Peacefulness

(via mnmal)

I have a desire to live out of a single backpack. Other people do it, so it’s not like I’m breaking new ground, but over the next year I’d like to be able to fit everything I own into a Deuter Futura 28 backpack.

Here are some of my grossly-unoriginal theories on how to do this:

• Be unremarkable. I like being “just some guy” - it works for me. And that serves me well, because if I were to always aiming to impress others with my non-existant fashion sense then it’d be difficult to fit all those clothes in a backpack. You need to be comfortable with wearing the same things, day in, day out.
• Spend money on the best. Technical clothing designed for athletes seems to translate well for a single backpack lifestyle. While an Icebreaker shirt may cost over $60, they are known for being incredibly durable, odour-resistant, and damn comfortable.
• Find simple pleasures. Reading, writing, walking, listening to music, playing music…all of these things require very little “stuff”. Being able to enjoy simpler aspects of living means less physical baggage to carry around.
• Tech it up. At times I’ve wondered about doing away with tech and simply working from internet cafes. And while I feel I should try that at some point, it seems impractical and inconvenient, so the plan is to try and do most of my work from an iPhone 3GS (which I already own), and maybe the HP 5101, a netbook praised for it’s comfortable and nearly full size keyboard.
• Have focus. Trying to do everything and living with so little seems unlikely, so it’s necessary to have focus. That’s why I’m sticking with just a few projects and ideas, all surrounding core parts of my life that feel natural. I know my purpose and with it compared to setting up my work and trying to weave my purpose through it.

I’m still theorising all of this at the moment, but every time I envision myself waking up in the morning to see a single 28-liter pack with all my possessions, it makes me happy. Few things could be simpler than that life.

Here’s what I like most about the idea:

• Never having a choice of what to wear. Lack of choice means lack of procrastination or unnecessary thought. I just throw anything on and it looks alright.
• Flexibility. Being able to go anywhere, anytime (within reason - I doubt I’d survive in Antarctica with 1 backpack). That could mean to another city, another state, or a whole other country. Living with less physical and emotional baggage.
• Simplicity. Stuff is distracting. It annoys me having a stack of 50+ books in my room, and clothes I don’t wear, and gadgets I don’t use.

One of my favourite books about writing, On Writing Well, focuses heavily on the act of writing less. Of editing out the unnecessary and wasting less breath to get a point across.

A few negative reviews I’ve seen of this book though make claims that this focus on writing less eliminates the soul of their words, transforming them into elementary collections of communication like “it was good or “and then I was happy”.

But it’s not.

Writing less does not mean eliminating character or your personal mannerisms. It means doing away with words that creep into our work that makes it difficult to read, cutting off the flow. In doing so your character, your voice is unleashed - amplified.

And this doesn’t just apply to writing.

In any form of less, in any form of minimalism, you’re not sacrificing anything for some superficial achievement. It’s all a matter of laser targeting your focus - of choosing what actually matters, and dumping everything that doesn’t make the cut.

minimalmac:

from www.frankchimero.com (via Rands)

This is a post I saved from a while ago that needs to be shared.