This isn’t a long essay because that would defeat the purpose.
Writing 101 ways on how to simplify your life would become complicated by the time I hit number 9 and in this case, less is more.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Lists of ways and idea’s to simplify things are incredibly useful. However, the core idea behind this post is to identify the two basic principles of simplifying.
Here’s how to simply simplify your life.
How to Simply Simplify Your Life
Figure Out What You Value
Deciding what’s important and what’s not is the key to simplifying.
Values and beliefs are different, from person to person. Your version of simple and mine are probably very different, however, the fundamentals remain the same.
It comes down to what we find easy and useful in our lives and what is difficult and complex.
For example, imagine the relationships we have with friends or relatives. Some of those relationships are easy and mainly stress-free. Others can be trying and hard to maintain.
The important thing to decide is whether we value those hard-to-maintain relationships. If we don’t value them but continue to maintain them we are not simplifying the situation.
This goes for far more than relationships. Think of belongings, jobs, tasks, meals, and so on.
Everything in our life either adds value or doesn’t. There is no in-between.
Figuring out what we value takes time and deep thinking. We have to listen to our inner voice over a period of time to identify what’s important to us.
Most people simply can’t do this over the course of a weekend and often, it is a lifetime of making revisions.
Sometimes, what is important today is no longer important tomorrow.
The point is, it takes a lot of clarity to define what we value and what we don’t. It’s about our life design and what we find essential.
Figure out what you value and then move on to the next step.
Dump Everything Else
If you don’t find value in the way you are spending your time, your possessions, relationships, etc. — then they should be discarded.
This is how you simplify.
Putting time, energy, and resources into maintaining things we don’t value complicates our lives.
If you really want to simplify you have to pare down to what is essential.
Oftentimes we feel guilty when discarding things or relationships we no longer find value in. We feel guilty when we tell someone no. Guilt is a part of the process but it doesn’t have to be. The feeling of guilt is something we manifest ourselves. It’s not necessary.
There are many ways to overcome guilt but the easiest way is to remember that we only have one life to live and it’s important to make it the best experience possible.
If an object, relationship, or any other part of our life doesn’t fit into our life design then it needs to be changed.
The master strategy to simplify is simple. Identify what adds value to your life and discard the rest.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Please share with others.
For thoughts and comments, find me on Twitter.