Alcohol was my escape, and I didn’t treat women fairly. I couldn’t focus on anything, and I was always wasting time. I was a natural hoarder of knickknacks that I thought made me an interesting person.Īt the same time, though, I was always comparing myself with other people who had more or better things, which often made me miserable. I loved collecting a lot of useless stuff, and I couldn’t throw anything away. I used to buy a lot of things, believing that all those possessions would increase my self-worth and lead to a happier life. I am aiming to create my own uniform with a signature style like Steve Jobs had’ ‘Here’s a look in my closet, from a down jacket to a suit, some white shirts, and the few pairs of trousers that match in a simple style. I feel more content now than I ever did in the past. And yet now I live each day with a happier spirit. So I said goodbye to a lot of things, many of which I’d had for years. And for you to make money, you need everyone else to spend their money. You convince yourself that you need to make a lot of money so you don’t miss out on success. This means we need a lot of money, so we gradually start judging people by how much money they have.

We never know what tomorrow might bring, so we collect and save as much as we can.

We think that the more we have, the happier we will be. It’s given me a chance to think about what it really means to be happy. Living with only the bare essentials has not only provided superficial benefits such as the pleasure of a tidy room or the simple ease of cleaning, it has also led to a more fundamental shift. Minimalism is a lifestyle in which you reduce your possessions to the least possible. The reason? I got rid of most of my material possessions.

Fumio sasaki audiobook