“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci
In this 10 minute “Flow Nugget”, I discuss how minimalism relates to lifestyle design, why it benefits us to bring simplicity and remove (some) choice from our lives, and how we can do this to achieve more states of flow.
If everyday you stripped down your life so that it contained:
1. something for survival
2. something that drives your purpose
3. something that is fun
What would happen?
Let me tell you a story about 2 crazy, but awesome Norwegian adventurers and how they stripped down life to the bare essentials, and in doing so found profound joy and purpose.
I also give you 4 simple ways to add more minimalism and flow to your daily life. Enjoy the nugget!
Epic quotes
“The People who experience most flow in their lives have in common the deliberate removal of choice from their daily lives.” [Tweet this]
“The paradox of choice is that when we have too much of it, we become trapped in a net of decision-making” [Tweet this]
“Want to flow? Choose your core activities and don’t just commit to them- build your life around them” [Tweet this]
Useful links
North of the Sun– documentary film
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Taki Moore, Coach of coaches
Wunderlist : app to create to do lists and track them on all devices
List of apps to harness technology for more flow
Prefer to read than listen?
Today I will talk about an aspect of lifestyle design, than can have massive effects on your ability to live in flow.
The dictionary defines minimalism as: “Use of the fewest and barest essentials or elements, as in the arts, literature, or design”….
I think our Lifestyle design can follow these same principles.
It is my observation, that People who experience most flow in their lives have in common the deliberate removal of choice from their daily lives.
Micro-minimalism
I just did some training with a legendary coach, Taki Moore, who has 15 identical black t-shirts in his closet. Why? To remove that choice of what to wear… so he can focus on more important things.
I know people who eat the same 2 meals every day… or strip down their training so bare that they always know exactly what they have to do.
I call this micro-minimalism- removing choice in targeted areas of your life… and it can definitely save you a lot of unnecessary thought.
There is less leakage of mental, or psychic energy.
From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, we are faced with hundreds, maybe thousands of choices and decisions.
white tshirt, red tshirt, fried eggs of scrambled, run or swim, flat white or latte…
Here is the paradox: In our society we see choice as a luxury, as an indicator of our level of freedom.
We tend to think that the more choice we have, the better our life is.
But the paradox of choice is that when we have too much of it, we become entangled in a net of decision making… which can hamper our ability to flow through life smoothly.
So I think we can all help ourselves out by looking for ways we can add micro-minimalism to our lives.. like choosing one website where we buy flights, or choosing one expert on nutrition… .. or choosing 5 meals that we rotate when we cook..