Hey, I'm Connie [inaudible] and in today's

video I want to share with you why I became a minimalist and how it has been

such a huge, huge game changer for me ever since I

consciously embrace this lifestyle about seven years ago now.

It's been awhile and I'm making this video because lately I've been

rediscovering just how important a minimalist lifestyle and I am a

minimalist approach to living and being and working.

Just how important that really is to me and my life and my business.

Minimalism really is the way that I live and work and make decisions and yes,

I'm a digital nomad and I have been for most of this time,

but it's not just about things. It's about so much more than just the

physical stuff that we own and the main reason that I adopted this way of living

goes way, way deeper.

Let's talk about what minimalism really is before I share with you how I came to

fully embrace this way of being and doing and living in thinking.

So here's a little quick and dirty definition of minimalism.

Less is more, less is better,

and that enables you to be less distracted from what's really important

in life to you and that might be very subjective so you get rid of all the

clutter, all the things that are not essential,

and what remains is that what really mattered

as a minimalist, you're constantly asking,

is this adding value to my life and if not,

if that's the answer, then you let it go and to me it's really

not just about owning less and decluttering physical things,

minimalism, there's so much more than just about

stuff I applied to all areas of life, business productivity,

social media decisions, relationships,

finances, goals,

work space, digital space.

The concept of minimalism can be applied to every area of your life and I think

that's why it's so powerful. Discovery,

minimalism, really me to start questioning

everything in life. It helped me to realize and reflect on

what is really my truth as connie you and not just programming and

conditioning. It really helped me to distinguish

between this is society, this is comes from my family.

This comes from how we're conditioned and this is who I really am.

Just one tiny little detail up front. So my brain is generally very active and

it gets overwhelmed really quickly. It's always been like that.

And so when I discovered minimalism, it was Kinda like,

ugh. Finally a relief to all this stuff that

was going on up here. The reason that I know that it's so easy

for me to meditate every day and exercise and have all these healthy

habits is because my big why is I want to chill,

chilled his brain out every day and feel more relaxed and at peace and I don't

like to feel stressed out. My limit as to how much stress I can

take and overwhelm is tiny. So back in 2011,

you know, I'd been a nomad,

an analog nomad for years. Ever since I was a teenager,

living all over the place. And and in 2011,

I found myself in my first real nine to five job back in Berlin and I was really

miserable and I discovered the book, the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss.

Through reading that book, I discovered all these lifestyles in

ways of living and it helped me to start questioning everything in life and

because I was so unhappy after a couple of weeks at the job and I just couldn't

see myself living a nine to five life for the rest of my existence,

I was looking for solutions. My ultimate goal was freedom.

It's always been freedom ever since I can think of.

I always wanted freedom. That's why I started traveling so early

and living in all these different places.

That's why minimalism from years to move,

but freedom for me was always the thing. I just could not see myself being an

employee and living in the same city, doing the same job at the same desk for

years on end. And so the solution to that problem,

as I eventually discovered through the four hour work week and then some other

stuff was become a digital nomad, create an online business and then

you're good to go.

You can travel the world and you can live wherever you wind.

You can work when you're one where you want as many hours as you want and

really also make an impact with your work as an entrepreneur rather than

being an employee. And as I was going down that rabbit hole

of lifestyle design, lifestyle business,

it didn't take much for me to come across blogs by Liam about us and

habits. The minimalists and Colin,

right at exiled lifestyle. And also another guy that I discovered

who was really big at the time with his blog about minimalism but doesn't exist

anymore, was called far beyond the stars.

So it came across minimalism at a time where I had started slowly to really

question conventional ways of being and working especially.

And as I was reading through all these blogs,

I just felt so much relief because there were people who felt like me who had the

same desire, namely freedom and just less

overwhelmed.

They put it into words and they verbalized it,

and that word minimalism just hit me so hard.

And I was like, yes,

that's it. That's it.

It just, it was just boom.

Everything was so clear that, wow,

finally I am not alone in my struggles and there's other people who have the

same needs and desires and interests. And through the process of diving into

this new approach to life, it really helped me to find my identity

and who I really am and my truth. I mean,

to be fair, my coming out was probably the first big

step into really figuring out who I am, but embracing minimalism and then

consequently the digital nomad lifestyle and becoming an entrepreneur that I'd

had such a huge impact to who I really am.

