
The things on the lower half of my body.
Writing and Photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Far Beyond The Stars subscriber Jeff Morris just sent me an email wondering if I had completed the 100 things challenge. I have indeed! I figured now was a good a time as any to whip up a quick list of my possessions.
The history and reason behind of 100 things.
100 Things is a challenge originally issued by David Michael Bruno. The idea behind it is that human beings only need 100 things to survive, but most of us have way more than that. By restricting ourselves to 100 things, we’re creating less waste, we’re more flexible in how and where we live. It’s a win-win situation! One of the more famous bloggers who has 100 things is Leo Babauta.
I mentioned in my 100 Minimalist Ideas article that I had 79 things. I was wrong, I have 97 things!
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Writing and Photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Let’s face it, the world can be terrifying. Do you know what you’re going to be doing next month, six months from now, or even a year? At the moment I certainly don’t.
I’m moving around, without a base of operations, freelancing out of coffee shops for clients that I’ve never met. Some days I get a little bit anxious. I wonder if I’ll ever see enough money to pay for my train ticket that I put on the Discover Card to Chicago. I wonder if I’ll ever eat again. I wonder if the sky will fall, and if I’ll be run over by a bus, or maybe I’ll never find happiness or success. Oh my god, panic!
And then I think of these 10 simple ways that I can calm myself and bring my confused mind back to reality. I remember that I am responsible for saving myself from this situation, and that I’m the one who that put me here anyway.
Anxiety is largely a construction in our minds. It’s a self-preservation instinct left over from when lions were lurking around the next bush and we didn’t want to be eaten. No one is going to eat you, in actuality, the world is pretty damn safe in most places.
The other horrifying truth is that anxiety can prevent us from achieving our goals. Have you ever stayed home, not returned a call, or even sent an email because you got scared? I know I have.
This supposed self-defense reflex is really costing us something: opportunities.
It’s time to get this anxiety under control, people!
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Writing and photography by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Phil, a dedicated FBTS reader, had an interesting question in the comments last week. I’m re-posting it here:
“One question that does intrigue me, as I have dreamed of following this Really Minimalist lifestyle for quite some time. With having so little, and moving around a lot, how do your friends and family know where you are? I suppose having a minimal of monthly bills means you do it all online, but how do you get mail, or do you? How will anyone rent to you without solid long term histories? has your credit been affected? I guess along those lines, does it matter? Without a Base of Operations, how do your customers get billed? Ok, these are way more than one question.” – Phil Huffstatler
I’ve been dropping a lot of clues about how much I’ve been moving around lately –I flew from New York to Portland OR in September, I’m leaving Portland for Chicago in a week, and then I intend to return to New York for a few weeks, at which point I’ll be going somewhere else.
I’m able to do this with very little money, because I live such a minimalist lifestyle. If I was moving more than I can carry on my back then I wouldn’t be able to support this life.
Here are the gritty details on how I’ve been traveling, in the interest of complete transparency:
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Text and photo by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
I recently read Twyla Tharp’s Creative Habit, and she starts the book with this line: “I walk into a large white room.” She then explains how she’s expected to create something beautiful out of nothing.
All dancers have to do this, walk into a white room and create something out of nothing. There is no exception.
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I trained as a dancer in Chicago for four years, and in New York for three. I went to NYU on a dance scholarship, and trained with some of the foremost minds in the New York City scene.
Then I started working in magazines–because it was easier to sit at a computer and play with photos? Regardless of how my career progressed, the training in dance that I’ve received has had a profound effect on the way I interpret the world.
Dance is very hard. After reading Twyla’s book on creativity, it’s so apparent why her book gets so close to the root of where creative energy comes from. She’s writing it from the perspective of a creative person who has to engage on a daily level with one of the hardest creative mediums on the planet.
Every day is a challenge when you’re work is pulling art out of a group of people in a blank white space. But at least it’s a fresh and exciting challenge.
It’s impossible to create work in a cluttered space. This is why Twyla works in a blank white room. It’s hard to come up with any decent work to put on a dancer if you’re working in a room full of crap. They could trip and fall.
I think we could do well to apply this theory to every creative field, maybe to everyday life.
Ideas don’t appear in clutter. They don’t magically manifest in chaos. Ideas need space to first generate, and then be executed.
Why ideas need space.
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Written and photographed by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
We live in a reality that’s filled with deception. Every day when you step out on the street, when you log onto your computer, you’re being attacked.
You might not even be aware how often these assaults are happening, and I guarantee you that you’re encountering more danger than you’re even aware of.
What is this threat I speak of? Marketing and advertising. People getting you to buy stuff to fill up your life. This is the reason your life is so cluttered now, and it’s the reason you had a coffee this morning (and I had coffee this morning, they told me it’d make me think better!) When you’re reading that magazine story, you’d better bet a publicist called a journalist at some point down the line and gave access to the information you’re reading.
Somewhere along the way we lost the battle against the constant barrage of advertising impressions and ordered that Big Mac.
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