What Matters Now

by Raymund Tamayo

I just turned 47 years old last month. 

I don't say that because I think that turning 47 suddenly makes a person wise. It doesn't, at least for me. I'm still figuring things out, and probably more than I'd like to admit. The more I know, the more I feel that I don't know. But I've lived long enough to notice some things.

I've made my own mistakes, changed my mind about quite a few things, and learned from experiences that I didn't necessarily have to go through myself. Some of the things I've learned all these years came from simply watching other people, their choices, their successes, their regrets, and sometimes the consequences of spending years chasing things that didn't really matter.

I've also been a minimalist since 2011.

When I first encountered minimalism, I started with my clothes. I reduced my wardrobe to just 33 items, including watches and shoes. Eventually, I pared down all of my possessions to 100 pieces. Then I started applying the same principle to other parts of my life.

I looked at the activities I was doing, the commitments I was making, and even my relationships. I began asking a simple question: Is this essential to the life I want to live?

But my approach to minimalism was always tied to something else: purpose.

I didn't want to simply own less. I wanted to make room for the things that mattered. So I learned to say no to things that I felt weren't aligned with my purpose. The problem was, I eventually discovered that purpose isn't something you necessarily find once and keep forever. It's a continuing journey.

What matters to you at 30 may not be what matters at 47. And what matters at 47 may change again. That's the way life is; it's an endless cycle of changes. For me, discovering my purpose is still a work in progress, and I consider it a blessing if any of us gets to understand our purpose within our lifetime.

That's also why I still practice minimalism.

I'm no longer as interested in counting my possessions. What I'm trying to pare down now are the things that take up space in my life without adding anything meaningful to it. I'm trying to keep what is essential to my health, my relationships, my personal growth, and my ability to contribute to others.

And this is where I think the concept of "enough" comes in. I have been thinking a lot about this concept these days.

For years, I thought minimalism was about having less. These days, I think it's more about knowing what is enough. Because, as I've learned as a hard lesson in the past, more isn't always better.

We can spend years chasing more money, more success, more recognition, more possessions, only to realize that we've given away something far more valuable in exchange: our time, our peace of mind, our most precious relationships, or even ourselves.

I've seen it happen too many times to too many people. I've felt parts of it in my own life, too.

I don’t have a concrete guide to having less, finding your purpose, or figuring out what is enough. Right now, I think it really depends on the person himself or herself. I don't have a formula for a life well lived, and I'm certainly not presenting myself as someone who has figured everything out. I simply have thoughts and insights from someone who has spent so many years asking what really matters.

And at 47, I'm still asking.

But perhaps that's one of the things I've learned. You don't have to have all the answers right now to know that some questions are worth asking. And for now, one of those lingering in my mind is this: How much is really enough?