[music]
Hello! It's been a very long time since I
did a living simply video and I thought
one was overdue because there's
something there's a little bit topical
at the moment and I wanted to talk about
that this week. Now, a lot of people
embrace the minimalist lifestyle, living
simply, call it what you will, including
myself, and a lot of my friends and I
recently, we've been discussing something
that people haven't really considered or
they don't really talk about much in
YouTube videos or in blogs and things,
That's what I want to talk about today
and that is quite simply is what my
friends and I call the the 'Now What?'
syndrome. Let me explain what that is.
Normally the reason that people will
embrace a minimalist lifestyle is
because they're overwhelmed by something
in their life, they may be overwhelmed with
all the stuff they have, with having too
many things to d, too much stuff in
their life, too many commitments... and they
want to strip that away and live more
simply. And that becomes a mission for
people it, becomes a big project, and that
project could be something quite big
like moving out of your house selling
all your furniture, selling everything,
buying a van and taking off and hitting
the open road. Or it could just be a
weekend where you clear out the garage.
But generally there is a project
involved, and what I wanted to mention is
that most people don't look beyond the
project. So I have a friend who is
looking at moving back to the UK into
his flat after 20-25 years. In his mind
he was building up the project: 'Oh yes
I'm going to do this and I'm gonna
decorate it this way and I'm gonna
enroll myself on this course and I'm
going to do that...' and I said to him: 'When
you've done all that and we've had all
the excitement of moving you back to
your flat we've decorated it and it's
all great and then the last person
leaves and you close the door ,then what?'
Now that is what we call the 'Now What?'
syndrome; you've created this big project
and you've seen it through... and then what?
Now a lot of people out there will say:
'Oh well that now means that you can
concentrate
on the things that are important to you.'
and that's all well and good up to a
point. But we all know that you can have
too much of a good thing. Now I
realised in my own personal
circumstances that what I was doing was
I was either driving filming engaging on
social media or editing or writing... and
that's all I was doing. And then if I had
any spare time I would fill it by
filming something or taking a photo or
going on my phone... social media. One thing
I think, one of the byproducts, not just
of minimalism but of this generation is
addiction to smartphones and I will hold
my hands up and I fill way too much of
my time when I'm not working
looking at my smartphone. But generally
people who live simply, embrace
minimalist lifestyle, end up throwing
themselves at their work. They're doing
something creative like I am and they
love doing it like I love doing it,
but you end up - that's all you end up
doing! Because if you don't do that, you
put the computer away, and then you think
'now what?'  because you've got nothing else,
because you've got rid of everything
else! And that is something that I just
wanted people to be aware of, this 'now
what?' syndrome. It could be after a
project, or it could simply be you've
stripped away all the distractions to
focus on what you want to focus on, and
the trouble is when you don't want to do
that anymore, when you don't want to look
at screen anymore,
you don't want to go outside and do
whatever is your passion is, now what? And
that is really what this is all about,
it's just to be aware of that
'now what' syndrome. So you sell everything
up, you sell your house, you move into a
van you hit the road and generally after
about six weeks... that's how long it takes
to adjust to the lifestyle... after six
weeks you will probably wake up one
morning look at another beautiful beach
and then just think: 'Well now what? How am
I going to fill my day? What am I going
to do?' and how I've got around that
is what I want to talk about in the next
part of this video.  Okay, so having
discussed the Now What Syndrome, this is
the way that I
got around it. I would notice towards
the end of last year I was going around
Spain and Portugal on a touring trip, and
it was good fun but all I did was work,
and if I didn't work I had a migraine.
That's all, that's all I did.
And I thought 'I need to do something
else.'
I went out to the Outer Hebrides in
January to go and get some downtime, and
what was interesting then is I thought
'Okay, what do I enjoy doing most?' and what
I really enjoy doing most is taking this
dog
Dougal (who's off-screen, he's a bit shy) I
enjoy taking him out on long walks.
That's all well and good if number one
I'm in full working order, and number two
it's nice weather out there to take him.
But generally at five o'clock on a
January evening in North Uist when the
rain is horizontal, you don't take the
dog out and secondly I've got an injury
that's reinflamed, a kitesurfing injury. It
means I can't walk very far at the
moment. So I'm thinking 'well what else
can I do?'
