#08 Finding Your Minimalist Life

In this lesson, you will learn how to create your own recipe to live an extraordinary life. I will share the 7 main ingredients that you can include in your minimalist lifestyle and a practical method to help you create a plan of attack and be able to reflect on your changes.

Some call this concept => Lifestyle Design. Are you ready?

Transcript

Lesson 8 Finding your own recipe to live a minimalist lifestyle We all have 24 hours in a day to use them as we wish.

We also know that life is all about balance.

Every individual has different needs and balance can mean something different for every person.

Making sure to find your own balance will allow you to feel great and enjoy a meaningful life doing the things that you love.

How can you find balance in your life?

You may be asking yourself.

You need to understand yourself and your needs first.

You can get started by asking yourself a few questions.

What do you love doing?

Why do you love doing it?

What activities bring you joy?

What kind of work do you feel well doing?

How do you want your day to look like?

What motivates you to get up every morning?

What are your dreams and how can you plan to achieve them?

How is this going to make your life better?

How is this going to make someone else's life better?

Only you will have the answers to these questions.

Sometimes you will need time and reflection to find your own answers.

You may be feeling overwhelmed because no easy answers come to mind.

It's normal to feel this way and it's ok that you don't have answers yet.

Remember that the secret to eliminate the overwhelm and start taking action is to become aware of your current situation and create an actionable plan of attack.

In order to do that,

I want you to think of your life as a recipe.

Your recipe.

Your recipe can contain any ingredients you like.

I'm going to share with you 7 main ingredients that you can nurture in order to create your extraordinary life.

Feel free to add more ingredients if you feel the need to do so.

While going through every ingredient,

Make sure that you think about the things you want to work on.

What do you want to focus on?

Write them down so that you don't forget.

At the end of this lesson,

We will do an exercise called a creation.

This is where you will set the intention in every area of your life.

So that you can get started right away moving forward in the direction that you want.

Ingredient number 1 is body.

Having a healthy body will allow you to enjoy life to its maximum potential.

This is one of the most important ingredients.

If you are in pain,

If you have no energy,

If you feel tired,

If you are hungry,

Most likely you won't be able to perform well in life.

Things that can help improve your body are good nutrition,

Drinking enough water,

Regular exercise,

Good rest,

And relaxation.

Just to name some.

Ingredient number 2 is your mind.

Your mind is your power center.

You can't control what happens around you,

But you can choose how you react to what happens around you.

Attitude is everything in life.

Stress,

Anxiety,

Depression,

Happiness,

Motivation.

These are some examples of how we can feel in different situations.

You need to be conscious of how you deal with these experiences.

Watch yourself.

Reflect and understand why you are feeling a certain way.

Maybe you can try to do something to change the situation.

If you can't,

Accept it and move forward.

Learn from it.

Having a negative attitude won't help you.

Try to incorporate activities in your life that nurture your mind.

Here are a few ideas of activities you can do to find balance and feel better.

Meaningful activities for you,

Self-care,

Fun and recreation,

Spirituality,

Meditation,

Hobbies like art,

Music,

Cooking,

Reading,

Drawing.

Going for adventures like hiking,

Biking,

Traveling.

Just to name some.

You are creating your own life.

You can be as original as you like.

Find what makes you happy and start doing more of that.

If you aren't sure of what could be a good fit for you,

Get started trying new things.

Allow yourself a testing period and see how you feel after each activity.

Once you find something that feels good,

Stick with it.

Ingredient number three is family.

Some are fortunate to enjoy a good relationship with their families.

Others stopped their relationship with their families a long time ago.

I want to believe that everybody does the best they can.

It's our job to try to understand why they do what they do.

Being respectful and loving will have a huge impact on relationships.

We all see people reacting to bad comments,

Disrespectful actions,

Screaming,

Judging.

But have you ever seen anyone reacting poorly to love,

To acceptance,

Forgiveness,

Respect?

I don't think so.

I have had many personal experiences where just changing my attitude and really loving,

Accepting,

Forgiving and respecting the other person completely changes the situation.

Our world really needs more love and respect.

