Years ago, all that we could do in a chair was eat, sleep and read. You could sometimes talk to people if they were around. Or yourself if you really wanted to. That was about it.

Now the power you have from your chair is incredible.

Right now, I’m watching a ski film I got online. I didn’t have to go to the store to buy it, or to the rental store to rent it. I just went to my favorite online video site and buy it there. Instantly I have it on my computer and can enjoy it without any getting up. I don’t even have to sit on the couch to watch it on the TV. All of it is possible right from my computer.

We used to have to go to the mailbox with a piece of paper and wait weeks for it to go through the system if we wanted to talk to someone around the world. Now there are too many ways to talk to people anywhere. It’s easy to call people but then you have to worry about long distance charges and country codes. Why not just use skype, facebook, email, or the almost countless other services that allow you to communicate with anyone in the world real time.

Do you need to go to the grocery store, fill up your cart and pay for your groceries there? Nope. You can just head over to your grocery stores website, click a few items and click deliver. You don’t even have to get out of your chair. (You may need to walk to the door to answer the delivery guy but that’s what rolling office chairs are for aren’t they?)

Want to go travelling? Everything you need is online. You can access your frequent flyer miles, your favorite stores to get more miles, all the information you need to decide where you’re going and even the flight agency where you’ll buy your tickets. You can check in online, see where exactly your seat is and change them if they suck.

Things are going to get real interesting when houses that are completely connected to your computer become the norm in the market. Need to make sure you closed the garage door, turned off the coffee maker and shut the blinds from half way around the world? Not only is checking the status of those items going to be possible, being able to control them from anywhere on your computer will be as easy as checking your email.

Cars are getting more hooked up to the internet as well. New Ford trucks connect up to your computer and allow you to do work on the road. We’re almost at the point where we can just treat our vehicles as another mobile device. We’ll park in the driveway and load up our cars with our favorite music and apps for the next days trip. Need to check where car is? Log in and look at the map.

What all of this means is it’s getting easier and easier to do whatever you want without even moving from your chair. Seen that animated movie about the two robots, Wall-E? Humans had advanced their technology far enough, they never had to get up from there hover-chairs, they only interacted with their world with the touch screens hovering in front of them. It never mentioned this but they probably had their minds read so they didn’t even have to moves their mouthes to ask for something.

I hope you can see the problem in this not-so-futuristic scenario. Humans were made to move. Having the technology to do everything you need without moving would be incredible but my hope is that it would just be used to free up time and worry and let us to do truly incredible things.

Another issue with the scenario is that we are still dealing with a ginormous gap between people that can afford these luxury items and the people that are still living in dirt houses and can barely afford the food and water the need to live.

Will you use the power gained by all our incredible technology to get fat and lazy or will you use it for the betterment of society and to advance human civilization as a whole?

****

Challenge Updates
You’ll start to see little challenge updates on the bottom of my posts. They might be tiny but they’ll be there. I’m always working on little challenges, but each month I’ll focus on 1 or 2. I like this method for a couple of reasons. First, if I don’t record things, I’ll be more likely to forget what I had accomplished. I may go straight back into what I was doing before and repeat the steps I had made it though. Second, writing a post each week that includes a little tidbit of info about the challenges forces me to think about the steps I’m taking towards conquering those challenges. Thinking about something often makes it much more likely to come true. Not guaranteed, but much more likely.

What I’m wondering though is if you’ve ever done a monthly challenge and how you set it up? Did you make a goal to be completed by the end of the month? Did you just work at it to see how far you get? Did you continue on after the month is up or start a new one? I’d love to hear what went well and what didn’t work. I’ll be trying my own configuration but any input would be much appreciated!

That’s how I feel right now.

In an effort to find out exactly what I want to do with my life in the next few years, I’m trying everything I can. And there is a lot to try. But the only way to find out what I like and what I don’t like is to try it.

Yeah, yeah, and what does doing too much have anything to do with minimalism?

