In 2005, I decided my life was too complicated, too full of clutter, with not enough time for what was important to me.
So I began to simplify.
I started with commitments: by saying no to commitments like coaching or being in various organizations or projects, I could free up time for my health, my family, pursuing my dream.
I then created space in my day for those important things, and made sure they happened. I still do this today.
Next, I tackled clutter: mountains of it were removed from my house, with the help of my wife Eva and eventually our kids (when I got them on board!).
Finally, I started to examine the “needs” that I thought I had, and began to remove them if they were getting in the way of my life.
Simplifying my life didn’t happen in a day, or even a month. It happened over the course of years, a little at a time.
This Simple Living Challenge won’t get you to an ideal simple life in a month either — and that ideal doesn’t exist. It’s a fantasy. What you’ll work on during this module is the mindfulness of examining your life and consciously deciding what should be in it, and what doesn’t need anymore.
That’s an important practice. Our lives get filled up with junk — both physical and mental — and the cleansing process of attempting to simplify helps clarify what we want out of life, how we want to live.
I still simplify to this day — it’s a neverending process. But my day and my home are much simpler, much emptier, and much more peaceful than that day I started out in 2005, and I’m so happy I’ve undergone the process.
The Challenge
If you’re like most people, life has become busy, complicated, and often overwhelming.
This month, we’re going to look at some ways to start simplifying the craziness of our lives.
I’m calling it the Simplify Your Life Challenge, and I invite you to join me.
Here’s how the challenge works:
- Commit to the challenge in the #simplicity channel in our Slack community.
- Each week, there will be a different focus or mini-challenge to try to stick with.
- Check in each week on Monday in the #checkin-monday channel to stay accountable, review how you did, and adjust how you’re doing things so that you can overcome any obstacles.
Pretty simple!
So here are the focuses for each week:
- Week 1: Examine & reduce commitments. In this week, we’ll do an inventory of our work and personal commitments, and start to reduce them where possible, starting with the easy ones.
- Week 2: Simplify your routine. Create a simple morning routine, keeping yourself from overloading yourself, and leaving space in your day for not being busy.
- Week 3: Do one thing at a time. This week, you’ll focus on doing one thing at a time. And work on have one project or goal focus at a time.
- Week 4: Reduce screen time and distractions. In this week, you’ll experiment with ways to reduce your screen time so that you can have disconnected time, and go into focus mode without distractions more often.
Sound good? It will be amazing!
If you’re up for this challenge, commit to it in the #simplicity challenge channel on our Slack community.