Looking for a simpler life? Well, I have a simple solution to help you attain it.
But it involves some work on your end. {Sorry, but I never said simple was going to be easy}
In order to attain simplicity in life, so how you live and work and exist in this world flows easier and feels lighter, you must first be willing to do one very important thing.
You must do the work necessary to let go of the things that create difficulty.
That might not sound like an simple solution but it isn’t impossible. And that is good news!
By difficulty I mean anything that crowds, or confuses, and causes you to feel overwhelmed, stressed, or unfulfilled.
The operative word here is “anything”. Anything can be physical clutter like the stuff you find in the back of a closet, tucked away in a basement, or sitting on a countertop waiting for a decision to be made.
Anything can also be mental clutter like limiting beliefs, too much “to do” on your mind, or negative self-talk that leaves you constantly feeling unworthy.
And anything for sure can be a person or a place that pulls you away from the life you want to live and doesn’t allow you to be yourself or feel free in your own skin.
If you want to create a life you love there is no good place in it for any of those “anythings”.
Now, when you really dig in, make sense of, and make decisions on the stuff that make up those anythings, things can start to feel complicated.
Or, you start to complicate things.
You let fear of not having enough, or being enough cloud your vision.
You take on all of the “too much” at once and get overwhelmed.
And you let in self-doubt and allow it to determine whether you can actually do this sometimes-daunting work. {Here’s the answer to that pondering: you can!}
There is no shame in feeling afraid or overwhelmed. And certainly no shame in wondering if you can actually do this work. It happens to the very best of us.
Remember these things when moving through fear and doubt toward a simple solution to what feels complicated.
1. Simple doesn’t mean easy.
I know I said it before and it is worthy of repeating again. What “simple” means there is that there is a basic way to look at doing something. It is like finding the lowest common denominator in a complicated math problem. You use that lowest denominator to solve the problem but it doesn’t necessarily mean the problem itself is easy. Your approach to processing it, however, can be.
Don’t look for things to be easy. Life isn’t easy. But things don’t have to always be difficult.
2. Don’t try to escape difficult
Many people try too hard to avoid conflict or difficulties when in fact, they are inevitable, and actually an opportunity for growth. You might think if you are perfect, on time, and have everything in line things will be easy, or easier. The impossibility of perfection aside, working diligently, specifically, and deliberately can yield “easier”. But it just isn’t the case all the time. And you will burn yourself out trying to avoid what is inevitable: hard is part of life.
Instead of looking to escape difficulties, embrace simple approaches. For example, the simple approach, and lowest denominator if you will, in a weighty decluttering project is to think and start small. You are making smaller decisions, and using smaller amounts of time making the daunting and difficult simpler to address.
3. You have a choice.
This is your life. You have a choice of what you let in, and how you think, and act. You get to choose the thoughts, things, and people that will make living your life simpler. And you get to choose the approach you take.
You can always use a simple solution – take a quieter way, and a less encumbered path towards an easier way of living. It is all available to you.
When you approach what feels hard using a simple perspective everything becomes possible.
4. Minimal makes meaning
Stuff and more anythings do not add meaning, they take it away. Whether physically or mentally they suck time, energy, and life out of your life. Simply put: you let in complicated and difficult when there is more. Minimal, in both your mindset and in terms of how much you physical own creates room for your space and heart to breathe.
When things are tough remember to seek out simple.
Things won’t always go as planned. You will fail. Life can be very hard. But using “simple” lessens the blow and makes working through the complicated easier.
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