Remember what I said in the first post about the New Years Minimalism Challenge? I’m not getting into minimalism to become a monk or to make myself miserable with limitations. I’m diving into these ideas to simplify my life, make it more manageable, and do more of what I want to.

Now that I’ve said it, it sounds like a really lame excuse for why I haven’t posted my week 3 and 4 updates for the New Years Minimalism Challenge. Can I say I’ve taken a minimalistic approach to posting? No, that sucks too.

Well, here we go. Even though you haven’t heard from me in a couple weeks, I’ve still been busy organizing and moving things out the door.

Here’s what I’ve gotten rid of these last couple weeks.

Glass Dish

Extra Cutlery and Glass Dish

Mug

Mug

Old Pot

Plastic Glasses

More Mugs

Old Pan

Old wok

Week 4 is where things really started to get interesting. Believe it or not, most people will have enough stuff to last them right through to week 3. I’ve already been through 2 big cleans and a move in the last 6 months and I STILL had enough stuff for 3 weeks of clearing out.

This is why 30 days is a good length of time for minimizing. During the last week you really have to make a concerted effort to keep on the task at hand and it becomes that much harder to even find things you are willing to get rid of.

You will start to look at things differently after 30 days of getting rid of things. Now I look at things and think not about what I would gain if I kept it but what I would gain if I got rid of it. The piece of mind, increase in spare room and cash that comes with getting rid of things is worth 100 times more than the convenience of possibly, maybe, eventually using something. It’s not even close to being worth it.

Week 4 was the hardest week yet in the Minimalism Challenge but I still manage to find more than enough things to get rid of.

Here’s my list:

Plates

Blue Dress Shirt

Old Rugby Jersey

Old Pants

Quicksilver shirt

Dress Shirt

Rugby Tshirt

Hide them in boxes.

Pack them up. Hide them away. Don’t look at them for at least 4 months. I didn’t try less than that but 4 months seemed to work very well. I pulled the boxes from the closet and my default reaction for every single thing I pulled from those boxes was to get rid of it. I hadn’t worn it for the last 4 months. And the very reason they went into the box in the first place was I didn’t wear them for a while before that. Some of these items haven’t been worn in 2 years. Why I still had them, I have no idea. I might need them in the future? Sure didn’t.

A Big Thanks

A special thanks to Rik from The Dutch Minimalist who really took this challenge head on. Make sure you check out his latest post on the challenge. He dives right into Week 5 of The Minimalism Challenge!

Also a big thanks to Greg from Live it With Less. He’s embraced the challenge with a passion and has done very well for himself. Make sure you take a look at his Week 3 of the Minimalism Challenge. I hope he doesn’t start slacking there and is able to finish the challenge!

And of course, we can’t finish this challenge properly without the solid effort from Dave from The Minimalist Path.  Dave was moving while the challenge was going on and still managed to participate and make a few video posts to boot. Check out his latest video post on the Minimalist Challenge.

The Next Step: Project M-31

If you are looking for ways to continue simplifying your life and decluttering your spaces, but need a bit more guidance, make sure you check out Project M-31 from the Minimalist Path. It’s basically an easy to follow, no bull, step by step guide to attacking the spaces that collect the most junk and actually get it out of your house and out of your life. I’m working through the chapters as we speak and already it’s making a difference in simplifying my life.

This weeks pile is another load of clothing. I’ve also added more bonus items to make sure I actually get rid of everything I can. I bet I can do 2 things each day the rest of the challenge. Can anyone else take me up on that challenge?

Jan 22: White Polo

Jan 23: Black Sitka Shirt

Jan 24: Black Dress Shirt

Jan 25: Red T

Jan 26: Quicksilver T

Jan 27: Old Belts

Jan 28: Green Dress Shirt

Bonus: Grey T

Bonus: Old Jeans

My focus for this challenge has been the lingering items that have been hiding in boxes since the move. One of those is clothing. I’ve got way too much. More than my girlfriend in fact. I used to keep things around so that when I destroyed some article of clothing I’d have other things to wear. That was a long time ago and I still keep things around but never destroy anything.

