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Minimalism

by | Jul 29, 2017 | Intentionality, minimalism, Uncategorized

I just discovered a new blog – a couple of minimalists who are straight shooters and serious about simplifying their lives.

The thing I noticed in reading about simplifying is that stuff weighs us down.  Excess poundage, too many clothes, too many items on the wall, too many things in our drawers.  I know whenever I do a purge of things in a drawer that I never use, there is a sense of being able to breathe easier.

The last few months, about once a week, I get into my closet and I ask: Is there something I can get rid of today?  Usually, I can find one thing.  I have a place where I keep these items for about a month to see if I ever regret putting it there … and I never have yet.

We are overloaded with STUFF.

I’m a little bit dreading the holiday season and wondering how I can bless my friends and family with something of value but not just one more thing to gather dust.

It’s not just physical objects that weigh us down.  Some of us have more relationships than we can actually nurture. Often, we are trying to change more aspects of us than are possible.  Even spiritually, if you focus on too many ideas or habits, you actually achieve none of them.

Less really is more.  Remove one thing from your “to do” list, or  your “should” category, or your garage … it will give you more energy to focus on what remains.  Over time, this gives you distilled space and thought.

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it –

Of Simplicity.  : )

Here is a sample of one of their posts: http://www.theminimalists.com/rid/

Life Hacks

Life Hacks

by | Nov 16, 2014 | Intentionality, minimalism, Self-Awareness

I was talking to a friend the other day about how I was systematically trying to change my internal ideology and how difficult it is to do. Partly, this arises from the fact that you are basically blind to yourself – you live inside you, so it’s hard for you to step outside of your thinking errors or even underdeveloped thoughts.

I recently read The Four-Hour Work Week and was delighted to see that over the last two years, as I have expended monumental effort to change my internal ideologies,  I have discovered and implemented the very ideas that Tim Ferriss is promoting in his famous book on time / life management.

Two helps he proposed that I have adopted:

1) Reduce / Eliminate meetings of all kinds. If you can’t get rid of the meeting altogether, see if you can deal with it on the phone or via e-mail.  Never have a meeting without an understood goal and end point. This has saved me TONS of frustration and many hours.

2) The Customer is Not Always Right.  From a business standpoint, this means get rid of your most high-maintenance customers.  They suck up 80 % of your time and energy and give very little back.  For someone not in business, this means look at who creates drama in your life and do something to reduce your exposure to these types of people.