Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
This message is for all of the new readers out there. Over the last few weeks the number of people reading the work that I’m doing has expanded at an incredible rate, peaking recently with an interview that I did with Jeff Glor for the CBS Evening News.
If you’re here because you saw the feature on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, welcome! If you’re here because you saw me in any number of thousands of other places, on Twitter, or on Facebook, welcome!
[UPDATE! You can watch the CBS video interview with me about minimalism here.]
I hope there’s something I can teach you about how to pursue freedom in your own life.
(If you’re an long-time reader, a lot of this might bore you, so feel free to skip this blog post if you have better things to do with your life.)
Who is this Everett Bogue guy?
Oh, that’s me! I’m the author of two best-selling e-books. Right now I’m moving to San Francisco on November 1st 2010. I live with around 50 personal possessions and 88 total possessions. But I’m moving, so I’ll probably toss or sell some stuff before that.
Currently I’m enrolled yoga teacher training program at Yoga to the People in San Francisco.
Personal possessions are things I’d take with me anywhere I went in the world if I left tomorrow — mostly clothes, laptop, shoes, bag, etc.
Total possessions includes a couple of kitchen things and my bed — I’d ditch this stuff on craigslist if I moved somewhere else and buy a frying pan for cooking.
If you’d like to get an idea of what my possessions look like: here’s what I had when I had 57 things in July of 2010, what I had when I had 75 things in January of 2010, and what I had when I had 97 things in November of 2009.
Here are my e-books:
The Art of Being Minimalist — which teaches you how to stop consuming and start living. Published in February of 2010.
Minimalist Business — which teaches you start a zero-overhead online business so that you can live and work from anywhere. Published in May of 2010.
[*SIDENOTE*] The price of Minimalist Business is going up soon because I’m adding additional valuable content to the e-book on it’s sixth-month anniversary. If you’re interested in purchasing it now you’ll receive the additional content at no additional charge.
Alternatively sign up for free updates via RSS or EMAIL and I’ll be sure to notify you with the same offer before the price goes up.
I’ve also written two completely free e-books, which you can download now and read whenever.
Minimalist Workweek: 50 Strategies for Working Less
A brief history of being minimalist.
I got started living a minimalist lifestyle in July of 2009. At the time I was unhappy working a day job that everyone told me was supposed to be super awesome (I was photo editing at New York Magazine.) I couldn’t figure out why I was unhappy sitting at such an awesome desk, so I started practicing a lot of yoga in order to attempt to discover the root of the problem. Slowly the answer came to me as I wandered around the Internet looking for better ways to live my life.
Around that time I discovered a blog by a brilliant fellow named Leo Babauta who was living with less than 50 things. After reading his blog from start to finish, I decided that being happy was more important than sitting at a desk, so I quit my job with $3,000 in the bank. I tossed 97 things into one backpacking bag, one laptop bag, and one camera bag and hopped on a plane to Portland, Oregon.
While I was in Portland I started blogging about how I was living with less than 100 things, and surprisingly a lot of people started to come and read my blog (which you’re reading now.)
My favorite blogs on living a minimalist lifestyle:
I’m not alone in blogging about minimalism, here are a few other blogs which offer you different perspectives on the movement.
If you can’t figure out why you can’t afford to pay your car payment, read Tammy Strobel’s Rowdy Kittens. Tammy and her husband Logan sold their cars and downsized to a small house in Portland in order to find freedom. Tammy has written a great e-book Smalltopia.
If you have two kids and live in a house in the suburbs, Joshua Becker’s Becoming Minimalist is for you. Then you won’t have to email me saying you can’t live this way because you have kids, Joshua does it so you can. Joshua has an incredible e-book Inside-Out Simplicity.
If you’re a steaming-hot 20-something year old lad or lady who likes adventure anywhere in the world, read Colin Wright’s Exile Lifestyle, and watch as he moves to a new continent every four months. Colin is the author of Networking Awesomely.
If you want to live and work from anywhere while supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs in 3rd world countries by raising tens of thousands of dollars for Kiva, read Karol Gajda’s Ridiculously Extraordinary. Karol is the author of How to Live Anywhere.
If you’ve got tons of crap sitting around your house, and you want to sell it all in order to live and work from anywhere and pay off your debt, Adam Baker of Man Vs Debt is your man. He wrote an e-book too, Sell Your Crap.
There are of course hundreds of minimalist blogs popping up all over the world, these are just some of my favorites.
Where I’ve lived because of my minimalist lifestyle.
In the last year I’ve moved all over the United States in search of a cool place to live.
- I left New York after living there for 7 years in August of 2009
- August-November 2009 I lived in Portland, Oregon.
- December-January 2010 I lived in Chicago, Illinois
- January-May 2010 I lived in Brooklyn, New York
- May-October 2010 I lived in Oakland, California
Next week (November 1st 2010) I’m moving to San Francisco’s mission district.
Why have I been able to move so much?
Minimalism is a remarkable tool for anyone who wants to figure out where they want to live in the world. Basically, I can move anywhere I want for the price of a plane ticket. In May 2010 I moved from New York to Oakland for only $125 + a few basic set-up costs of getting a new apartment and finding a bed to sleep on.
If I felt like leaving to live in South America at the end of December, I totally could, if I wanted to. The minute I’m bored of San Francisco (it hasn’t happened yet!) I could totally skip town and go wherever my heart leads me.
This freedom is the beauty of minimalism.
How to automate your income by building a zero-overhead business.
The other decisive element to my success has been the pursuit of automated income. Basically, the Internet has given us the ability to produce valuable content that teaches people how to live better lives. When we do this, it gives us the freedom to work on producing more value. This is a continuous feedback loop that leads to financial freedom.
When I released The Art of Being Minimalist, I found that I suddenly could support my minimalist life simply with book sales. I had no idea this was possible until I did it, but once I did an entire new world opened up for me. Then I started receiving dozens of emails a week from people wanting to learn how to employ this business model themselves.
I wrote Minimalist Business to help people achieve what I achieved.
It is so much easier to create an automated business when you’re living a minimalist lifestyle with less than 100 things. Why?
I’m not the only person on the Internet who teaches you how to automate your income in order to live and work from anywhere.
The technology just keeps getting better and better, automation is so much easier than it used to be, anyone can work toward creating a business that runs itself using the tools I’ve put forth in Minimalist Business.
Want to learn how to live and work from anywhere from someone else?
Chris Guillebeau is a remarkable country-hopping individual who’s authored a slew of products that teach you how to achieve freedom by creating an online business that works. I’d recommend starting with his An Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. If you’re feeling incredibly ambitious, he has an epic (and expensive) e-course called The Empire Builder Kit which teaches you to build an online business by simply doing one thing every day for a year.
Corbett Barr, aside from being one of my chief online business advisors, runs a blog called Think Traffic which teaches you how to build an audience for your blog the right way. If you’re a complete beginner at selling products online, his Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is an amazing resource.
There are of course others teaching you these skills, these are just my two favorites at the moment. I’ve learned so much from reading their blogs and digesting their products.
How to get started reading Far Beyond The Stars.
I’ve written a number of articles over the last year. A lot of them are pretty good, but some are more awesome than others. If you have the time and want to get more acquainted with my work, check out these articles below.
Here are my top 5 favorite articles to get you started on journey towards a minimalist lifestyle:
1. The True Purpose of Simplicity
2. How to Imagine Your Ideal Reality (because it matters)
3. 24 Hours in the Life of Everett Bogue
4. How to Live Like a Prince on Less Than Six-Figures a Year
5. The Minimalist Guide to Leaving Your Soul-Crushing Day Job
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