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Welcome to Castles in the Air; I’m really glad you’re here.

What Does Castles in the Air Mean?

The phrase “castles in the air” resonated with me when I first read the classic book Walden by Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist, minimalist, and philosopher from the 1800s.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if no one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

This paragraph epitomizes the ideas of living a life without barriers, doing great work, taking steps towards realizing your dreams, and simplifying your life to leave out the erroneous so that only beauty and harmony remains. This is the way I live my life and to make a conscious effort to always follow my dreams, no matter what.

Books

  • I’m the author of The Radical Minimalist, a new ebook released in October 2010. (You can download the free companion ebook called Inspirations from The Radical Minimalist.)
  • Minimalist Freedom, a new powerful manifesto on creating your very own personal freedom, will be available for free in mid December 2010.

An open mind begins with opening up books. If you want to know where to start, my 2010 reading list is here.

Read Some of the All-Time Favorite Posts

From inspiring to thought-provoking, read some of the all-time favorite posts at Castles in the Air:

  1. Leaving the Chains of Status Quo to an Unleashed Life of Freedom, Happiness and Adventure
  2. A Life With No Regrets: It’s Now or Never
  3. Leaping Forward to New Heights and Ultimate Freedom (With My Notice of Resignation Today)
  4. They Laid Off 28 Employees From My Company (or How Your Job Is Not Safe)
  5. The 3 Fears (Part 1)
  6. The 3 Fears (Part 2)
  7. Career Suicide? More Like Career Liberation! (And Why I’ve Made the Decision to Quit … Yet Again)
  8. Things You Never Have to Say When You Don’t Have a Job You Hate (Aka The Trough Effect in Motion)
  9. 15 Tips on How to Avoid Making Art (Or Anything Else You Enjoy)
  10. My Dream of Freedom
  11. The Story of How It All Began: My Path to Minimalism
  12. It’s Your Life, Dammit!
  13. 70 Things (now down to 48 things, new post coming soon)
  14. 84 Things

Browse the Main Categories

All posts will fall under 1, sometimes 2, of these following 5 categories:

Who Is Nina?

Read the About section for more on the person behind the blog.

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