It was at this point that YouTube
offered me up a video and it was by a
channel called SDJR7F88 (rolls off the
tongue) a lovely guy called Callum, and
he had built a micro model railway
layout in a wrapping paper box. I've
never seen anything like this before, I
was hooked! I will link to that video in
the description below this one. And I
thought 'what a fantastic idea!' So one
thing led to another and I thought 'You
know what, why don't I build a model
railway layout in a box that you can
take touring with you in a caravan or a
camper van?' So that's what I set my mind
to. I got my friend Ken to make up some
boards for me that would stack into a
box and my plan is to build a little
layout where they can bolt together, and
what I'm loving about getting back into
model railways is the fact that you can
do so much of it without a screen and
it's not just about grown men playing
trains... this is very topical at the
moment as a lot of you will know because
model railways have been in the news
again this week in a story that started
off as a tragedy and has ended up as
a wonderful story, and that is a lot of
you know about the Market Deeping model
railway Club. They had all their layouts
vandalised, smashed up by vandals last
weekend, and it provoked so much public
outrage a JustGiving page was set up
and they've raised at the moment 80,000
pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a
hundred thousand by the time you watch
this video, so once again good has
triumphed over evil. But what's been so
interesting is the media coverage of
this has shown the folk that were
affected as, quite rightly, as gentle folk.
That was the adjective that media used
about modern railway enthusiasts, what
they were, just gentle folk going about
their hobby. Perceptions have changed and
I think people now realise that to take
up a hobby like model railways to get
over that 'now what' factor is something
that's far-reaching, it's not just grown
men playing trains, and what I've so much
enjoyed recently as a lot of you will
know if you watch this channel is
researching... researching Scottish
railways. At the moment we're at Brora
Caravan and Motorhome Club site. Fantastic
Beach over there for Dougal, so when
we're not taking Dougal for a walk on
the beach I've been into Brora
and been looking at the goods shed there,
because I think that would be great to
model. I've done some creative projects
already where I bought on some old
wagons that didn't have roofs and I've
mixed my own paints - I got some cheap
paints in an art supply shop for £4
for the lot - mixed them all up, got the
correct shade of brown that I wanted,
painted up these wagons... I've restored
an old Hornby coach of mine from the
1970s, it's been terrific fun. It's taken
a bit of a backseat now because it's
summer lots of things to do up here in
Scotland but it's been terrific and I've
so enjoyed it and I almost cannot wait
for the clocks to go back again in the
autumn so there's longer evenings and I can
spend more time building that little
micro layout of mine that will hopefully
carry around, we'll see how that
progresses. But what comes with this
hobby is stuff. I've now got two or three
boxes of stuff:
train,s track, paints, soldering iron, tools...
all this kind of thing... paint brushes,
glue, spirits... and it all takes up space
so I still need that stuff. So this is
where you need to get that balance right
between minimalism and living and having
a hobby, and not just burning out on work.
You need that hobby so therein lies a
little bit of a battle of stuff and
hobby, but hopefully as you bounce from
one side to the other you will get to a
nice path. So if you're interested in the
model railway side of things, I have
actually made a video of a couple of the
running sessions I did back in the
Missouri I was borrowing, so if you want
to look at those... I won't launch it as a
public video it's just a little video I
made on my iPhone... but I'll link it in
the description below so it would be a
private link but it will be available in
the description below. You can have a
look if you're into model railways of
how I had the trains running around the
Missouri that I had. Here in the
campervan you might think well there's
no space for a model railway...ah ha!
Maybe there is!
It would be really nice
to get the the model trains out, wouldn't
it Dougal, but there's no room is there?
I mean where on earth you're gonna put a
track? There? Or is there no room? Is
there no room for a model railway?
Ha ha! Who said there was no room for a model railway in this van?
[music]
So as you can see at the moment I'm just
playing trains but I'm really looking forward
to building a layout. So there you have
it, I hope you enjoyed that... just a little
thing I wanted to say just to make you
aware of this 'What now? syndrome' and what
can be done about it.
Obviously with me it was going back into
model railways with you it could be
something else; it could be meditation, it
could be reading, it could be knitting, it
could be painting, anything like that as
long as it doesn't involve a screen and
it's something creative you can do
indoors, pick up, put down whenever you
like. But all those things... well maybe
with the exception of meditating... all
those things take stuff. You know, you
need books to read, you need wool and
stuff to knit, you need paints and paper
and everything to paint... so it still
takes stuff but that's where finding
that balance is really important. Once
again thank you so much for watching,
something a bit different this week but
it's just something I felt I wanted to
say and bit topical with the model
railways being in the news this week. As
ever if you enjoyed it give us a thumbs
up, subscribe if you don't already, it
just leaves me to say from Dougal and
from me...
Thanks for tuning in!
There, Dougal, would you like to come and see your
public? Hmm? You've got to come say hello
to everybody... come on! There, oh yes... yes
yes did you enjoy that? Oh did you enjoy
that?
Yes? Did you enjoy that? Oh, thank you!
Shall we get the trains out? Yeah should we
get the trains out? You like the trains,
don't you?  You like...? You like....? Err....?
He never smiles
[music]