Right now I’ve got 2 boxes ready to be donated and here is the first of it.

Friday 15th: Sock Em Boppers

Saturday 16th: Old alarm clock

Sunday 17th: Grey Sweater

Monday 18th: Black striped dress shirt

Tuesday 19th: Blue Dress shirt

Wednesday 20th: White dress shirt

Thursday 21st: Kuhl Dress shirt

Wrong! I hope you haven’t either!

How many of you said you wanted to get rid of things? Pare down? Clean out your closet and your mind?

Have you started?

Do it! Join Dave from The Minimalist Path and I on a Minimalist Challenge this month.

In? Good.

The Challenge

From January 15th to February 15th you’re going to be getting rid of one thing every day from your kitchen, closet, computer room, bedroom, car, work. Anywhere that is accumulating clutter and things you don’t need. The purpose here is not to become a minimalist Zen Monk, (if you want to though, give ‘er) but to remove things from our lives that don’t matter.

The idea for this is not to get rid of everything. Yes, this would be very minimalistic to be sitting on a bare floor eating with your hands. Not very practical though. You want to remove things from your life that have little value and leave the big things that mean a lot to you. All those little things take up time, space and money. Wouldn’t you rather spend those on things you love?

Rules

1. You have to plan to get rid of something every day of the challenge. You can take the stuff to wherever it’s going to end up, dump/friends/recycling depot/ shelter, once a week if you like. I understand it’s hard to go every single day.

2. Update your blog/website/doc/wave with things that you’ve thrown away. Try to make an update post somewhere of what you let go every week. Comment here with the link. If you don’t want them cluttering up your blog, email me.

3. Things that can be recycled or donated, have to be. Don’t just throw them in the garbage. People can benefit from used stuff.

4. Check out what Dave has to say about the Challenge on The Minimalist Path.

That’s it. That’s all you have to do. After 30 days you might just create a new habit of getting rid of things you don’t need. Now get minimalizing!

[Update]

If you’ve started a little late, check out the update from Week 1 to see how everyone is doing.

2009 was the first year I really started writing on this blog. I tried last year and got bored. My 4 month trip to Australia and New Zealand really got my excited to write and share my adventures with the rest of the world. Here are my most popular posts from this year!

10. Coming Home From Australia and New Zealand

I spent 4 months this year in Australia and New Zealand. It was the best thing I’ve ever done. Check out my thoughts on returning to Canada after spending some time down under.

9. Winter Challenge Roundup

I found the best way to get myself to do something was to make a challenge for it. If it was a contest of sorts with myself, I’d be more likely to stick with it and write about it. Here are my challenges for this winter.

8. Powerful Beyond Measure

I credit @jonathanmead with this one. What an incredible message. If you want to get riled up for the wickedness that will be your 2010, watch this now.

7. A Change In Direction

I had no idea what I was going to be writing about when I started the blog. At first it was going to be about everything I did but it quickly turned into a travel blog while I was away. After returning I wasn’t sure what to write about since I wasn’t travelling. I’m a bit addicted to trying new things, seeing what I can learn and how far I can push myself so this is what rcThink will be about. If you love these things too check this post out and let me know what you’re into.

6. My 30 Day Minimalism Challenge

I was moving out. I had loads of stuff. I didn’t want to take it all. I couldn’t take it all. I started a challenge for myself to get rid of all that I could.

5. 1 Week Into My Minimalism Challenge

A status update on the minimalism challenge. I didn’t exactly hit my goal of one thing every day for a month but I did get rid of whole lot of stuff. It did change my view on what I need and why I keep things around. I’ll be doing another one of these early in the new year to shed unneeded junk and clear my mind to accomplish all the awesomeness I’m going to in 2010.