Let me share one quote with you about this ingredient.

I have learned that people will forget what you said,

People will forget what you did,

But people will never forget how you made them feel.

This is a quote by Maya Angelou.

Ingredient number four is social.

Creating a healthy social environment that includes trust,

Compassion,

Respect and reciprocity is a very important ingredient of an extraordinary life.

You want to include good friends and family members in your social support system.

Once you have decided what's meaningful for you,

You will then decide what kind of social relationships you want to have in your life.

The choice is yours.

I have another quote for you.

Individually we are one drop.

Together we are an ocean.

This one is by Ryunosuke Saturo.

Ingredient number five is work.

Having an extraordinary life should include being able to do what you love and get paid for it.

The hard part is finding the what and the why.

What do you love doing?

Why do you love it?

Is this something you would do for free in your spare time?

Is this something that makes you feel fulfilled?

Is this your passion?

Career,

Job,

Business,

Your calling,

Your dream,

Your contribution to the world,

Your legacy.

These are some labels that we use when defining what we do for a living to earn money to sustain our lifestyle.

Most times we arrange our lifestyle around our way of earning a paycheck.

This is the easiest way.

But is it the most meaningful way?

Ideally you will design the life that you would like to have.

Then you will try to find a way to earning a paycheck doing something that aligns with your values and your lifestyle.

Your work should sustain the lifestyle that you want,

Not the other way around.

This won't happen overnight.

You will still need to take care of the day to day of doing your actual job.

Bills need to be paid.

We all agree on that.

It will take a lot of effort,

Patience and dedication to make it happen.

But if it's truly what you want,

You will find a way or you will create a new way if you don't see one.

It's just a matter of time and perspective to succeed.

I want to share a great quote with you from Simon Sinek.

Working hard for something we don't care about,

It's called stress.

Working hard for something we love is called passion.

Ingredient number six is staff.

Staff includes every material possession that creates value in your life and helps you facilitate the lifestyle that you want to live.

Every possession you own should have a purpose.

Having too much staff can cause clutter.

Clutter can overload your senses and create stress and make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated.

I will include money and finances in this category.

But financial planning and debt could be a big source of stress and it can impact other areas of your life.

A minimalist life should include only staff that serves a purpose and a healthy financial plan that supports your lifestyle.

Your home and workplace should be inviting and functional spaces.

They should be designed to help you succeed.

Less is more.

It's time to create balance in your life by removing what's not important and relevant anymore.

Let me share another quote by Christina Scalise.

Organization isn't about perfection.

It's about efficiency,

Reducing stress and clutter,

Saving time and money,

And improving your overall quality of life.

The last ingredient,

Ingredient number seven,

Is giving back.

Giving help,

Support,

Advice,

Your time,

Your love to someone else who is in need,

It's the most rewarding action you can do.

Try to do it and see how you feel after.

There is a great quote from Pablo Picasso that explains it very well.

He says,

The meaning of life is to find your gift.

The purpose of life is to give it away.

Isn't it beautiful?

Cultivating every ingredient in this recipe will help you find balance in your life.

Every person will need different doses of each ingredient in order to feel balanced and happy.

If you feel that there is a missing ingredient that is important to you,

Feel free to just create a label for it.

This is all about you and your needs.

I want to share an example on how to put this into practice.

Imagine that you can decide to go to the gym to cultivate your body,

To do exercise.

You can bring your media player and listen to an interesting podcast while exercising.

Now you are also cultivating your mind too.

If you invite a couple of friends after the gym to catch up and have a coffee or a beverage,

Now you are cultivating your social ingredient.

Stop by to say hi to a family member on the way home and then you are cultivating your family too.

You can decide to make intentional decisions and incorporate a good dose of each ingredient in your day to day life.

Try different doses of each one to see how you feel.

Over time you will figure out what feels good to you.

Make it fun and share it with your loved ones.

Are you ready to give it a try?

Let's create the life that you always wanted.

I have another quote for you by Vincent van Gogh.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Are you ready for a fun exercise?

This is called Your Creation.