And really going deeper into the meaning of life and my purpose here on this

planet.

In practical terms, I started to declutter the stuff that

wasn't even a lot of stuff, so I downsized to 100 things.

I got a bit obsessed maybe I like to as maybe some of you know,

I get interested, then I get passionate and then

eventually I get obsessed with a few things and that's cool.

So I just, I got into it and I was like,

all right, 100 things.

It is. And I even ended up in the newspaper and

on television because I was writing about it and on my blogs back then.

And so it was, it was really awesome and I loved it.

And so the rest is basically history. The number of possessions has been up

and down over the years, you know,

I don't keep track. It was,

it was fun for a while and it was important to me for awhile,

but essentially minimalism is not about the number of things you all want and it

generally isn't just the bad things.

For many years I used to only travel with carry on luggage.

I wouldn't check in any bags, but today I own more camera gear and

podcasting gear and so I have a few more things that I carry around the world as

a digital nomad and hence I do check in a bag a lot of times even though I'm

kind of about how can I downsize again because I really don't like checking in

bags. So seven years later I'm still a digital

nomad. I don't own much.

I did have a home base here or there for short periods during those seven years

in Bali and in a little bit in Berlin as well,

but even when I did have a home, I didn't really accumulate much staff

and when I did I would just declutter really very frequently.

And so to this day I still don't own much.

I don't have a house, I don't have an apartment at this point.

My, I stay with my girlfriend when I'm in La

and otherwise I stay in airbnbs like right now and I choose minimalist

airbnb. It's like I look at the photos and when

there's too much clutter on like love Max.

I do have a few things at my mom's house in Germany,

but it's mostly just a couple of winter stuff and a couple of books and I have a

little box or a bag in Bali in a soft board,

but that again is not a whole lot of stuff and and other than that I just

have my, my big bag and I have my backpack and

that's it. I might make an extra video about all

the things I own maybe, but after all the essence remains,

which is I just don't like things I don't like clutter.

Let it be physical material or immaterial and I don't like distractions

and I don't want things in my life that weigh me down physically,

mentally, emotionally.

Minimalism enables me to experience true freedom,

freedom from overwhelm, freedom from location,

just in so many ways that are so beautiful to me.

I have so much more peace of mind in my brain and that enables me to live more

and really focus on the things that are meaningful and important to me.

Things that really matter and it helps me to fully use my energies,

my time, and ultimately my potentials to really

create something meaningful with my time and my work and thus create true value

in this world and also like to say consume less,

create more. Being a minimalist definitely allows me

to do that by getting rid of distractions,

optimizing my productivity, and that allows me to create every

single day like this video.

And lastly, agents really don't care about stuff.

I just, I just don't.

I'm not into things. I don't like clutter.

I don't like stuff just to have stuff. I'm all about experiences over things.

I'm all about experiencing life. We can't take anything with us when we

die anyway, and when I'm on my deathbed,

am I going to remember the stuff that I bought?

I'm going to remember the amazing experiences that I've had and what will

you remember when you die? So instead of investing my money into

things and just stuff, I invested in experiences.

I invested in traveling. I invested in events and workshops and

conferences and retreats. I invested in getting a life coach or

business coach. I invested in good,

healthy, high quality food.

I invested in staying in, yeah,

of course. Nice spacious airbnb apartments when I'm

traveling and I missed it in kindle books because I love reading and growing

and I like to have a lot of time to read every single day and minimalism allows

me then to, I believe we find true fulfillment,

not through the consumption of more things and more information,

but through life itself and minimalism helps me live more.

It helps me to live on purpose and create more meaning every day.

And that's to me kind of the purpose of it all.

How about you share with me in the comments,

what do you think about minimalism? Are you a minimalist and,

or what other approach to life has been such a game changer for you?

And that's it. My friends.

Um, one last thing.

Check out my podcast. I just launched my new podcast.

I had one before. Now I have a new one.

It's the Cani of bizarre ski podcasts. Go and check it out.

I'll put all the links below, but just go to your favorite podcast app

and it's there for sure, and if you enjoyed this video,

give it like one of these and subscribe for more and I'll see you in the next

one. Thank you so much.

I appreciate you and your attention. Thank you.

Bye.