“Once there was a man who carved a duck from a block of wood. Asked how he did it, the man said, ‘I just got rid of everything that didn’t look like a duck.’”

I can't think of a more useful approach to the concept of minimalism than found in this short anecdotal drop of folk wisdom.

Have an ideal, vision or goal? Remove everything in your life that doesn't look like it.

What do you think the life of an artist, writer, athlete, musician, etc. looks like? What is essential? What can be removed that gets in the way of achieving that life?

Whatever it is, get rid of it. What's left is all duck.

Simple.