39: Simplify

Happy Monday! In today's Monday Experience, Brian talks simply about simplifying and how he didn't even realize the effect it was having on his life. His frame of reference for simplifying was being on time; after receiving a ton of negative feedback and criticism for always being a few minutes late to things, he found that after in his somewhat-separate efforts toward simplifying his life... being on time to things was a natural side effect. Pretty cool!

Simplify

Simplifying doesn't seem simple when life has so many layers. Have you ever found yourself wondering, "Why is this so hard? It shouldn't be this hard!" I've been asking myself this a lot lately, actually. I'm trying to find a place to live, so in one hand I have an ideal cap to my budget and in the other hand I have a list of things I want. Why is it so hard to find something? This week I went from considering a place that had a beautiful wall of windows that let in plenty of sunlight, but was a little higher in price than I wanted and a little too far west, to considering a place that was in the perfect location, but didn't quite let in enough sunlight.

Part of the stress that goes into finding the perfect place, I am quite certain, is just the pressure I'm putting on myself as a result of all the moving pieces in my life. At an initial glance, I don't feel like my life is too complicated. Work, family, hobbies. But the more I break it all down, I do realize how many moving parts there are. For me, they are moving parts that I enjoy working around. Making time for my large family, helping out friends, like Brian, with some side tasks. And then the things that come with the circumstances I'm in: looking for a house.

My scenario is obviously very different from Brian's, so our methods or needs for simplifying will also be different. But he draws out such an important aspect to the effect of simplification; there are always two sides to respect - how we understand our own mindset to be and how our attitude is perceived and interpreted by a second party. He was getting a lot of flack for how being late to things was perceived by others, even when it is a top priority in his life to respect others. And perhaps those who gave him this feedback were being unfair, but we can't control how other people think, right? No matter what we do, we will likely piss someone off! But as Brian started to simplify, he found that he could be on time to appointments and meetings because there weren't so many moving pieces in his life to try and manage.

So what could simplifying do for me? What could it do for you? Maybe when we'd expect it to do is different from what it'd actually do! I think, personally, I would expect simplifying life to mean that I'd just be doing less, but I think the results would yield benefits like better sleep and better overall patterns that go into healthy living. Simplifying doesn't necessarily mean doing less... it just might mean doing more in a better way.