My Spinning Plates

Let me introduce you to some friends of mine… Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus are the creators of The Minimalists, a blog about “living a meaningful life with less stuff.” They started their blog less than a year ago as a way to chronicle their transformation from corporate lackeys with six-figure salaries, to minimalists who have pared their lives down to the most essential things (not to mention bloggers with six-figure readership).

The Minimalists is one of my favorite blogs. Not only do I enjoy the subject matter, but I also like that they are so genuine. They are very upfront about the unhappiness that made them change their lives and the challenges they faced on their journey to minimalism. I bought their first book, Minimalism: Essential Essays, a few months ago. Like their blog, the book doesn’t go into the what of minimalism (what should you get rid of before you get to be a minimalist), it goes into the why. Why minimalism?

Minimalism is a tool to achieve fulfillment in life…There are no rules in minimalism. Rather, minimalism is simply about stripping away the unnecessary things in your life so you can concentrate on what’s important. – Minimalism: Essential Essays

Last week, I had the honor of meeting Josh and Ryan on the Atlanta leg of their Minimalist Meetup Tour. I worked with Josh when I edited his book of short stories, “Falling While Sitting Down,” so I was glad to have the chance to talk with him in person. It was also good to meet Ryan and the group of people from the area who were interested in minimalism. The Minimalists were just as genuine in person as they are in their writing.

They are doing a 33 city tour on their own dime. There was no cost to participate. We all simply showed up at a coffee shop to talk and bounce questions and ideas around. Josh and Ryan didn’t come with prepared speeches. They came wanting feedback. They wanted to know what led each of us to minimalism. They wanted to know what our struggles and situations were. They wanted to find out what they could include on the site and in future books that would help people most.

Their new book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, came out today. I received an advance copy and I’m very impressed with it. They say it best in the foreword:

Whatever stage of life you’re in right now, this book can help improve the most important things in your life: your health, your relationships, the pursuit of your passions, your growth as an individual, and your contributions to other people.

To read through the essays on their blog, check out their books, or see if they’re coming to a town near you, pop over to The Minimalists.

Their tour swings back by our area on March 7th with a stop in Nashville. I’m getting a group from Chattanooga together to travel up there. If anyone wants a free ride to Nashville to hang out with The Minimalists, email me (MySpinningPlates1[at] gmail dot com) and let me know. It doesn’t get more minimal than that. Unfortunately, I can only offer this to the first 5 people.