Whenever I walk into a Muji store, I become like a kid in a toy shop. I love gawking at the simplicity of the products, how there aren’t any fancy flowers or frills, how they don’t try to dress up for the occasion, how they don’t need to prove they’re ‘better’ than anyone else. Each Muji product seems to say “I am here to fulfil my purpose, that is all”.

discover your purpose

Everyone has a purpose in life. Unfortunately, not everyone achieves it. Many don’t even know what their ‘life purpose’ is. To them, a life purpose is something abstract and new-agey, to others “a big house” or “a million dollars” is a good answer, but if you ask them “how?” or “and then what?”, they’re stumped.

For me, my purpose is to have lasting lifetime happiness. How do I do it? I try to center my life around the things I care about the most.

What’s important to you?

• friends and family
• being able to go anywhere
• being as green as possible
• leaving a positive impact on people
• not being in debt
• seeing places
• doing what you love
• being content
• following your dream

Minimalism can help you achieve any of these and more because you won’t be focused on the extra stuff that doesn’t really matter, like what your neighbours think, how big a bank account number is or how many heads you can turn with a flashy car.

discover your own brand of minimalism

Minimalism is different for everyone. For some people, it means having a beautiful, tidier, smaller house. For others it means having 100 things. There’s mild minimalism, there’s extreme minimalism, and loads in between, but none are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. They all have one thing in common, whatever your aim, minimalism ultimately means having a better quality of life.

If doing something improves your life in some way, (like getting rid of a shed of junk), that is minimalism. But if getting rid of something that you truly treasure makes you unhappy, just don’t do it, there’s no ‘minimalist handbook’ — you write your own.

So how do you know when you’re on the right tracks? I think inside, you’ll know if what your doing is right because:

• it saves you time and money which you can spend with friends and family
• …or gaining valuable experiences
• you’re doing what you’ve always wanted to do
• it moves you closer to a lifetime goal
• you are following your purpose
• you’re helping the environment
• you have found balance and contentment

When ‘minimalism’ is not so good:

• you’re afraid to spend money
• you don’t want to do things that will make it difficult to let go
• it’s making you unhappy
• it’s hindering you
• you depend on something outside of yourself for happiness

You might not know immediately what your brand of minimalism is, but that’s okay. As long as you get started somehow, you can learn and adjust until you find it.

Just like those Muji notebooks, your own brand of minimalism should help you fulfil your purpose. Discover what that is, then go for it with everything you have, no frills attached.