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Spring is in the air!
The season doesn’t officially start until March 20th, but the sun is shining, the days are getting longer, and you can already feel the Earth’s metaphorical rebirth looming just around the corner.
It may be that I just really despise the Winter months, but Spring is always a hugely inspiring time for me. Not only are the ladies trading in their jackets and sweatpants for tank tops and skirts, but I can finally enjoy the outdoors again, my energy levels increase, and I generally just want to get more done.
The term “spring cleaning” may be an American thing (I honestly don’t know), but I imagine nearly every culture practices a similar activity this time of year. Christians have Lent and Hindus have Holi, for example. However, these events are much more about cleansing the mind, body and soul than they are about cleaning out the garage.
As a minimalist, I strongly believe that both are critically important. In order to even begin focusing on the mind and body, removing physical distractions has to be your first step. Continue Reading
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It has been an insane couple of months. I’ve been lacking the time to properly run my business, and I quite honestly don’t feel like investing the proper time right now, but my work and income have suffered as a result.
For whatever reason, I’ve been contemplating the merits of returning to some sort of ‘day job’.
Now, I’ve only been working for about 7 of my 24 years on this planet, and a lot of that time has been spent working for myself, so my ‘day job’ work experience is relatively limited. That said, there isn’t a single job I didn’t feel completely destroyed by when I finally decided to quit.
Without further ado, here’s a quick rundown of the crappy jobs I’ve held in the past: Continue Reading
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It has been nearly a year since I separated myself from the vast majority of my possessions, and I can confidently say that it is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. I feel more free, am less stressed, am able to think more clearly, and I can’t even remember 99% of the things that I gave away or sold.
As you can see in the photo, owning less does not always eliminate clutter. There are only about a dozen articles of clothing in this picture (I have more clothes at another location), yet I still can’t bring myself to fold and put them away every few days. This has been going on for about 2 months now, and the result? The build up of clutter is making it near impossible to focus.
I’ve been able to achieve laser focus when I am on top of the clutter, but my standards been raised as well, and even a handful of empty Fresca cans on my desk is enough to drive me mad these days. I really need to make sure my space is clean if I want to get much of anything done, but when I do stay on top of it, I can feel a direct increase in my productivity and overall happiness.
Totally worth it.
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In two weeks I’ll be packing up the rest of my belongings into my small, 145,000 mile Nissan Sentra for the first of 30 days on my roadtrip from Alfred, NY to my new home in Austin, TX.
Donating almost everything I owned is already proving to have a significant impact on the time and mental energy I need to dedicate to relocating. Though it just hit me last night, how little time I have to get all my ducks in a row. So, here’s what’s going down…
I originally wanted to take my time and spend all of June, July and August on the road, but I soon came to the realization that it was a horrible time to migrate South, and I’d never survive the heat. A problem you never have to think about here in upstate NY. A three month nomadic adventure by myself is setting the bar really high, stir in 100+ degree weather and it would have almost certainly resulted in failure. I’ve now trimmed my trip down to only a month on the road; two weeks in the Washington D.C. area, and two weeks exploring the South.
Paul Gannon
About Me
Hello Interwebs, I'm Paul - online marketing consultant, entrepreneur, minimalist and all around freedom enthusiast. Follow me as I journal my experiences and share life lessons from the road.