The first week in August is National Simplify Your Life Week. Simplifying your life is a great concept. The real challenge is knowing what to eliminate.
Of course, you can eliminate “stuff.” There are many good reasons to do so even if you don’t go to the extreme of a minimalist lifestyle. Having fewer possessions in your life requires less time and effort to manage, worry about and maintain. It also minimizes the time you invest in making money and lowers your carbon footprint.
A more challenging opportunity is to simplify your life by doing less. Life’s demands and opportunities always seem to exceed our available time and energy. Here the challenge can be deciding what not to do.
Deciding what to no longer do is not as easy as deciding what stuff to purge. While you can eliminate virtually all of your possessions, it is impossible to do nothing. In the end, your time and energy will go somewhere, even if you fritter it away.
For simplifying what you do, the question is more “What would be best for me to invest myself in?” This is a highly personal question. For each of us, the answer lies in our unique life philosophy. One individual’s complexity is another’s clarity.
As you think about and take steps to simplify your life, consider reinvesting some of your regained time and energy in advancing your life philosophy. One of the benefits of yours is long-term clarity for knowing what to invest yourself in, even if it doesn’t seem simple to others.
