day to respond to everything. Make people assume it will take a day or two for you to get back with a request. You can always give a better response to a question or a problem if you have time to consider it. Make a commitment to not respond to requests for at least a day. Make your response incredibly valuable to your client, colleague, etc. This doesn’t mean that you should procrastinate, it’s just a way to consciously slow down the work cycle, so that everyone does better work.
8, Select two primary modes of communication. Make a choice as to which applications you’ll use to communicate with online. There are so many communications platforms available, and it’s incredibly important to select only two that you actually use. I use gmail and twitter. I do use Facebook, but it forwards everything I receive there to my gmail. I don’t check my Facebook, constantly, I don’t check my Wave constantly. Think about which communications platforms you use, and consider how to opt out of some. If you have three email addresses, (your Yahoo, your Gmail, your AOL) consider consolidating them into one email. Most of these services will forward, but if they don’t set up an auto-reply that informs people who email you that you no longer check this email and they should email you a the correct address.
9, Don’t use instant message. Always-on instant messaging is the ultimate enemy of firewalling your time. People expect an instant response to an instant message, and will usually become frustrated if you leave your instant messaging on but do not reply. Just don’t use AIM, Facebook chat, Gchat, etc. If you need to communicate with someone in real time, consider using one of these services on Invisible mode, and contact the person you’re working with.
10, Let the phone go to voicemail. When the phone rings, 9 out of 10 times you have no idea what the person on the other end wants from you. It’s good policy to let the message go to voicemail, and listen to the message. Let it compost in your brain for a bit and then give them a call back. This will give you time to consider a proper response to the problem, and not act in a reactionary manner. Respond once you’ve finished whatever you’re working on. Again, I’m not advocating procrastination, just having the ability to respond decisively.
11, Hire an assistant (or an Intern). In this economy, it’s pretty easy to find someone who can be your first line of defense. Timothy Ferris has an entire chapter in his book about outsourcing all of your boring tasks to India, maybe this can work for you. I don’t personally have anyone working for me, but I also have a very manageable workload. If you find yourself either doing a lot of remedial tasks that don’t challenge you, it can a good idea to hire someone to do them for you. Obviously, this only works if these tasks produce more value for your business than the assistant costs. If they don’t, consider whether it is necessary for you to complete them at all.
12, Take a timeout. Go for a walk in the park. Take an hour lunch break. There are a million ways you can disconnect, and I feel strongly that you should do this more than you are now. Leave your cellphone at home. Take a moment and think about your favorite way to take a break, and then find a way to implement it.
13, Take your work out of the office. If you can’t get any work done in the office, consider doing it at a coffeeshop or at home. This obviously depends a lot on the type of work that you do, and the freedom that you have to do it. I often find that a change of location can increase my productivity.
14, Only read information that contributes value. Unsubscribe from everything that is boring or you don’t have time to read. Many people subscribe to entirely too many blogs and other methods of incoming communication. Information is so accessible in this day in age, I promise you that you won’t run out. Consider each and every blog feed that you’re subscribed to, does it contribute value to your life? If you’re just reading it because you always have, maybe consider unsubscribing to these blogs. I used to check the front page of the New York Times constantly, just out of habit. I eventually realized that this wasn’t helping me. The news would still be there tomorrow, you don’t have to constantly stay up to date. Which blogs are you subscribed out of obligation instead of usefulness?
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I hope you found these methods to firewall your time helpful. How do you firewall your time?
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You can’t make anyone but yourself become minimalist.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Over the last couple of months I’ve received a number of comments and tweets from people who want to share their minimalist ambitions with their spouse or their entire family.
Some were so enthusiastic, they wanted to make all of their friends minimalists too!
This is great, I love that people are so enthusiastic.
However, the idea of making other people minimalist is a difficult question.
Many people relate to objects differently. I’ve met people who live with nothing, and are perfectly content. I’ve met people who would kill themselves if they lost everything — even if this would inevitably lead to them being freer.
Many people still subscribe to the (antiquated, in my opinion) mentality that we are what we own. It’s can be hard to change these minds.