4. The Most Beautiful Place I’ve Ever Seen

On my trip this year I spent a day in Milford Sound. It’s pretty much the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anything like it, almost prehistoric. The cliffs rose straight up to staggering heights out of the glassy water. The dolphins were following the boat as we cruised by. Waterfalls poured from the valleys into the fjord below. Definitely worth a read if you want to go (or go back) to New Zealand.

3. Rcthink Facelift

I had a tough time choosing a theme for rcThink. I’d change it every once and a while trying to find a fit for myself and my content. I’ve been so happy with Headlines from Woothemes that it’s on a few other blogs I write for as well. Quick advice: Find a good theme and stick to it. Do spend some time finding one you really like though.

2. Digital Nomad Blog Carnival #5

I got the change to host the 5th Digital Nomad Blog Carnival created by Cody at Thrilling Heroics . I had a fantastic time reading through and picking my favorite posts. I’ll be doing this again soon!

1. Creating the List Life

With so many ideas for adventures running around in my head I had to write them down. The best of the best appears in this list. I hope you get some inspiration to get out and really experience life from it!

Plans for 2010

It’s an incredible feeling to have a clear purpose for something. I feel like I know exactly where I want to go with this blog and I’m going to pour everything I’ve got into it and a couple other projects in 2010.

In writing this I’ve tried to experiment and see what the whole blogging thing is about and I’ve done well on some things and sucked on other things. A few things I want to improve on next year:

1. Regular Posting Schedule

I didn’t think this was going to be so hard but posting on a regular schedule ended up being near impossible for me. I’m going to experiment with schedules this year and, who knows, maybe I’ll end up with a schedule of no schedule.

2. Wrap up Challenges

I started some posts, challenges and contests this year that petered out into nothing. I won’t be doing this again. Everything will have a strong start and an even stronger finish.

3. Spend more time on Posts

I’ve never spent much time writing. In elementary school, I breezed through. In high school, it was an afterthought. In university, I always did it the night before it was due. Writing has become much more than an afterthought or lame assignment to me now and I’m going to spend much more time learning and perfecting my skills.

Gimme Your Comments

What was your favorite post you wrote this year? What are you going to do next year to improve? To make it your best yet?

I’ve been trying to come up with a format for personal development posts that works for me. I’ve plenty experience learning new things and doing as much as I can to better myself but I’ve never really written about the experience. I wish I could remember in detail the first times I wakeboarded, snowboarded or rode a dirtbike. Joy comes to my heart when I think of doing those activities now but all I can remember from when I started was disappointment and frustration.

I consider myself a fairly quick learner with most things but that’s not to say I can do anything in no time. I can’t even count the number of times I had to relax and tell myself to try again when I caught an edge snowboarding or face-planted wakeboarding. Eventually they became easier and easier and now I don’t even have to think about the details when I strap on a board to go for a ride.

I’ve always enjoyed learning new things. The excitement that comes with doing something I’ve never done before, the satisfaction that comes with attaining the first milestone, the thrill of polishing a skill that many people don’t have. It’s never easy though. The hardest part isn’t starting. The excitement and novelty keep me going for a bit but it’s when those initial feelings start to fade away that the hard part begins. Sticking to it, practicing till a new habit is formed and ingraining that skill into your mind is where most people, including myself, fall apart. Most of the time these exciting new skills fade away to old frustrating memories.

Part of a new series, I’ll be looking at skills that I’ve either got already and hope to sharpen up or would love to have. Regular posts will update you on what I’m doing to improve my skills, where I’m succeeded and where I’m failing. Hopefully you can learn a thing or two about the things I’m learning and help me on my quest to learn everything I can.

For the  next 2 months I’ll be working on the following things:

Running

I’ve always been into sports and dabbled in racing here and there but never pushed into it whole hog. Next year is going to be the start of that. A bit of an experiment in itself. I’m signing up for what will be the most races in one year I’ve ever done.  I’m currently planning to do 5 Gutbuster trail runs, 2 Momar Adventure races, 2 Yeti Snowshoe races and 6 road races. I’m sure there will be many more added to the list by the time I’m through with it. If you’re on Vancouver Island, make sure you check out the 2010 Vancouver Island Awesome Event Calender on Pureoutside. It’s a solid start to the list of all the awesome events outdoor events on Vancouver Island next year. I’ll be recounting tales of my adventures running and riding there as well.