We are going to put everything that you have learned in this lesson into practice now.

In order to do that,

I need you to schedule some time in the calendar for yourself.

I recommend at least 30 to 45,

Even 60 minutes.

I recommend you go to a place where you feel calm,

Inspired and relaxed.

Bring a notebook and color markers.

Write the title of the seven ingredients with different colors.

Remember,

If you have more or different names for your ingredients,

Just customize them as you need.

If you want to include any other ingredient that is important to you,

Please do.

Create on a scale 0 to 10,

0 being the worst and 10 being the best,

How you feel in every ingredient,

Every area of your life.

For example,

Ingredient 1,

Body.

I feel a 6.

I feel I could lose a bit of weight and exercise a bit more every week.

I also want to drink more water daily,

At least 2 liters.

You see,

You are starting to be intentional with what you want to see in that key area of your life.

So go through every ingredient and rate how you feel.

Write it down so that you can reflect in the future.

Now it's time to go through every ingredient and ask yourself,

What am I doing right now to cultivate it?

What would I like to integrate into my life?

Write down whatever answers you have in that specific area.

You can repeat this with every ingredient.

When you are done,

You will have a recipe to follow.

Test it for a few weeks and review it again.

Amend your recipe if necessary.

Tweak it.

It's okay not to be perfect from day one.

This is something that is going to evolve and it's going to help you create the life that you always wanted.

Is this adding value to my life?

Am I feeling more balanced?

Do I want to pursue this?

These are some of the questions that you may ask when you are reflecting.

You look at your recipe,

You look at the things that you brought down,

And you ask yourself those questions.

Be honest with yourself.

Sometimes good changes will take effort and lots of patience.

You are changing habits in your life.

I normally reflect on my own creation regularly to see my progress and I make a new one every three to six months.

Every time I feel a bit lost and lacking direction or frustrated,

That's a good sign that I need to create a new one and set new exciting intentions.

Remember that you only fail when you stop trying.

You can do this exercise with a good friend or family member.

This will help you be accountable to someone.

In my case,

I always do it with my wife Samantha.

We do it together.

The other person can take the role of asking questions.

Like,

What do you want?

Why do you want it?

Can you describe it for me?

How is this going to make your life better?

Answering these questions can help you figure out what you want.

Visualization is a very powerful tool that we all have.

So let's use it.

If you can visualize it in your mind,

What you want and can answer to why you want it,

You will find focus and motivation to make it happen.

Magic will happen around you and most likely you will get it.

So please take time to do this exercise.

It will really change your life and you will feel more in control and more excited.

It certainly changed my life.

Enjoy the process and remember that life is a journey,

Not a destination.

So enjoy your journey.

In the next lesson we are going to learn how to create your ideal week integrating all the things that you have included in your creation exercise.

Reviews

LOVE THIS❣️ (And ALL of your work! 😊) Thank you. 🙏🏻

Thank you! I plan to do the activity that you so positively explained. I am focused on #6 and have been listening to many of your talks. 🙏🏻

I love this exercise! A really helpful, constructive and practical way to get more direction and balance in my life. 🌸🌈🙏

Bien cocito! Very approachable and actionable. Thank you. 😀☯️

These are excellent suggestions, and I really love and appreciate all the wonderful quotes you include Emilio, thank you so much. You’re a true inspiration ✨✨🌸

Amaaaazing!!!!! 🥰🙏🏼✨ thank you for this magical guidance into greatness.

Thanks for the inspiration! Can’t wait to grab a notebook and get busy!

Bravo 👏 thank you 🙏

Thank you

Very thought provoking and inspiring.. and in simple terms ❤

Fabulous!

TY🙏🏼❤️ I found the time audit helpful and such a logical first step in creating this weekly overview. I created two columns for each day: Planned vs. Actual. (What I planned for that timeframe in one column, and what actually happened in the next column) Reality check! THANK YOU!

Love all these lessons. Listening to them twice & taking notes. This one was particularly helpful. Thank you so much for sharing! 🙏

This is great 😃! Thanks🙏🏻!

Thnak for the PRACTICAL tips!