So, here’s my suggestion:
Don’t worry about the other people. You can’t force them to be minimalists.
Instead, set a good example with yourself.
Adopt a 30 day rule for your stuff, get rid of all your stuff and start to live with 100 things.
Don’t bother your boyfriend about his pile of dusty CDs. Focus all of that effort you’re directing at another person into freeing your own life.
Lead by example.
Show the people who you wish were less attached to their stuff how free you’ve made your own life.
Consider starting a blog documenting your progress becoming a minimalist. This can only help communicate your intentions. Join a growing community of amazing bloggers writing about being minimalist.
With any luck your partner, your kids, and your friends will start to embrace the idea of lessening their connection to their material possessions, and begin to adopt a freer lifestyle.
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The hardest element in any relationship is having the ability to let it go when it ends.
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
It’s incredibly hard to let go. I know so many people who have so much trouble with letting go that they have houses full of stuff they haven’t used in ten years. They’ve stayed in a job they don’t enjoy, just because. Or they keep crying over relationships that ended months ago.
It’s difficult to say goodbye.
This article is mostly about stuff, but this can apply to people and places and jobs that left us a tiny bit scarred.
It takes courage to stop dwelling and move to new terrain.
Forty five things in a box in a closet you haven’t touched in five years is one thing you might need to let go. Hanging out with those friends who always get you into trouble is another. Driving a car just because you always have can be something you can let go as well. Maybe you need to let go a snack food.
It takes courage to give something up, I understand that. Trust me, I’ve had plenty of my own personal battles with letting go of people, places and things. I imagine most people have.
One of the traits that most successful people share is the ability to know when to move on.
Because this is a problem that all of us face, I’ve taken time to prepare a list of 46 ways to let go of the old. I’m sure I left something out. I’m sure most of these won’t work for everyone. However, maybe one or two of these will stick and help you let go of something.
…this way you can make room for the new.
46 ways you can let go.
- Throw it away.
- Give it away.
- Recycle it.
- Tell it to go home.
- Make a list of things you’d rather have, or be doing.
- Don’t let yourself see it for a month.
- Don’t keep anything you don’t use or see at least once a month.
- Make a diagram of everywhere you spend your time.
- Eliminate time suckers.
- Trade one thing or activity for another that you like better.
- Throw it into the ocean (if it won’t hurt the fish).
- Break it.
- Tell someone to take it away.
- Sell it to someone who needs it.
- Turn it into artwork.
- Display it at an art gallery.
- Get a second opinion.
- Limit yourself to 100 things.
- Burn it on your roof or backyard.
- Tell it you love it, but you can’t be together.
- It’s you, it’s me.
- Throw a party and tell everyone to take something home with them.
- Bury it in the backyard so an archeologist can dig it up in 2000 years and think it’s more important than it actually is.
- Give it to your mom.
- Reinvent it as something new and interesting.
- Email a picture of it to me and ask if it’s worth keeping (my answer is usually no.)
- Acknowledge that it’s hurting you.
- Think about what ultimate freedom means to you.
- Contemplate your minimalist destination.
- Give it to someone who has nothing.
- Put it in an outbox.
- Bury it on the side of a mountain and tell no one.
- Leave it on the subway.
- Take a picture of it.
- Post that picture on craigslist.
- Drop it off the side of a building at night, and then clean it up first thing in the morning.
- Destroy it and hang it from the ceiling.
- Mail to to a random person in the phone book.
- Sell it and donate the money to a cause that you believe in.
- Leave it in a box on your doorstep, with a sign that says ‘free’.
- Take a vacation from it all.
- Stay at a friend’s house for a week.
- Take it to your recycling center free box.
- Tweet #minimalist and ask if you should keep it.
- Move somewhere you’ve always wanted to live.
- Take only a backpack.
What do you need to let go? Let me and many remarkable readers of Far Beyond The Stars know in the comments!
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” -Lao Tzu
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Just in case you’re not following me on Twitter, you might have missed this! Yesterday I wrote a guest post at Naomi Seldin’s blog Simpler Living: 6 Simple Ways to Eat More Healthfully. Give it a read if you’re interested in some simple food tips.