By Mino Rakotozandriny, Author of « Maman Minimaliste » (Ideo Editions, 2017), Coach, Speaker

What if we can improve drastically the quality of our lives without spending a single Ariary, taking a holiday or moving abroad? This seems unreal, right?

In these days of big data, fast fashion, fast food, we live more and more in an emergency. Everyone is busy. This is just normal, we have a huge amount of information to handle, a huge quantity of things to do, and a huge number of decisions to take.

But are we sure that all of these have a real meaning for us? And are we sure that all of these are useful?

Most of the time, we think that if we want to improve our life, we need to « add » something. Our society encourages us to have more, and having more is considered as a sign of success. But even if we have the chance to get the more we wanted, we will continue in this direction, and we will always search for more. That is an endless need and that leaves us unsatisfied from life, again and again.

Our lives are so much cluttered by possessions, obligations, information, that we may forget the essential: be happy.

Out of that observation, let me introduce you another way of thinking: minimalism.

Minimalism is a lifestyle that invites us to live with less.

Less possessions.

Less information.

Less activities.

Less meaningless relationships.

Less is more.

Instead of wanting more, what if we try to have less ? Every possession, every activity, every relationship that we have need our attention. Let's select only those which are meaningful to us, and let's get rid of the rest !

Imagine to have only what you really need, and think of all the benefits of the situation: you will have more time for what is really important to you (your kids, your family, your friends, this personal project you really like), you will have more energy for meaningful activities, you will not spend your money for something that you won't even use.

In addition to that, living with less gives you a feeling of freedom. We don't have to take care of many objects, much useless information, or many activities that bring nothing to us but constraints.

The aim is to « be more », not to « have more ». The more we declutter our life, the happier we will be.

Give it a try; I bet you wouldn't want to clutter your life anymore because as Antoine de Saint-Exupery said , "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."