Live Like a Spartan
Spartans were notorious for living a simple, frugal, minimalist lifestyle. They ate only what they needed, kept their bodies fit, did not spend money wastefully.
A minimalist lifestyle is much more rewarding than the standard consumer lifestyle. To live a minimalist lifestyle you get by on the least amount possible and don’t concern yourself with over-indulgence. That’s gluttony.
It’s quite easy to live like a Spartan. All you need to do is get rid of the junk, the clutter. Go through your belongings and sell or give away anything you don’t absolutely need.
Start small at first, but once you get rid of the junk it can feel quite liberating and you may want to have that feeling again. Great! Do it.
Take a look at your finances and see where you are spending money thoughtlessly and cut back on it. If you’re spending $40 a month on haircuts invest a few bucks on some clippers and cut your own hair. If you’re eating out all the time start actually buying groceries and making your own food. Restaurant food is garbage and will make you fat, quitting it is win-win.
If you’re paying $600 a month on the cool new car sell it and buy yourself a cash car. $2000 a month on rent, move to a less expensive place. It’s not as hard as it sounds. All it takes is the commitment to do it.
We have all been in the situation where we are having a difficult time making our outrageous rent payments, mortgage payments, credit card payments, car payments, lease payments. All for stuff that does not increase our happiness or make our lives better. That shit is like a weight on our shoulders, crushing us little by little. Get rid of all those burdens and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.
How to Start a Business the Spartan Way
Imagine this scenario: a man wants to be self-employed, hates his job and wants to be in business for himself. He feels that he cannot do so because he has so many payments to make there is just no way he can make enough money right away to take care of all those obligations. So he just endures. He keeps at his soul-stealing job so he can keep making those payments, keep consuming, keep himself down.
The opposite scenario is this: a man wants more than anything to start his own business. He feels extremely passionate about it. He will do anything to make to succeed. He has all the same bills and junk to pay for as the other man.
This man, however, is willing to do what it takes. He sells his car that he is making payments on and he buys a cash car. He cuts up his credit cards and is determined never to use them again. He turns off his cable TV, and instead sends the money in to pay off those credit cards. He sells all his extra junk, electronics and so forth, anything that is not absolutely needed he gets rid of. He sells his house and moves into a cheap little apartment. He cooks his own food instead of eating out all the time.
He uses all his energy and resources to make his business work. He doesn’t care about having the latest cool phone, he knows it doesn’t matter. It’s hard but he finally makes his business work. It’s 5 years later and the man is basically retired. His business is on auto-pilot and he is living the good life. The other man who was scared to quit his job is still going into the same miserable job, buying the same miserable junk, living a miserable existence.
It’s hard to leave a steady job knowing you have bills to pay. But is it harder than living a miserable existence dependent completely on someone else?
If you’ve got a job making 50k a year and you have 30k worth of bills per year why not get rid of all those bills, make 20k on your own and live freer and happier?
That’s how you live like a Spartan. Get rid of all the bullshit and live with what you need, not what you have been spoonfed by advertising to think you need.
Simplify your lives, gentlemen. It makes things so much easier.