It’s a crazy and hectic world we live in. It can often be difficult to find time to slow down and catch our breath for a moment — let alone live a simple life filled with purpose.

But does that really have to be the case? Can living simply complement living more purposefully? What does purpose even mean, anyway?

What is… purpose?

Of course, purpose is a deeply personal thing. Not only will all of us have a different purpose in life, our definition of what it means to live purposefully may be different as well.

How we would measure it for ourselves, is:

1. Do we find the things we spend our time and energy on every day to be meaningful and worthwhile?

2. Are we living in a way that is true to ourselves?

We’re figuring it out just like anyone else, but we’ve learned some lessons along the way that we think can be helpful for anyone who’s looking to find and clarify their purpose.

1. Don’t wait to “find” purpose. Create it.

If we’re lacking a sense of purpose, it’s easy to think, “Oh, I just haven’t found it yet”. But purpose isn’t predetermined or fixed to our destinies. Instead of passively waiting to chance upon our mysterious purpose, we can pro-actively create meaning in our everyday.

What we have is choice — we get to decide whether what we spend our time and energy on is meaningful to us. And if it doesn’t feel as meaningful as we would like, we have the choice to do something about it.

2. Purpose doesn’t have to be grand.

Too often, we worry about fulfilling outside expectations when we’re not even at peace with ourselves. Sometimes, we may get the wrong impression that purpose has to be grand and selfless, something that changes the world or at least serves the people around us.

But it’s difficult to be the best person — the best spouse, family member, or friend — when we’re feeling miserable and unfulfilled on the inside. So start small. What’s meaningful to you can feel insignificant or even selfish to others. We’ve got to put our own oxygen mask on first. Grander purpose can be created down the line once we’ve got ourselves sorted out.

3. Purpose is often temporary.

When we’re little, we may be the center of our parents’ purpose. When we leave the nest, they will redirect their energy towards other things in their lives that they find meaningful.

People have different priorities at different stages of life. We all grow and evolve, and so can our purpose. Don’t be too hung up on creating the perfect one, because purpose is free-forming and often temporary.

4. Your values can guide you.

During my very first internship, I basically realized and became certain that I valued freedom, autonomy, and curiosity, much more than I valued security and routine.

Unfortunately, objectively speaking, I’m not more “successful” today than if I had picked a more conventional path. However, I know the right thing to do for myself was to stick to my values and allow them to guide my decisions.

There’s no point in taking a quicker, shorter path if the destination was not meant for us, because then, we’ll just arrive somewhere but still feel completely lost.

5. Do more of what energizes you. Do less of what drains you.

That said, you don’t have to take risks with your career to live in alignment with who you really are. It’s perfectly normal to value financial security over something that doesn’t pay the bills, like freedom, but you can still create meaning in the work you do every day.

Think about the aspects of your job that energize you, are there avenues where you can do more of those things, while at the same time, avoiding aspects of your job that drain you?

6. Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.

Granted, it’s easier said than done. Take a pay cut to do something that doesn’t stress us out as much? Or tolerate what we’re used to as an investment(at least that’s what we tell ourselves) for greater long-term financial reward?

If we’re fixated on comparing outcomes, then it’s easy to see why some may find taking a few steps back, even if it is for the sake of our well-being, to be a waste of time and opportunity.

But as the saying goes, time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time, so even if you tried something different, and the outcome was not what you had hoped for, it’ll never be a waste of time as long as you enjoyed the process.

Can a simple life help us live more purposefully?

To us, living simply means living with more contentment and mindfulness. Being content with what we have in the present moment, and being mindful of the choices we make, not letting comparisons with others cloud our judgment.

In our experience, living a simple life has been a perfect complement to helping us live more purposefully. Just as decluttering a physical space helps regain capacity of the space, simplifying our lives has provided us with the capacity to focus on things that truly matter.

Here are six lessons we learned for living a simpler life.

7. Downgrade your lifestyle, upgrade your life.

While getting rich can be one way to live a good life, it’s certainly not the only way. If we’re constantly slogging it out, mindlessly competing with our neighbors on who has the bigger house and bigger garden, then we’d be too occupied to think about the more important things in life — our health, our relationships, our purpose, etc.

We should be mindful, and let go of unnecessary comparisons and keeping up with appearances. Then, we can realize that by downgrading our lifestyles, we’re essentially giving ourselves an opportunity to upgrade our lives.

8. A simple life comes in all shapes and sizes.

In our early videos on minimalism, some viewers commented that our life and our home felt excessively minimal, while some thought we’re not minimalist enough.

But there’s really no such thing as too minimal or not minimal enough. A simple life can come in all shapes and sizes, so march to the beat of your own drum. If we don’t compare, then the only measure that matters is our own contentment.

9. Be content, not complacent.

Living a simple life doesn’t mean you can’t desire a better life. Striving for a better life can sometimes involve acquiring more. More isn’t always a terrible thing as some minimalist purists would suggest.

We should be content, but we don’t have to be complacent. That said, we should also understand that having more in your life won’t magically make it better.

10. Less is (not always) more.

The reverse is also true. The most minimal life isn’t necessarily the best life. Minimalism isn’t a race to zero.

It’s perfectly fine if you truly desire to optimize and have as little in your possession as possible. The point is, just because someone else is able to live more minimally, doesn’t mean you have to do the same to justify your simple life. Again…

11. You can mindfully enjoy materialistic things.

Sometimes, people think it must be boring to live a simple life. That doesn’t have to be the case! Everyone is allowed to have fun without depriving themselves of their interests. We can admire fancy cars or even enjoy shopping(!) for shoes and clothes.

Being mindful doesn’t mean we must be above having desire for materialistic things. Mindfulness can also mean having the capacity to appreciate objects of desire, as long as we don’t succumb to the impulsive desire to own those objects needlessly.

12. Minimalism is a mindset, not a trend.

We’ve seen some influencers and bloggers declare that minimalism is dead or that minimalism has failed. Sure, those who follow minimalism because it was the trendy thing to do would most likely have moved on to something trendier by now.

Trends come and go, but good concepts and philosophies never go out of style. Think of it as a way of life, and not a trend — take the best lessons from simplicity, discard what doesn’t apply to you, and that wisdom will serve you for a long time.

There’s actually much more we would like to elaborate on for each of the points. So let us know, which of these resonated with you the most?

We would love to hear from you in the comments. Ask us any questions you may have, or share with us some lessons of your own so that we can all learn from one another.

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