February 2012
34 posts
Where do I go from here?
I cannot put into words what I have felt and experienced this month, so what I did was wrote down a few words that come to mind as I sit here in reflect.
Over the past month I have made an effort to transform my life into a better one. Along with this came an overwhelming amount of emotions and feelings that made me question myself and my intentions everyday. And this kept leading me back to...
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Looking Ahead
No video blog for me today, I’ve caught the flu bug that’s been floating around and any video would probably result in me just coughing and sneezing all over the camera. But, a blog nonetheless!
As has been mentioned, we’re very quickly approaching the end of February. And as we head into March, we’re looking at what challenges we want to keep doing, what we want to add,...
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It's All Right, Ma, I'm Only Bleedin'
This past week has probably been the most transcendental of the entire month of February. Just one week ago I felt like I had hit rock bottom with this project. I felt alone—isolated—angry—upset—so many emotions but none of them proud or strong or anything else that one should be feeling as a result of such intense life changes.
I should be proud of the changes I have made to my life. I should...
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Josh gets featured in The State News for living... →
It’s great to see people noticing our lifestyle changes. Granted, Josh has been living this way for a while now, but since the Thrive With Less project began, people have been turning their heads. Check out the article!
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a simple question:
I’ve been having this persistent thought over the past few weeks and these last couple of days it has grown much stronger. Matt, Colin, Jaclyn, Ryan, Mo and I are challenging ourselves to live minimally in 6 specific aspects of our lives. And people have started to notice. It’s been so cool to see our classmates and friends responding to what we’re doing. Questions are being...
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It's not about me.
One thing I’ve learned the last couple of weeks from this project is that it’s not about me. It’s not about what I do or don’t do, it’s not about how I execute the challenges, balance my life or keep up with this world that is whirling around me. Because I can’t. I can’t be defined by these things because I constantly fail…There has to be something more.
In my last post I asked the question of...
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2 weeks in
So we are officially 2 weeks into our February challenges and for me that is exactly what it has been. A challenge. Similar to what I said last week I have been struggling with these challenges. For me the hardest thing has been not being able to fully embrace these challenges.
Trying to make these changes in my life has taken me out of my comfort zone because its something new and something...
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Guest Blogger: Ellen J.
Okay, so this is my first blog EVER! haha I’m Ellen. I’m an 18-year-old at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and I’m from St Paul. I heard about Thrive With Less through a Facebook link that Colin posted. I read “The Challenges,” and I absolutely fell in love with it and thought it seemed refreshing, and almost cleansing. So I made a few challenges for myself:
Cut down my wardrobe to...
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Community.
Here’s a great moment from this past week. I needed my cello on campus today along with my regular backpack, so I strapped one on my back and one on my front. Despite feeling pregnant and catching all the wind gusts, it was great. And the odd looks as I passed cars was quite fun.
Passions. This project has united six people that, for the most part, didn’t know each other just one...
Questions.
It’s been just over one week since the February challenge has started…. I’ve emptied my closet, Mo took all of her clothes home, Matt & Colin made a cardboard wall, Ryan jumped into the Red Cedar and Josh is being challenged in ways he never would have imaged. Wow! What an awesome week! I’ve come to realize that for everything I’ve learned or figured out this...
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Guest blogger: Andrea M.
Today’s blog come’s not from one of us, but from someone in the community who has decided to join in our project as well! Andrea is a friend of Jaclyn’s and has been inspired by our project and thus has decided to also get involved. Here are her thoughts on the challenge so far.
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Hey Everyone!
My name is Andrea and I...
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Great starts here
“great starts here!” - one of my four shirts for the month. It’s only day four, and already this project is pushing me to places I didn’t think it would. Honestly my mindset coming into this was that it would be a journey about living minimally in relation to materialism and spending habits. Both of which have been pretty present in my life over the past few years: I hardly ever eat...
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Disconnecting materially in order to gain...
I don’t think I have cared about anything in a long time much the way I care about Thrive With Less. This documentary— this journey both on film and within myself— it’s so important to me.
I’m incredibly excited to see what my character will bring as I embark in the first month of my minimalist lifestyle. I think the hardest challenge I will face will be sticking to...
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On the brink
Much of my focus in growing as a filmmaker in years past has involved getting the “big gig.” How high could I climb in the ranks? Could I have the biggest clients? Could I get paid truckloads of cash for making videos? For a while, yes… Yes, I was raking in tons of money producing videos for bigger clients than I could have ever dreamed about. I boarded a private plane time and...
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Starting something new
This week marks the beginning of what should be one of the most interesting things I’ve done with my life thus far. I, along with my five classmates, are beginning going to attempt to change some things about our lives and learn about others for the rest of the semester as we attempt to live a more moderate lifestyle.
If you’ve managed to find our website, I hope you’ve learned a little bit about...
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Time for Change
Growing up I got so caught up in wanting the “newest” and “coolest” things that my life began to fill up with material possessions and clutter and that made me lose sight of what was truly important to me. When I started working on this project I was able to take a step back and reevaluate my life. In doing so I have realized that I need to change. I need to change so I can better my life. I need...
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Something great.
Tomorrow is the start of something great. And scary. And hard. But definitely great.
What I’m excited about…
~Spending less $
~More time with friends & family
~Not getting on Facebook
~Being productive
~Being more active i.e. Walking/riding my bike more
~Spending more time with this wonderful group of people
~Blogging
~Cooking more
~Becoming detached from my material...
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Where did this come from?
Two summers ago I had the great opportunity to live with my oldest brother in Denver, CO. I didn’t know it at the time, but it would go on to be a very formative period of time for me. Before this summer I often had thoughts of living with less and had even streamlined certain aspects of my life, but seeing others truly living out a simpler life caused me to re-examine myself and make a...
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The One-Month Challenge
So… it’s official. On February 1st we (Colin, Jaclyn, Josh, Matt, Mo, and Ryan) start our one-month challenge to live minimally. It’s our hope that in this month our mindsets change and we realize that it is in fact possible for college students to live minimally in an excess world. Ultimately, we want to take away lifelong lifestyle changes from this month of living minimally,...
