Why don't you have the happier simple life you desire? A simple life sounds so good, doesn't it?
You
dream of a relaxed, carefree, doing what you want type of lifestyle. A
life free from problems, excessive hard work and inconveniences. A life
where everything flows without drama and chaos.
If this type of life is so good, why don't you have it?
Why is your life difficult? It should be easy.
Why are you rushing around in a chaotic way? You should be living gently and graciously, moving along at your own pace.
Why
do you have to do so many things you don't want to do? Your life does
not have to be about constantly doing things you hate.
Why is there any drama, any problems and so many frustrations? Your life does not have to be that way at all.
You have to change your mind or how you think about life.
Here is how you are thinking now
Instead of working
hard at creating a happier simple life you work hard at making life hard. You never
think that if you would just work a little bit harder on making your
life easier, then you would have the happier simple life you want.
Creating a happier simple life is not that difficult. It is not like hard or time consuming like obtaining a college degree, starting a business, going to a
physically demanding job you hate or making some massive change in your
life.
It is mostly stopping doing things that don't make sense.
And that part of creating a happier simple life is easy...if you do it.
Be Early
The first step toward a a happier simple life is to be early all the time...as much as possible. Being early never hurts you, it always helps and it always will. Just think how much struggle in your life is from being late.
Running late throws you into chaos and drama. And that is the opposite of a happier life.
Keep Things Short
Being early becomes simpler when everything you do does not take up enormous amounts of you time.
You create more time by keeping things short. Everything that you do is better if it doesn't take that long. You can do more when whatever you are doing does not take that long.
Find ways to make your errands, chores, things you have to do, take as little time as possible. This frees up enormous blocks of free time for enjoyment.
Increase the energy you put out to do things so you work faster, more efficiently and more productively.
Get things done and move on.
Analyze Your Goals
A hidden reason you make things harder for yourself is by setting goals that are not in alignment with what you want to do with your life. Setting goals is important but only if the goals are right for you.
One way I use to clarify my goals is to think of my painful experiences and how by goal setting in a different way I could have avoided the pain or find ways to minimize it in the future.
If a goal of yours is to have a happier simple life then your other goals will need to work with that goal.
If you have a goal of reading 10 books every week, traveling to a second home every weekend, working 70 hours a week at your job so that you get promoted, coaching your child's team, going to every church event and planning family parties every month then your ideal happier simple life is not going to happen.
You are goals are forcing you to do too much.
If your goal is an easier life then one of the best ideas is to just not do things. Avoid doing things that you really don't want to do and that do not add value to your life.
Most of the goals people get into are not really what you want to do. You have been talked into, convinced and coerced to spending most of your time doing things for other people. So they have the free time to do what they want.
Flip that stupid script around. Not by coercing others to do your bidding. But just by quietly opting out.
You simplify your life by minimizing what you have to do. There is really very little that you have to do.
Avoid Stupid Mistakes
Creating a happier simple life is easier is you avoid making stupid mistakes. Misplacing your cell phone, wallet, or your keys is a massive disruption to a happier life.
Little mistakes like that cause incredible frustration. Think of how much of your life frustrations are caused by being in the wrong place, working the wrong job or being with the wrong person. These huge stupid mistakes will ruin your life like they have ruined mine. The only way out of these life ruining events is to make massive changes that is beyond the scope of this article.
Avoid spending money if you do not have any
Most of us get drawn into spending money we do not have. I get caught up in reading about different money making systems and other really interesting things I would like to do to improve my life.
The cost is not that huge for many of these life improvement strategies. But there is a cost both in time and money. The money adds up as I buy more and more of these life improving strategies.
Creating a happier simple life requires that you always have some money available for your basic needs. Continually chasing money making opportunities or any other self improvement program takes enormous amounts of time as well as big money.
You need to carefully pick and choose how you spend your money.
Think long and hard before picking up my your credit card, debit card or cash. Nothing is as distressing as needing money to buy food and not having any.
Get rid of clutter
It does not cost anything to toss stuff out. You can find a way to get rid of stuff for nothing. You do not even have to pay to throw stuff out. If you have to pay to throw things out you will want to be more creative in your throwing.
Don't let the cost of eliminating clutter stop you.
For example if you have to pay your garbage dump to throw away a TV, I would say why don't you break it into thousands of pieces and put the pieces in garbage bags. This is why you need to use black garbage bags, so people cannot snoop into your garbage that much. You can bury garbage in your yard. You can burn things. You can throw things out in other people's garbage.
Develop systems and routines for your normal daily and weekly routine
You want to use your mind for important thinking not trying to remember if you need milk or bread or what time to get up.
Use checklists, paper and pens and routines as much as possible to give you the time and mental capacity to do what you want to do and need to do.
Have things set up in your life in their most logical place
This is an extension of 3 items above.
You do not want to be constantly getting up and running around trying to find things when you are trying to get things done. You would keep your kitchen stuff in the kitchen. You keep your bathroom stuff in the bathroom. You keep your most needed office supplies at your fingertips.
The way to find out what to do in this area is to consciously think through what you are doing and catch yourself when you are getting up to get something or walking a long way to get something. Think, how can I do this easier?
Use your planner book in a better way so you stay on top of all the things you want to stay on top of
You do not want to keep spending money on things you already have, or on things you have already done. You do not want to waste time over and over again.
Use your planner book to stay organized. Paper planning is much simpler and far easier than computer planning. You need a computer. But you need a planner book too.
More reading on how I use my planner book.
From A.J.A Cortes
Why Pen and Paper is Superior to Technology
Favorite quote - Learning by hand writing is more powerful.
Do things on the way
When you get up from sitting in to use the bathroom of anything else, then do something else along the way.
If you are always spending a few moments straightening and picking up on the way, your home will always look neat and tidy making you happier.
Make lists
Make
lists of what you want and what you need. Then when you are out and
about, you can just get those things and not forget and have to make a
special trip.
Plus, even if the things on your list seem out of reach (too expensive) for you now, once you have them on your list they sometimes materialize for low cost and even free.
It is impossible to have the happier simple life you desire if you have to deal with difficult people on a regular basis. Difficult people don't care about your happiness and your good life. They draw you into drama and chaos, needlessly complicating your life for reasons that make no sense to you.
You can get yourself, your life, your living and working areas very well organized but there will be little you can do about others.
You will be proud of yourself, your accomplishments, your ability to get things done, your neat and organized way of being, your uncluttered areas, and rightly so. Just do not expect other people to see it.
People who are on a similar path as you are on will see it and may recognize you for it. But the vast majority of people are not on that path and will not care if you are living a happier simple life or not.
They will see the evidence of your simple lifestyle and how much better your life is because of it. But they will not get it.
Here is what you will typically see
All this is real. Just because you want to have a happier simple life, does not mean that others do.
If fact, I think most people would rather not live a happier simple life. They would rather go on living chaotically with drama, than spend any time at all getting their lives together.
But that does not have to be you.
The only way I could become the happier man I am today was by leaving my wife. You might be in the same situation I was in. I suggest you take a look at my book - Leave Your Wife & Become a Happier Man with the 3 Step System.
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