We all come at the idea of simplifying our lives from a different perspective. We each have our own motivations and reasons for wanting to simplify things. Having a Why is a powerful thing. It can challenge you to take an unexpected path and guide you as you make tough decisions.
For me, my highest priority is to have abundant time to spend with the people I love, both family and friends. This priority guides everything else I do, from big job and income decisions to everyday decisions about how I prioritize my time. This is the underlying Why that guides my simplification efforts.
Other people have different motivations. Perhaps you want to simplify your life so you can take a job that pays less but gives you more free time or more flexible time (a choice both my husband and I have made). Perhaps you want to simplify your life so you can retire early, or retire at all. Perhaps you want to simplify so you can spend time at home with your children. Perhaps you want to simplify your living so you can afford to take a big trip. The list of possible motivations is huge, and any number of reasons can be the Why behind your desire to simplify.
So how do you figure out your Why? Start by making a list of no more than four or five items that are the most important to you. Think about the things that you value most, and come up with the top goals that you most want from life.
This short list of things, or perhaps the one overarching thing that subsumes the others, is your Why. As you’re looking at simplifying your life, keep these priorities as your focal point, and assess everything you encounter in terms of whether it’ll put you closer to or farther away from your ultimate desires.
Practical Application:
As you look back over my past Simplify Saturday posts, you’ll see I’ve tackled (and will continue to tackle) simplifying my life in a wide variety of ways.
Whether it’s simplifying our possessions so we can make staying in our small house work (see HERE) for our family instead of upgrading to a larger, more-expensive home (which requires lots of extra funds, and therefore more work hours), or evaluating our commitments (see HERE) and prioritizing those that further our goals, especially the relationships we want to foster, my simplification efforts all come back to helping me work toward my Why.
Your Why may be different from mine, as everyone has different priorities and motivations, but if you’re looking at simplifying your life than our paths are likely similar in how we’ll get there. But I think you’ll agree that once you’ve figured out your why, the rest of the answers fall into place much more easily.
What is your Why for wanting to simplify your life?
The Why for simplifying our life is to reduce stress and feel more peace. This has many different facets to it. By reducing our possessions, we have less to take care of which reduces stress. Evaluating social get togethers for their positive value, and looking to participate in activities on our own schedule, lessens stress. Being conscious of simplifying our lives these past six months has made a huge difference.
Fantastic! That sounds lovely. 🙂
The last time I remember feeling like the day was never going to end and that there was not enough things to do to fill my day was when I spent 9 weeks living in a foreign country. I had a small furnished apartment, four outfits, and knew very few people. It was difficult to call or e-mail anyone in the US. It was 120 degrees so I could not go outside except twice a day. The baby had two board books and five small toys. She slept on the floor and I had a baby sling. She sat in my lap to eat. We had four plates, three cups, two pans, and a tea kettle. There were few things I could eat in that country so meals were simple too. Some days it was hard not to feel like going crazy from the lack of boredom and stimulus. Eventually you get used to it. Never was cleaning, laundry, and cooking so easy.
I would like to simplify my life because I miss boredom, day dreaming, and “quiet”. I would like to pair everything down to just a few of everything. The barest of essentials.
I would have to shave my head and become a Buddhist nun to achieve that. That is my retirement plan.LOL
That sounds really lovely. Thank you for sharing!
Your retirement plan made me smile. 🙂