“The last 3 days I’ve been offline. It felt good, we spent our time in a small house in the mountains. A table, two beds and an oven … there wasn’t much more. While it was snowing outside, I read a book, wrote ideas in my notebook or talked to the camera. In the last few weeks, I had started to shoot some new videos, but I kept discarding them. ‘Who would even be interested in this content?’, I sometimes thought to myself. There are those days when I lie in bed and question everything. The first day my girlfriend lets me feel down, the second day she puts the camera in my hand or tells me to go jogging. It’s not true that I achieve all these things on my own. I think everyone needs support from outside, be it a partner or a mentor.
Some of my previous videos are about minimalism. A few years ago, I had a well-paid job as a computer scientist, a car, a big apartment and a mediocre relationship. It was comfortable. But I wondered if that was everything … I felt that the big material possessions were limiting me. So, after we separated, I moved into a 27-square-meter-flat in the old town. Most of my clothes were given away, the car as well. There was no space for a dining table, and my mattress lay on a platform above the bathroom – the ceiling one meter above me. I miss this flat a bit. I had to limit myself to the essentials, which gave me the freedom to experience more moments. These can be small things. Reading a book. Making videos. Doing sports … you can cycle many kilometers down the river, it almost looks like in Canada.
I was surprised that you suggested to talk with me about motivation, because I’m a rather lazy person. Maybe my social media gives people a wrong impression. I try to be as authentic as possible … to show that I have normal days at the office and that I’m not out in the mountains most of the time, as one might have thought from my posts in the past. In the meantime, I know that motivation comes from doing. The feeling of having succeeded once it’s done. You can have 1000 ideas, but if you don’t start, it doesn’t help you much. Do a little bit every day and you will reach your goal.”
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Pascal Erb works as a freelance video- and photographer. Here you can find his Youtube-Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@haveless