I am by no means a minimalist…..and I mean that in the broader sense of the word. If you looked at my life you would more likely see the phrase “Go Big or Go Home”, especially when related to my mistakes in life. Monumentalist is more likely what you could call me.
That said, there are areas where I do the bare minimum, it is with that sentiment in mind that I refer the phrase minimalist to. Not the current trend of less is more.
Minimalist – One who does the bare minimum in a particular area or overall (thehonestone’s dictionary)
Doing the bare minimum requires a certain type of thought process. When its towards yourself, its devaluing who you are and what you are capable of. When its towards work, well then it could simply be laziness or lack of passion. Are you a minimalist?
Do you do the bare minimum? Or do you push the edges and limits to create something new or different?
I would stretch that a bit and say that some people are minimalists when it comes to others. We do everything for ourselves, but we do the bare minimum for others. We have no issue spending thousands on ourselves, but when someone needs something, we start counting the coins. Minimalists…….
Are you one of those?
When it comes to careers, sometimes all we want is to get our foot in the door. The problem is sometimes we park there for decades….at the door, not venturing further or exploring.
When we look at our social lives, how often are we willing to meet new people? Do we stick to who we know? Are we minimalists in that regard?
I have fought my minimalist ways for most of my life. And good that I did that to. I shudder to think where I would have been if I just let it happen and done the bare minimum……
To end off today I would like to draw your attention to one thing that seems to be a problem here in South Africa. Our minimum wage.
I was chatting to someone over the weekend and he (a foreigner) was saying that his girlfriend was working as a cleaner and her salary was R1900($260 at the moment) a month. Now I ask you……Is that a livable wage for anyone? And they have children………
Anyway so this friend was telling me that the country that he is from, is at war at the moment. I did not find that really shocking because if you knew which country he is from, you would not be surprised at all. But they were not at war with other countries, the citizens are at war (the peaceful non violent type) with the authorities with regards to cost of living. And they are winning the war.
I was puzzled and curious, apparently it all started on facebook, with a group about the price of cottage cheese. Its a common item in the country and it had more than doubled in price. What a bunch of citizens did is protest via creating a facebook group. It went viral and soon the whole country was standing together. Amazing hey, needless to say their demands were met.
I was gob smacked and started saying it will never happen here. He said that he believed the same about his own country, yet they proved him wrong hey.
To cut it short and get to the point, on your right on this page is a facebook page about the minimum wage debacle. I think it should be at least R3000 ($410) per month. If you agree please like the page. You never know, we might get it done……….
DISCLAIMER
Although I am not advocating you work for the minimum wage, it is a good place to start and do for a while. I am simply saying that if you do find yourself there, at least you should be able to live…
thehonestone
theHonestOne 