Created by Mike & Mollie. Subscribe to our blog.
Some ideas remain massively undervalued, even while they are widely known and generally accepted to be true.
To me, daily exercise is one of those ideas. If the benefits of exercise came in the form of a pill, it would be the greatest medical breakthrough of our lifetime. People would pay large sums for the same benefits that they can now get in about 20 minutes a day.
Nearly everyone knows that exercise is good for you and generally believes it, but they persistently undervalue how profoundly their lives could be changed with such a small investment.
The topic of this post is another life-changing idea that I think many people have heard a hundred times, but fail to take seriously. The idea I’m talking about is the intentional pursuit of internal riches.
Internal riches made simple
There are two simple ideas at the heart of internal riches that when fully-applied will completely transform your day-to-day living.
Idea #1: Happiness increases when needs decrease
This idea is the heart of minimalism. When you commit entirely to the decision to live with less you will find two wonderful changes. The first is that you will have more time to pursue activities that are meaningful to you. And the second is that you will need fewer and fewer inputs to pull the levers of joy in your life.
Minimalism, for example, has given my wife and I the space to start this blog together. It has become our favorite shared hobby and the catalyst for many enjoyable conversations.
The practice of minimalism has also deepened my enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures. I can, for example, now find a certain stoic joy in shorter showers, when in the past I would indulge in longer ones. The occasional indulgence is made all the sweeter when surrounded by simplicity.
Idea #2: Be curious about other people
This past week was overflowing with relational riches for me. And it all started from a place of openness.
- I went camping with 4 college friends and laughed more than I had in the prior several months combined.
- My daughter met another little girl at the beach, so I walked over and had a 20 minute conversation with the girl’s father… who was strangely very similar to me (both of us married an elementary school teacher who we met in college on the cross-country team and then had 3 children).
After each of these encounters, I felt happier and more optimistic about life. It didn’t matter that I’ll never see the guy at the beach again. We had a moment of mutual enjoyment and curiosity, which renewed my sense that the world is teeming with people that have their own interesting stories and experiences.
All of this is free, by the way.
And it’s all accessible to anyone.
There’s a whole world full of people out there, with every story imaginable. A thousand shades of personality and a million passions.
A choice you won’t regret
The power of combining these two ideas is that you simultaneously discover that you need less than you imagined and already possess more than you ever dreamed.
Of course, material wealth is still of some value. In the right hands, it can be a force for good.
But internal wealth is a far safer investment with wonderful returns:
Time to pursue what is meaningful. By embracing the philosophy of minimalism, I have reduced my own needs and desires, which has freed up time to pursue the things I value most. More unstructured times with my friends and family, more time to write, more time to read, more time to walk, and more space to ponder what it means to live the good life.
Peace that isn’t dependent on life’s circumstances. The contentment I feel isn’t based on a lifestyle that is hard to keep up. I don’t have a huge amount of overhead to maintain or a long list of things I have to do to craft the perfect image. My life has become increasingly simple and I need fewer and fewer pleasures to achieve that end.
Joy that doesn’t decay with hedonic adaptation. Most pleasures are subject to the law of diminishing returns and the curse of rising expectations. Eventually you get used to your surroundings and they fail to impress. Sophisticated pleasures replace simple pleasures which you can’t seem to enjoy anymore. But in my experience, the pleasures of curiosity (especially towards your fellow humans) escapes this curse. Curiosity multiplies your pleasures at every encounter. It exposes you to new ideas and creates future possibilities.
In conclusion
The world measures riches by dollars and bitcoins. The simple fact that these riches are easy to count has made them the default by which many measure progress.
This leaves an amazing opportunity for anyone looking for the ultimate life hack:
Opt out of that system and take the fast track to internal riches.
Simplify your life and reduce your needs.
Cultivate your curiosity and open yourself to new encounters.
Your life will be far richer as a result.
🌿 Introducing, Declutter Your Life, a premium newsletter with monthly challenges to help you live a less cluttered life– inside and out.
