Everett Bogue is the author of the newly released ebook The Art of Being Minimalist, and is the brilliant writer behind the minimalism blog Far Beyond the Stars. I had the honor of asking Everett a few questions about his minimalist life.

Q: What turned you on to minimalism?

Everett: While I’ve always lived a semi-minimalist lifestyle, I’ve always had very few things, but I went all out with embracing the philosophy this summer. A lot of the decision came from my desire to leave the job I was working at (I photo edited New York Magazine’s blogs for three years) and I also needed to leave New York.

I read some great modern texts on Buddhism, such as Chögyam Trungpa and Thich Nhat Hanh, which influenced my thinking. I also began studying Yoga Asana practice often during the year leading up to my departure, and that philosophy impacted the way I look at the world.

It’s so important to have a direct relationship with every aspect of the world that came through my existence. Material objects, food, relationships, work–everything is interwoven. By eliminating the clutter I began to see what was important and how to interact correctly with that which passes through my existence.

I began to realize that having the smallest impact on everything, including myself, would bring about the existence that I wanted. Which at its very heart, is living with a small footprint and the ability to be free enough to do great things.

Q: What steps have you taken in your life to be more minimalist?

Everett: This past year my idea of being minimalist has shifted a great deal. I began to realize that being minimalist was more than just ridding myself of personal possessions, that the philosophy could be used to un-complicate more than just what I was carrying.

There are ways to eat in a healthy minimalist fashion, there are ways to un-complicate my thoughts and my body. There are ways to make relationships more transparent and thus less inundated by complexity.

Q: How has minimalism helped you better deal with issues such as stress, happiness, and achieving success?

Everett: There’s no question that adopting a strictly minimalist philosophy across every aspect of my life has led me to avoiding a lot of stress in my life. The most important possessions I own are always with me, so I don’t need to worry about my house burning down while I’m off exploring some distant place.

I believe the key to success is being flexible enough in your life to be able to search out that which you can be successful at. A lot of people build up their lives to a level where they’re just not sustainable unless they ’settle’ for a job that they aren’t happy with. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of what is possible by adopting a completely minimalist lifestyle.

By making your life cost less, you’re free to pursue the goals and ambitions that you actually have, because you can dodge a lot of the societal obligations that keep people from being able to pursue what they are really passionate about.

Q: How has minimalism helped you live location-independent in a post-geographical world?

Everett: Being minimalist has helped a lot. I never would have been able to leave my job in recession and transition into a location-independent life as easily if I had held on to the life I was living when I had the job.

I had to give up some things, like expensive and unnecessary nights out on the town drinking, and a 40-pound strobe light kit that I hardly ever used. However, the benefits of being free to change my location whenever I wish outweighs everything that I left behind.

Every month I have more location-nonspecific income than the last, so I anticipate the freedom to move around will only become easier than it was initially.

Q: What one piece of advice would you give someone who desires to live a location-independent lifestyle?

Everett: Start figuring out what you’re passionate about and make every professional action you take lead to closer to being able to work on that passion.

There’s a lot of preconceived notions of success that have bled over from the last generation into ours. These are vestiges of a workforce which was structured around a factory concept that is rapidly becoming irrelevant. Take a look at giant failing factory companies like GM and the large media conglomerates like Conde Nast, and you’ll begin to see the cracks forming in the way work was structured in the past.

The biggest advice I can give is to stop trying to live like the generation before us. These people were tied to their jobs because they had no other options. They had to play the corporate game, because that was the only way they were going to get a message out and get paid. Instantaneous communication tools are slowly eradicating the realities that the last generation had to deal with. There’s no longer a need to pander to these pre-existing systems.

The internet has changed everything, and people are slowly beginning to catch on to this fact.

• You don’t need a publisher to get a book out.
• You don’t need to pay your dues in Hollywood to make a movie that will impact lives.
• You don’t need to work at a newspaper to have your story read.
• You don’t need to be a manager at a Starbucks to run a coffee shop.

If you aren’t already, start contributing value to the work you do immediately. You will be supported in any endeavor, if you’re willing to harness the tools (like Twitter and blogs) that are available to create value for other people.

Also, you have to stop spending so much money, because initially you’re going to be broke. Make your life sustainable enough that you can live on less per year, and you’ll have the freedom to build projects which will eventually lead you to making much more money than you are now.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with Far Beyond the Stars?

Everett: I launched Far Beyond The Stars because I know a lot of people who have overly complicated lives. I can see the toll it takes on a person to deal with the clutter and the complication they build up over time.

We all live in an age of over-abundance. A three-dollar knockoff of everything that we could ever want is at our fingertips, the problem is that most people choose to buy thousands of three-dollar knockoffs. People are choosing to fill their lives with stuff, because they can have everything they ever wanted. The majority of the people in this country just aren’t filtering out what is decreasing the value of their lives.

I hope that I’ll inspire a handful people to make the changes in their lives, so that they can enjoy the benefits that come from living a minimalist life.

Q: Last question, is there any significance to the title “Far Beyond the Stars?”

Everett: “Far Beyond The Stars” is the title of an inspiring story about an author who dared to write about a subject that meant something to people, and was punished for it.

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Don’t forget to follow Everett on Twitter at @evbogue.

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