Saying that the modern culture is ubiquitous in hyper connectivity and ridden with endless productivity is almost an understatement these days.
But there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be productive for our sense of personal achievement or to achieve the next career milestone.
The moment when it gets concerning is when you pull yourself too thin and take on everything that comes your way (that was me, I’m guilty).
Sometimes it can feel hard to minimise our way of life as we gear ourselves to be productive everyday.
We all have professional career goals that we chase and the aspiration to make an impact in any way we can. But there’s a difference between focusing on your genuine career goals and taking on so many projects that we can end up less productive than we think.
So today I’ll be introducing to you the concept of the applying the minimalist mindset to our careers.
In this article, we learn the concept of minimalism, discover its benefits and learn how the art of minimising is a way towards achieving maximum gain for our goals.
1. Honestly, what is the minimalist mindset?
Okay seriously, what is the deal with minimalism?
Minimalism is regularly esteemed as the physical practice of decluttering and acquiring things that bring value to your life.
But I’m here to tell you that it’s so much more than the obvious.
Minimalism is a way of life, an experience, a practice to live consciously and live abundantly (yes it’s possible, even without having a bunch of items in your home).
Sometimes it can feel like we want more things, in order to feel more accomplished. But it is much rather the opposite.
Minimalism can be described as a lifestyle practice and mindset that enables you to reevaluate various aspects of your life (and physical space) to focus on the important things. By focusing on the important things, you make more space, time and energy to do more of what matters, and remove any unnecessary distractions.
2. So how does the minimalist mindset make sense for my work?
Great question. Simple.
Minimalism for your everyday work will benefit you more than you think.
The idea is to discover what is meaningful and important to you.
There’s a misconception about careers. They are perceived as quite linear and you are expected to do what everyone is doing. This is emphasised through climbing the ladder or to reach a certain level at age X.
Contrary to what some people think, there aren’t any specific rules to the world of careers. They are usually informed by society and self-imposed beliefs we place on ourselves.
I had my share from breaking into a whole new industry and following a linear structure. Simply because I felt that was the logical thing to do. But technically there is no official board of how a career works, or some sort of measure to determine whether you’re doing it right.
Our outlook on careers looks different for everyone.
This is where I found the concept of minimalism helpful. There is no one way to approach the idea of minimalism either.
The general rule of thumb is to define a handful of meaningful things in your life and focus on that.
By applying the minimal lens to the world of careers, we can begin to evaluate what we want out of careers. Example:
- What does a career mean to me?
- What are my goals for work?
- Do I want to climb the linear role hierarchy? If so, will it add to my fulfillment?
- What am I in it for? Professional growth?
- What does the future look like for me?
- Is what I am currently doing aligning with what my future self will look like?
Minimalism is an effective tool for living a meaningful life but also enabling you to approach your career goals intentionally.
In the end, minimalism is not focused on removing everything in your life, but about actively making intentional choices about what things really matter to you and your career.
3. What the minimalist mindset taught me in my career
So what did I learn and what’s the point of it all?
I regard myself as highly ambitious and can easily get hooked on the Shiny Object Syndrome.
After my big career pivot, I obsessed over with trying so many things, chasing multiple goals that eventually I spread myself quite thin.
Overtime, it became concerning because really, there is only one of me. Going out of my way to say ‘yes’ to every opportunity out there was not sustainable.
While it’s good to expose myself to many possible experiences and expand my learning, it would also mean juggling many plates and context switch like crazy. But how could I manage it all? I’m human after all.
It became unrealistic. So I consulted the book ‘Essentialism’ by Greg Mckeown and explored the minimalist lifestyle for my career goals.
It seemed like an overwhelming challenge at first as I was confronted with untangling my life, built around consuming so many things and having a plethora of goals.
There’s nothing wrong with having multiple goals.
But there’s a difference between having goals for the sake of, and having goals that are meaningful to you.
By evaluating current and future goals and finding out which goals hold higher significance, I slowly found that my choices were more conscious and intentional.
My energy was purely focused on working on things that truly mattered in the long term.
The choices I made slowly fabricated a mental muscle that fundamentally changed the way I approached the definition of careers and the way I lived my life.
Most of all, minimalism taught me the courage to go after what I want and what is really valuable. I became conscious of the external factors I faced along the way, any projects coming my way, and made decisions based on my sense of purpose.
Synonymous with essentialism, minimalism encourages focusing on the significant things to achieve a larger sense of fulfillment.
Minimalism accentuates the notion that it’s not about following societal standards, linear career paths or the like. It’s about deciding what is important to you, so you can pursue a meaningful career.
So how can you get started with minimalism from a career perspective?
My biggest advice is to begin evaluating what is important to you and discover what you envision your future to be.
Try not to overwhelm yourself with too many things at once, start small. Taking the first step is already the best way to move forward on something that feels like a substantial change.
Imagine and visualise your future. Sift out the things that do not matter and focus on the things that are most note-worthy in life.
