“Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden
This week’s way to make a difference is one of the more difficult ones — at least, it is for me. But clearing space in your life is among the best things you can do if you want to change the world. Our culture encourages us to be always busy, always consuming, so that we have no time, money, or energy to spend on the things that really matter. We need to take back our lives.
Simplifying gives us “margin,” as Dr. Richard Swenson puts it, and it is out of this margin that we can make our contributions to the world. As an added benefit, scaling back on what we consume allows us to tread more lightly on the earth. If you’re concerned about the planet, embracing simplicity can be a powerful way to make a difference.
There are many ways to simplify your life. You probably know better than anyone else what you need to tackle. What stresses you out? What commitments on your calendar do you dread? What do you own that doesn’t bring you joy? What expenses do you have that you’d love to cut if you could? Start with those things. You may not be able to eliminate them completely, but with creativity and commitment to change, you can probably improve things.
I also recommend listening to your friends and family members if they point out ways you could cut back. Sometimes it’s easy to see how a friend can reduce his or her stress but be completely blind to the things in your own life that are dragging you down. One of my friends was worn out with shuttling his kids from one activity to the next, but he felt that all the things they did were very important and couldn’t imagine eliminating any of them. From my perspective it was clear that the best thing he could choose for his children would be to cancel some of their commitments and, instead, be a less-stressed dad who had more time to spend just hanging out with them.
At the same time, I was overcommitting myself. I complained on Facebook about having something to do every evening of a certain week. My sister responded, “Cut one of those things out.” I didn’t follow her advice at the time, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind. As a result, I’ve begun working hard to schedule no more than three evening activities Monday through Friday.
I’ve learned from experience that simplifying your life may require some trial and error before you find something that works for you. I liked the idea of developing a sort of “uniform,” so that I wouldn’t have to think about clothes, though I didn’t want to be as extreme as Steve Jobs. I decided to wear black pants to work and jeans on the weekend, with a limited number of seasonally appropriate tops to go with them. After some diet and exercise changes, I found that my wardrobe seemed to consist only of clown pants, all which had to be altered or replaced. I’m now considering a uniform that is more “dress-based,” at least on work days.
If you are eager to join me in the pursuit of a simpler life, there are some excellent resources to support you on your journey.
Leo Babauta’s blog, Zen Habits, is possibly the best site there is on this subject. Babauta deals with topics ranging from decluttering and exercise to establishing habits and ending procrastination. I cannot recommend his blog highly enough. As the name implies, Zen Habits is influenced, in part, by Zen Buddhism, but please don’t reject it because you’re not Buddhist. The posts speak to anyone who is interested in simplicity.
Another excellent blog is Be More With Less by Courtney Carver. Her posts include practical lists on ways to simplify your life. She also writes thoughtful essays on what’s truly important, such as her recent post, “Let’s Linger Longer and Fall in Love.”
I’ve gained a lot from reading Dr. Richard Swenson’s books Margin and The Overload Syndrome. He writes from a Christian perspective, but just as I encourage everyone to read the Zen Habits blog, I also believe that anyone can find value from these books. Swenson writes a lot about stress and limits, but he goes beyond the general to offer several practical “prescriptions” for building margin into all aspects of your life.
If there are other resources for simplicity that you love, please share them!