The Minimalist Revolution

By H. K. Ahmed

Do you find yourself endlessly running after things that you buy on a whim, intending for them to quench that insatiable thirst inside of you?

Is your living space filled with items that have started to collect dust because you don't have enough time to use all of them?

Are you dissatisfied that your life has become an accumulation of all sorts of stuff, tangible or not, that do not really add value to who you are?

If YES typifies your answer to these questions, then you may find yourself bogged down by the things that you think you own, but in reality, they POSSESS you. You are on a continual loop of getting and collecting things that you feel you need but in truth you don't.

It's time to seize back CONTROL and TAKE CHARGE. These things, materially or mentally, do not define and own YOU. In fact, if you give it some serious thought, it may be that most of them you can actually do without.

 

By choosing to live INTENTIONALLY and cutting back on stuff that don't ultimately matter in the grand scheme of things, you can be SET FREE from the shackles of consumerism. You will ENJOY a life where you get to live MORE by needing LESS. You will be on the road towards MINIMALISM and will definitely have fun while at it.

 

This book will take you on a journey to living a life of GENUINE SATISFACTION, letting go of the material things that most people will consider a source of happiness. Steer your life in another direction. Turn that page and start your WONDROUS TRIP.

• Language: English
• Publisher: H. K. Ahmed
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393607342

H. K. Ahmed

H. K. Ahmed is of British descent but had a South East Asian upbringing. While exposed to both cultures, he developed his unique approach to life especially when it comes to hard work and the true meaning of success. He takes after his parents, who studied in Bangladesh but moved on to live a new life in England to provide better opportunities for their children. Living in a foreign country only brought out their intense desire to overcome challenges and become successful. Despite their material prosperity borne out of pure toil, his parents were generous people who open their lives to those who are in need of any type of support, while not failing to continually provide for their family. H.K. Ahmed grew up in this family culture that transcended any type of environment that he was raised in. The author is as selfless as his parents as he was involved in youth work to extend help to family and friends alike. As a full-time professor, now that he is in Africa to teach, he has an excellent platform by which to influence other people, especially the young minds, to pursue a life that exemplifies real accomplishment. The typical trappings of success, as people across the globe define it by way of material wealth, is not a genuine representation of what it means to truly live a prosperous life. For H.K. Ahmed and his family, having a minimalist lifestyle, living more by having less, is the most excellent way to go. H. K. Ahmed is a strong advocate of a minimalist mindset and a fierce believer of the need for a paradigm shift in terms of society’s views on material success. Most of the billionaires we know today are people who stay true to their roots and do not show off what they have achieved in life.  The author encourages people across the world to clear their lives of clutter and live stress free, by refusing to accumulate things that do not really add value to one’s life. His books are meant to give its readers a fresh view on success, living more by owning less, humility in the midst of triumph, and being others-focused instead of being overly concerned about self-image. They are eye-openers that guide us to embrace the minimalist revolution that is much needed in our world today.

Book preview

Introduction

There are no two ways about it: we live in a world that is heavily influenced by a materialistic culture. People make all sorts of judgments about your character and values based on the clothes you wear, the house you live in, and the kind of job you have. It seems that the modern ethos involves four words that are sure to drive people to the limit. We're always told to go for something bigger, faster, newer, and better. If we can't, there's something wrong with us.

We're all expected to keep up with the trend through advertising, mass media, and social expectations. We are taught to upgrade our lives continually. Of course, this leveling up is usually expected to take the form of consumer goods. For instance, once you graduate from college and land your first job, you're supposed to live in your starter house. This place is where you are supposed to strive to settle down and have a family. After a few more years, you're meant to move on to a larger house and maybe add a second car in the garage.

Repeat this process through the 20 to 30 years of your career, and you have in the space of one sentence, The Dream aka success. It has been the formula for most since the end of World War II. It took the Great Financial Crash of 2008 to get people to stop in their tracks and take a cold hard look at the life they're assumed to follow. This time is the beginning of all sorts of generational revelations and realizations about The Dream.

It turns out that not all that glitters is gold. For the high material standard of living, which the United States and many parts of the Western world have attained, people have paid a very high price. It appears that while we have satisfied the lower rungs of Maslow's needs hierarchy, we remain stuck. We stay focused on the physical plane. Of course, I am talking about money, financial security, shelter, food, and sexual fulfillment.

It seems that we have arrived at the stage where we have not bothered to go up the higher levels to achieve self-actualization while we have taken care of our most basic needs.  This sense of emptiness has overtaken so many people. Many of today's modern technologies only serve to feed this feeling of desolation and lack of purpose. You only need to open the social media apps on your mobile device to get a clearer understanding of what I'm talking about.

When you look at the newsfeed of people you follow on social media, you can't help but feel envious. You are not alone. This anxiety is well documented. How can you not feel anxious when you're constantly comparing yourself with other people? When you look at their timelines, you're not matching their best with your best. Please understand that when somebody posts an update on their Facebook page, they're usually going to put something that highlights what is going well in their life. They will post about an achievement, a vacation, or something that they can be proud of.

However, when you are looking at these things, like other people, you're thinking about your worries. You're obsessing about what is missing in your life. What is the net effect? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you're comparing the wrong, missing, defective, or problematic things in your life with the best that is going on in everybody else's. How does this make you