The thought of twelve months in a row of trying to free up space in my classroom, my life, my mind, and my heart is positively liberating, intoxicating, even.
I have many plans on how to do this. Many goals.
I also plan to make many, many mistakes along the way and procrastinate and stumble as well.
Because I know that’s part of the process.
So I plan to start small. With Tiny Shifts.
Recently, for example, I saw this game, as suggested by The Minimalists. When I first saw it, I thought about writing a comment that said, “Just This.” But then I thought I should write only “This,” because I was trying to be a minimalist. But then I thought, if I REALLY want to be a minimalist, I should write nothing.
Which is what I did.
I LOVE what I see from The Minimalists, and the game has a lot of potential, and I know that I don’t have to become a monk, but I’m still scared to go full tilt. So because I’m scared that I’ll only be left with little more than a folding chair and a Certs*, I am going to do the game a bit more on the D.L. So in the interest of keeping things simple, my plan will have only five steps, and will go something like this:
For the entire month of January, I am going to:
- Throw away, donate, or sell at least three to ten things every day.
- Make sure that at least one of these things is a small to medium-sized material object.
- Make sure that if I buy a new thing, I will jettison at least one thing to make room for it in my life.
- Follow the plan for thirty days and, at the end of the month, if I’ve done the math correctly, I will have reduced my overall clutter by roughly one hundred items. I’m breathing more easily already.
- Increase the number of discarded, sold, or repurposed items every way I can.
I will re-assess at the end the month and, for February, adjust accordingly.
The overarching goal is to feel less oppressed by possessions, less suffocated by stuff. I’m hoping to create a little room—elbow room, breathing room, etc.—where The Universe may recognize that I’ve created just the tiniest window for her to send me more goodness. And I’ll have a place to PUT it.
If you’d like to join me in this miniature minimalist adventure, let me know what YOUR plan is, by either leaving me a note in the comments section here, sending me a tweet on Twitter at @thezenteacher, or emailing me at teachingzen@gmail.com. TZT
*Old person reference. . .