Welcome to "A happy soul" edition.
Today I'm gonna share about 5 ways to make you feel happy with less.
This a confession of a person who travelled non-stop in the last 9 years.
Until now, I'm still surprised that I'm now settled in Saigon. I said "settle" because we bought a house here and send our kid to a local school.
You know, when you turn into 30s and have kid, and put cash down buying house - you have to put a lot of thoughts into those decisions.
In my 20s, buying house was NEVER in my plan. I was happy with renting and traveling.
Being constantly on the road taught me many lessons of ownership.
I'm not talking about minimalism, also there might have some overlaps. I'm talking about seeking freedom.
1.Have less toxicity in life
Be honest about what don't serve you. Cut it off or limit to the minimum:
Haters. Selfish friends. Social judgment. Unhealthy relationships. Bad news on newspapers. Violent movies. Gossiping co-workers. And so on.
Life is shorter than you think. Take care of your mental health.
2. Sell what you don't need
Things you own are temporary.
In 2013, I moved out to live on my own for work in Saigon, Singapore and San Francisco, plus travelled to 30+ other cities in 22 different countries.
I tried to keep my most important things in 2 suitcases. I paid for renting and moved to a new place every 2 years and sometimes twice per year.
I bought and sold stuffs along the way.
The feeling of selling things you don't use for over 4-6 months is unique. Start looking around and list things on FB marketplace and FB groups.
I did fully furnish an empty apartment in SF, then sold everything on FB marketplace when we moved out.
So yes, it is possible to get your money back (partially).
Declutter your life.
3. Less physical, more digital storage
I LOVE reading and collecting books. When I was a kid, I spent most of my childhood laying on my bed to read books and had a bookshelf of nearly 1,000 physical book covers at home.
After that I couldn't carry many physical books while traveling. They are too heavy that became a burden.
I realized that what's important about a book is the knowledge inside it. Store the knowledge, not the covers.
In 2015, I bought a Kindle Paperwhite and it changed my life. Thousands of online books in your hand and no trees cut down for it.
I moved not only books but many other memorable things to Cloud (like Google Photos, Google Drive, iCloud):
Old photos, birthday cards, used notebooks, some drawings in primary schools and more - I scanned/took photos of them and stored in the online folders.
I also donated things like old toys, souvenirs, decor items and even high-school graduation shirt. I held them for the last time, said thanks to them, took photos and videos, and let them go.
I know that what I missed is good memories, not physical gifts themselves.
Read more about it: The life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo
4. Less in quantity, more in quality.
I used to have a lot of clothes and accessories.
Besides 📚, clothes also took up a lot of my space, physically and mentally.
What to wear today, what to wear to work, what to wear in the weekend, what to wear when travel...
Unlike other things I could easily pass to others online, it's extremely hard selling used clothes and accessories regardless of brand, size, price, and condition.
Late 2018, I decided to adopt a capsule wardrobe. This is a collection of clothing items that can easily mix and match to maximize numbers of outfits. It could have less than 12-15 items.
By doing that, I get rid of many unused clothes, and invest in buying more high quality ones that last longer. For e.g:
- A $450 leather jacket that matches with almost anything and I have used it for 5 years and still looks like brand new.
- $700 for a set of 2 black suitcases that are high quality, durable, lightweight, non-scratch with incredible wheels. They've travelled with me in the lasts 6 years.
People can argue that there are other options between $30-$100. Well, then you have to change them every year and they never feel the same as the high quality ones.
With a capsule wardrobe, I occasionally signed up for a clothing rental service (e.g Style Theory in Singapore) when I need clothes for special occasions like a friend's wedding.
5. Less overthinking, more actions
I'm a kind of person that like planning things thoroughly before taking actions.
But I learned to create less frictions in my life to make it more direct and experimental:
Build a MVP and push it out quickly to test my idea.
Express what I think directly to people and try not to make them guess what I think.
Initiate a few steps before investing in a project.
Early in my career, I thought working in investment was awesome and I even planned carefully to get a CFA. When I eventually joined a private-equity fund, I found out it was not for me and quit after 2 months of working.
If you like something, go and experiment it.
Things are less complicated than you thought so don't overthink.
With that, I would like to say thank you for being my subscribers.
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