Writing

I’ve definitely been off writing lately and am having trouble pinning down my problem. I’m obviously lacking motivation but not sure why. I have been quite busy lately but I hate to use that as an excuse.  After travelling for four months and having a constant flow of interesting topics to write about, sitting around at home seeing the same things and the same people every day seems very bland and hardly worthy of my writing time. I’m starting to realize though that while it may not seem interesting at first, I can make it as interesting as I want. I’m setting out to do that while working on my writing.

Guitar

I’ve wanted to learn guitar for as long as I can remember. I used to think it could never happen. Only certain types of people could learn a musical instrument and I was not one of them. I was doomed to live a life out of sync with anyone that could hold a beat. Then a friend said he was teaching guitar. Something tweaked in my brain. Maybe I could learn to play. Maybe I could actually hold those strings and strum those chords and make it sound better than some dying animal.

I learned half of a Staind song and got bored. Maybe it was the song I was learning. Maybe it was the guitar that made it sound like crap. I didn’t touch a guitar for another 6 years. There is one sitting in the chair next to me and I’ve picked it up a few times. It’s a frustrating start because: A. I’m not musically inclined. I played the recorder in grade 4 and even that was pushin’ it. and B: It hurts my fingers. I’ll cope, I know. I now have incredible respect for anyone that can blow through any number of songs, one after the other without as much as slight wince. Somehow I can run up mountains but can’t hold strings down on a piece of wood. Go figure.

Getting Up Early

I’ve always thought that getting up early is a good idea. Every hour of the day I think, Yes, getting up early, is a great idea. I will start things off right. I’ll get lots of work done. I’ll run and get really fit. Until I have to get up early.

Sometimes it works fine. I’m able to get up and start my day. But sometimes, there’s a part of me that wants to wait until the last possible minute to get out of bed and then run around like a headless chicken before work. I’m not a big fan of the latter style. There’s always that 1 second that the decision to get up takes and if it happens while I’m still half asleep, sleep wins. I’m still working the kinks out of my method for reeling my sleeping mind out of the depths but it’s slowly getting easier.

I’ve found if I can get myself excited for doing something that day, if I can get myself really stoked about one of my projects I’m about to work on, the morning goes much quicker and I actually want to get out of bed.

Save Money

I can almost guarantee that saving money is high up on everyone’s list but there is a reason for it to be on mine. The second I got back from Australia and New Zealand, heck, before I even left for Australia and New Zealand, I knew I wanted to travel again. I’ve had trouble deciding but finally narrowed it down to a few places. Next October I’ll be heading over to France. I’d like to spend as much time as possible there but I think it might be limited because of work and money. I’m going to try hard to get to Germany, Italy and Greece as well.

Having a good time while travelling and, well, travelling itself is expensive and I know I need to start this second to save up for the trip. Having this goal at the end of all the saving makes it so much more worth my while than just “saving money”. I had no problem saving up enough for my last trip to go because I had such a concrete goal and a well-defined plan for saving. That leads to my next goal.

Learning French

I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and after travelling for 4 months the desire to see another continent has become even stronger. Being in Australia and New Zealand was easy because everything was english and very similar to North America. Europe will be different. I’m worried about how much everyone will speak english and how well we’ll get on with only knowing one language. Before we leave next October, I’m hoping to learn as much French as possible. If I can get conversational in French, I’d like to move on to Spanish or German as well. It’s going to be tough but I know it’s going to be worth it.

Worrying Less

I’ve always been an anxious person. I worry about everything all the time.

