Simplify Your Life

This month we celebrate simplify your life week. Here are my top ten tips to help you on your way!

1. Evaluate – before you can simplify, you need to know what you do and how you do it. Look at your commitments and daily routine. It’s important to have a balanced day – including work, family, and social life. Don’t forget to add a donation of your time to volunteering to help others.

2. Vision – What do you want from your life? No coach goes into a game without a plan and you shouldn’t go into your day without one. Write your vision down and put it in a prominent place to serve as a daily reminder.

3. Decide – The next step is to make a decision about what time you will spend in each area of life. Create a schedule and a system for your routines. Put everything in your calendar, no matter how trivial – it will remind you and help you focus on your goals.

4. Limit - We all need to place limits on what time we spend on not only obligations, but things we love to do. We’ve all have thought that we need more than 24 hours in a day, but since that won’t change; we have to change how we do things.

5. Borrow – It’s not necessary to spend a huge amount of time on coming up with new ideas – mostly everything we need has already been created. Take an hour and research on the internet and with books on how to better utilize your time.

6. Walk Through – If you haven’t used it, you need to lose it. We have so much stuff that we don’t use, it just ends up complicating our lives. There are lots of people who want that stuff – sell it, consign it, or donate it. You will lighten not only your space, but you will feel better without all of it facing you each day.

7. Throw Off Emotional Baggage – There are so many people who hang onto things because of emotional baggage. Just because Aunt Nancy gave us a horse statue with two tails from her trip to China, doesn’t mean we have to keep it if we don’t like it. If you have bulk memories, pack them in a bin and label it, if you have awards or other items you want to remember, take a picture and then get rid of it. It’s not necessary to have the physical object to remind you of the love and care you feel from others’ gifts. When you have memories that truly mean something to you, it is a dishonor to have them in a miscellaneous pile.

8. Limit the Incoming – If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. How much money have you lost from returns you never got around to making? How many duplicates do you have? We really complicate our lives by the purchasing decisions we make. In this time, it is made even more difficult for us by the ease of ordering online, amount of choices available, and warehouse stores.

9. Get Zen – So often we live in the past or future. Life is simpler when we live in the present. Don’t complicate your life by thinking of “what could happen” or “what should happen”. Ultimately, we are not in control of what does happen. Do what you can in the moment and be present to get the most out of each day. Take some time to breathe and be quiet – it will soothe your soul and energize you!

10. Just Say No!!! - We often fail to say “no” because we are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, we want to be helpful, don’t want to appear selfish, fear conflict, or even are afraid of losing opportunities. You are the captain of your ship and must make the decision as to where you will sail. Although we have family and friends, this trip of life really ends up being only about us. If you don’t limit time donated to others, you will fail to live the life you want. In the end, you must make the choice to simplify, simplify, simplify!