When it comes to simple living, or making any changes in life, there always seems to be plenty of experts around telling you what you should do, and how you should do it. Looking to get in shape? You can find an endless supply of “experts”...many of which will directly contradict each other...that are ready with their magic formula to help you. All you have to do is buy their equipment, take their magic pill, or follow their magic advice.
But what it all boils down to in the real world is developing a simple plan that is right for YOU, and then kicking things into gear! When it comes to simple living or simplifying certain areas of your life, there are some things that have worked for us and that you can use to start making strides in areas of your life that you want to simplify. Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!
Topic: Five Steps to Simple Living We're just going to offer 5 ways to help you simplify your life...at your own pace.
Okay, first… Take an objective look at where you are. Once you look at where you are now, you can figure out where you want to be and start working in that direction.
Number two...start with one area of your life. Simple living has so many different facets. But what’s one area you want to fix? Is it your physical clutter, time commitments and obligations, finances, your professional life, personal life, health? What do you want to focus on? Pick one thing first, then edit what isn't working and try to streamline ways to keep it simple...and keep it going. Here’s an example: a major area of frustration for me was our kitchen counter that became "The Clutter Zone". The first thing we did was get rid of the junk, then Dan came up with the idea of making some cubbies in the columns next to where the clutter was collecting...and it worked great! That one change had such a huge impact on our physical space that it led to more and more opportunities to simplify. And that’s what we’re talking about for our third point...
Simple living will become addictive! And once you start that one area, you’ll likely find you're ready to expand your efforts and carry that momentum into simplifying other areas of your life. So as we just mentioned regarding those cubbies...that worked so well that the idea spread to other areas of the home to control and contain our clutter.
Focusing on our finances was another area that we wanted to simplify. So we focused on selling (editing) our land which set us up to tackle other financial goals we had, and buy our teardrop trailer outright. Our Edit and Forget Challenge became a lifestyle and not just a one time event! The same thing can happen in other areas of your life, too, like health and fitness. Sometimes we try to do everything but quickly get burned out. The best thing to do is to keep it simple and work on one thing at a time. Here's an example: For us, the idea of doing a 60 day juice fast sounded great, but it just wasn’t realistic for us. Instead we chose to make it part of our weekly diet plan...slowly incorporating it at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that...it has become a regular part of our life...something we've been able to sustain for over two years. And we became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other way to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods… and eating smaller portions...and now smoothies. Matter of fact, we’ll have Farnoosh Brock back again on the next show to talk about that! You see, when you start small or with one thing at a time, it’s much easier to implement it, sustain it, and spread to other areas of your life. So have a rough plan...a punch list, if you will, of areas you want to simplify. That way, you can concentrate your efforts and capitalize on your efficiencies.