I’m learning to get a handle on it but it still gets a little out of control on occasion when I’m tired and have a lot to do. I’ve found it helps to relax and focus on what I’m worrying about it and why it worries me. If it’s something I can deal with myself, I get on it, ASAP. If it isn’t, then I put it in the “who cares” bin. Tossing something aside and not caring about it is hard when it could affect your life but sometimes there just isn’t anything you can do.

In trying to worry less, I’ve concluded that my next item is a really good idea.

Drinking Less Coffee

I love the stuff, who doesn’t. Even when it tastes like an old boot fell into the pot at work, I’ll still grab a mug and sing my way to my desk. Well… it doesn’t usually happen that way because I’m tired from staying up too late the night before because I had too much coffee. So aside from giving me a nice shot of wake-me-up in the morning, coffee is nothing but bad news for me. Despite all the advantages of NOT drinking coffee. I still do it. It’s a tough one to get rid of.

I hope you can join me on my adventure to learn everything I possibly can and cross some items off your Life List. Let me know what you’re learning right now and I’ll join you on yours.

* photo courtesy of Windrock Media

I’ve made a list of things that I will get rid of and what I’ve actually gotten rid of. I’ve gotten rid of a weeks’ worth of stuff. I’m falling behind though.

I have to admit it’s hard to stay on track with the things I want to sell. They sit around like I haven’t gotten rid of them. Another issue I’ve run into is actually getting the things out of the house. I’d rather not make a special trip every day to get rid of one bag of things. It just seems like a waste of gas.

I began this challenge just as a way to pare down all the “stuff” I’ve accumulated and simplify my life. It’s turned into more of a necessity now that I’m moving to a new place and really don’t want to carry all of it from one place to another. The fact that I’d have to pay for(in time, effort and gas) to move my junk around really puts things in a different light.

So here is what I got rid of for my first week.

1 bag of clothes.

3 bags of books

An stereo receiver that I was hoping would start magically working again.

A printer that I hadn’t used in a year.

30 magazines that I had touched in over a year. Who looks at magazines again anyways?

A pile of computer parts that were laying around. IDE hard drives definitely aren’t coming back. Recycled!

Recycle It!

I had a hard time convincing myself to make the effort of recycling these things. Wouldn’t it be much easier just to hit a dumpster and toss everything? Yes. But when I thought of all the electronics and computers in landfills these days I couldn’t help but cringe at what we are doing to the environment. Don’t place a heavier burden on the environment but just throwing things out. Sell them. Donate them. Recycle them.

Stay tuned for the next installment of my Minimalism Challenge this week.

Also Check out #5 33 ways to start your day.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about minimalism and how it can greatly benefit your life and that of those around you.

The whole idea is that you live your life with what you need and nothing else. Everything else that you hoard and keep and have to push around all the time is just wasted space, money and time. Basically we waste our lives buying and organizing “stuff”. Yes they might have a use at one time or another but do you really need that amazing doohickey that sits on the shelf most of the time. Or do you really need to spend $200 on that brand new thingamer for your computer?

Save up the money that you don’t spend and go travelling or on an adventure or buy something you really use all the time. Use all that time that you get to read, hang out with friends and family, or do that one thing you’ve always wanted to do but put off.

Dave from The Minimalist Path has just put out a great into eBook, 7 Steps to a Simple Life,  if you are interested in the subject but are unsure of where to start.

To kick off my experiment in minimalism, I’m going to give myself a challenge.

Every day for 1 month, 30 days, I’m going to take something from my bedroom or computer room( both of which are full of things I don’t need) and get rid of it. Getting rid of it entails selling it, giving it away, recycling it or just plain throwing it in the garbage.

I’ve set a few rules for myself to keep things interesting. 4 articles of clothing count as one “thing”. I could spend 2 months getting rid of clothes but abiding by this rule will make sure the most never re-appears back in my closet. Being busy during the day, I’ll allow myself to go out on the weekends to actually get “rid” of these things. 4 Magazines and 2 books also only count as one thing.

What do you think about it? Could you do this for a month?