Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

So much of our life is

lived in a fog of automatic habitual behavior.

We spend so much time on the hunt.

But nothing ever quite does it for us.

And we get so wrapped up in the hunt that it kind of makes us miserable.

And I had everything I ever wanted.

I had everything I was supposed to have.

Everyone around me said: "You're successful."

But really, I was miserable.

There was this ...

gaping...

... void in my life.

So... I tried to fill that void the same way many people do:

with stuff... lots of stuff.

I was filling the void with consumer purchases.

I was spending money faster than I was earning it,

attempting to buy my way to happiness.

I thought I'd get there one day.

Eventually, I mean, happiness had to be

somewhere, just around the corner.

I was living paycheck to paycheck,

living for a paycheck, living for stuff.

But I wasn't living at all.

At a time when people in the West

are experiencing the best standard of living in history,

why, is it at the same time...

there is such a longing for more?

I think of that as a kind of biologically based delusional craving.

That autocraving is a good strategy to keep animals alive,

including early human animals,

in really harsh conditions.

But these days today, it creates a disconnect.

You're like a puppet, whose strings

should be pulled by Mother Nature and evolution,

reaching back tens of millions of years.

We still feel restless.

We still are always scratching and calling for more.

It's why lottery winners are miserable.

It's why homeowners have three car garages.

The first car generates an exponential...

awesome rush of happiness, joy and utility.

The second car comes about because we tire of the first car.

And, as humans, we're wired to become dissatisfied.

It's an addiction, really.

And we are encouraged to maintain the addiction

through technology and information.

American culture has ...

for the most part, these blinders on.

There is definitely this illusion of what our lives should look like.

Whether it's advertising, or your Instagram,

or Facebook feed, it's this illusion

that our lives should be perfect.

It's natural to use other people's lives,

and even imaginary lives, you know ...

the confections we see in

advertisements, as a yardstick.

You open Vanity Fair or Esquire and you see

very sexy and glamorous lives.

And then the projects for most people seem to become:

"How can I get that or close to that as I'm going to get?"

There can be an immense amount of dissatisfaction

for trying to live that way.

And many of us see no alternative to live that way.

Advertising has polluted...

...and infiltrated culture.

It's in our movies.

It's in our television shows.

It's in our books.

It's in our doctors' offices.

It's in the taxicabs.

It's in the bar, sitting next to you, the person who you think

you're just having and idle chat with could have been

placed there by an alcohol company.

Hydrate the Hustle

It's been a slow evolution.

This is not something that just happened yesterday.

This is something that has been sold to us, I would say, the past 100 years,

slowly but surely, by those that want to make a lot of money.

Now that's what I call a good looking car.

They want us to believe that ...

you really need these things.

Every year that passes has more stimulators,

more pressure, there's more options,

there's more media, more noise, noise, noise.

And by streamlining, simplifying and just

letting people know they have the option,

is a wake up call that is very valuable in

in a very critical time now.

It got to a point in my life

where I don't what was important any more.

Then, at some point when I was approaching 30 year old,

I noticed something different about my best friend

of twenty something years.

Josh, he seemed happy for the first time

in a really long time, like truly happy, ecstatic.

But I didn't understand why, because we had both

worked at the same corporation.

We both wasted our twenties climbing the corporate ladder together,

and he had been just as miserable as me.

So I did what any good best friend would do.

I took him out to a really nice lunch...

I think we went to the Subway. And I sat him down

and I asked him a question.

Why the hell are you so happy?

He spends the next 20 minutes telling me about this thing called minimalism.

Before I discovered minimalism,

I think my life was like pretty much anyone elses.

I had a lot of stuff.

Hundreds, thousands of books, DVDs and VHSs,

closets full of expensive clothes.

All these things that I brought into my life without questioning.

But when I started to let it go,

I started feeling freer and happier

and lighter. And now as...

a minimalist, every possession serves a purpose,

or brings me joy.

I have a bed and a chair, and a radio.

And I have some furniture in my dining room.

In my kitchen I have appliances.

I don't have any excess stuff.

Everything that I look around

I have to go and justify to myself, not to anyone else,

but justify to myself: "Does this add value to my life?"

And if not, I have to be willing to let go.

Ryan and I just writing a book about the last five years of our lives,

It's from being these suit and tie corporate guys, to minimalists.

And so, now we gonna get on the road for ten months this year

and promote that book.

But really for all the message we really believe in.

A simple living message of: living more deliberately with less.

Oh! I'm gonna need a jacket.

We'll see where the journey will take us.

MUSIC FILM INTERACTIVE

So you presented it as a 12 minute talk 8 minute reading.

- Okay. - Yeah.

Cool.

Cause I just don't want to feel rushed in the talk, that's all.

Right.

Early into their tour Joshua & Ryan land a speaking gig at South by Southwest.

They hope it will bring their story to a larger audience

- Ready? - I was born ready.

Nice.

Hello, thanks for coming out.

My name is Ryan Nicodemus and this is the Joshua Fields Millburn.

So today, Josh is gonna read from our new book.

But first let me tell you a story about how

we become the Minimalists.

We've never been shut out, so as long as one person shows up...

- That's all that matters. - I feel really good.

We've had events where you had two people show up,

and that was amazing,

because we got to spend time with two people and add value

to their lives in a different way.

- I'm a hugger, man. - Okay.

Thanks for coming out, man.

Thanks for coming out and seeing the talk, man.

- For sure. Thank you. - Our pleasure.

Did you forget your Kindle and badge in there?

Oh yes. Thank you.

From the day I was born

until the second grade, when my parents got divorced,

I had like the perfect quintessential mom and dad.

When my mom left my dad,

she just really went off the deep end.

By junior high, we had a lot of people over at the house.

And later I found out they were in there smoking crack.

They would cook crack.

By the eighth grade, the SWAT team was kicking in our door,

busting my mother for selling drugs.

It was a drug that overtook my mother.

Josh had a very similar childhood to what I do.

My very first memories of my father

extinguishing a cigarette on my mother's chest.

Shortly after she left my father, she started drinking.

It was my biggest fear that I was going to get taken away from her.

When she was sober, she was a phenomenal mother.

I think she kind of felt trapped.

My mom always complained about money.

She didn't have any money.

I remember being poor growing up.

And I remember thinking when I graduate high school:

"I want to start on a path that is going to take me somewhere

other than a struggle. "

Half a mile, turn left on to San Pedro Drive.

We're currenlty on our way to NPR for a radio interview.

Well, those are our peeps. That's our demographics.

Howdy?

You're looking for Rick Daniels.

I think so. Yes.

- You are the Minimalists. - Yes, we are indeed.

How are you ?

- I'm Scott. - I'm Ryan. I'm a hugger, man.

Nice to meet you, buddy.

Thanks for having us.

Joshua.

I think my light bulb moment when I was showing my guys

how to sell cell phones to a five year old.

I was like, "What am I doing?"

This mentality of getting a better promotion,

Getting a better house, getting a better car,