The thing I wish for everyday is that more people would take their life in their hands and run with it. Life is so short that any day we are not striving to be better or to enjoy it more is a day wasted. Living longer is a goal we should all run towards while making the most of the time we do have on this planet.

7 Minimalist Actions to Live Longer

• Be Care Free – Making sure you have food on the table is important. Stressing over a million things a day should be addressed. Ask yourself each time you feel stressed if what you are being stressed over is that important.
• Walk Further, Drive Less – Going Car-Free is an awesome way to improve your health and reduce stress. Try taking walks to the places within a mile (i.e. the grocery store, gym).
• Simply Disconnect – Take everything that is connected to the outside world away from your life for 30 minutes minimum a day. Here are 7 Simple Ways to Disconnect from Everett Bogue.
• Eat Healthier – There is no reason to take years off your life by ingesting crap. Try a vegan diet to improve your mood and add years to your life. I am going to test this soon.
• Just Relax – There are a million and one things that always need to be done. How about doing nothing for 5 minutes and just relax? A stress free life is a longer one.
• Write – Put that pen to paper daily and get some words out. You will start to relieve stress and tension as you express yourself. It takes 10 minutes daily, but adds years to your mental capacity.
• Be Active – Run around. Be a kid. Climb a mountain. Run a race. Do something outside daily to gain health benefits and enjoy the benefits of a beautiful landscape.

These 7 tips are not confusing or difficult or too challenging. They are just actions we tend to overlook daily. Apply them to your life and make this life the best. It is your only one.

David Damron
The Minimalist Path

Let me start by saying that this will be my last eBook review for the next 30 days as I work on a few other exciting projects. I love reviewing great products by people I follow religiously. However, I feel like I am killing you all with a new eBook review every week. By no means do I think this eBook is not worthy of being reviewed here. But I want to make sure all of you are getting what you ask for here at TMP.

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Don’t feel like reading my glorification of Adam Baker. Fine…..Just click here to get your copy of Unautomate Your Finances

I started following Adam Baker around August 2009 at ManVsDebt. I must say, the reason I began following him was due to my love for his title. I know, LAME, but true. However, after reading about 2 posts, I realized his site was much more than some gimmicky marketing ploy to get me to buy something. In the early months of following ManVsDebt, Adam Baker drew me in with posts like How NOT to Suck at Blogging & Tyler Durdern’s Guide to Personal Finance. However, the best article I have read at ManVsDebt and still in the TOP 5 of favorite blog posts EVER is 42 Ways to Radically Simplify Your Financial Life. 42 Ways was a great piece of work because it exemplifies minimalist finances. It addresses the need for reform within your home life without telling you impossible ways of achieving financial freedom. I want EVERYONE here to check out that article. It is powerful, practical, and usable.

As ManVsDebt has grown in not just the personal finance world but the blogging world, Baker has stayed grounded. Still maintaining the same principles of the early days, Baker has built a modest following that he relates well to in each post. Baker isn’t some financial adviser looking to may commission on your assets without doing much work. He is living YOUR life and shows you how to improve your financial situation without looking down on you or any of his readers.

Today, Adam Baker is taking a giant leap towards generating even more personal financial success for ManVsDebt and for all of you. How you ask? By making you spend more of your money on his new eBook entitled Unautomate Your Finances. (Wouldn’t it be great if I just ended the review there?) Baker’s eBook is something I have been waiting for quite some time. He promised it back in November and then again in December. Needless to say, I was irate and demanded a finished a copy be up for sale March 9th. After my demands were heard, Baker got to work on the final draft and just in time for my deadline.

What You Will Learn…

• A Foreword by the one and only Leo Babauta
• Core Action Steps that will help you get sh** done
• Financial Rules you may not have realized you should be living by
• Guide to doing your finances instead of just guessing
• Budget Worksheet
• Calculate how much money you really make.
• Adopt a 2-page minimalist budgeting system you can stick to (Oooooh…I heart minimalist practice)
• I could really go on, but I will let Baker do that…

What You Won’t Learn…

• How to pick up Playboy Models…(I am still working on that guide)
• Best places to sign up for credit cards and how to get a free beer bong
• How to become the next Eminem
  
• Whether to take the red pill or the blue pill in the Matrix

Despite missing those last few things, I think this eBook by Adam Baker of ManVsDebt is great for everyone who needs financial guidance. If you are so wealthy that you could care less about “unautomating your personal finances” than feel free to go pick up PROJECT M-31 just for the heck of it.

I hope all of you get a chance to check out Baker’s eBook. It is great!!!

Click Here to Get Your Copy of Unautomate Your Finances by Adam Baker

* Yes, there are affiliates links here. My girlfriend says I need to take her out more often so any commission will help.

David Damron

Back in the post 15 Ways to Become a Minimalist in 2010, from January, I mentioned I was going to discuss a topic as the title Pray LESS & Do MORE entails. This may end up being the most controversial article at The Minimalist Path, but please do read through the entire article with an open mind. Before jumping to crucify me, I, by no means, am saying that you should give up your religious or spiritual practices altogether. This article is not a religious bashing one. I simply want to help you improve your productivity.

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If you haven’t yet, click here to check out PROJECT M-31 …

Now, enjoy the article below….

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Until the age of 18, I strongly followed the Catholic faith while obtaining my kindergarten through twelfth grade education at private Catholic schools. Throughout this time, I learned life skills that I still apply today. With those skills, I learned that if anything was wrong, I could turn to the heavens and ask God for help.  This habit hindered my growth and development. It wasn’t until I minimalized my prayer and took action towards life solutions that I began to see more progress at accomplishing my goals.

I have been an atheist for 8 years. For me, doing this allowed for focus towards accomplishments to grow. By PRAYING LESS, I started to realize I could and should DO MORE. My religious up-bringing was helpful in that it generated positive relationships and understanding. However, the prayer always seemed to be my way of establishing an excuse and blaming another. Whenever something wrong occurred to me, I would pray to the heavens and hope that my wishes would come true. Often, I relied on this god to “answer my prayers” and they ended up not coming true. By no fault to any god, man or woman was this, but my own. I was the reason my accomplishments were not as I dreamed. My actions or lack thereof generated what ended up being predictable results.

When those entering the world of minimalism think of becoming a minimalist, much of the focus is on the physical things in life. What we, as minimalists or those just looking to simplify the chaos of our lives, must understand is that our thoughts, manners, beliefs, and actions can also be simplified. If we take more accountability for our success or failure and not rely on others as much, we can minimalize unproductive time and maximize all actions.

This article is not meant to down religious beliefs. It is to point out that despite all of our hopes and dreams, there is no one but the person in the mirror that will light the fire of progress or, in this case, productivity. It is up to you and I to make success a reality. The longer we wait for our prayers to be answered, the likelier it is they won’t.

Please do share your thoughts in the comments section…

My apologies for going over 400 words….

David Damron
The Minimalist Path