Creating simplicity in your life must be deliberate. It doesn’t just happen. You don’t just look around one day and think, “Where’d all this dang peace and simplicity come from?”
It takes some conscious change and that means effort, but it’s a quest worthy of your time and energy. I believe simplicity means removing the obstacles that prevent you from being your very best self and making your unique contribution to the world.
Whatever simplicity means to you, when you achieve it, you know it. Trouble is, so few people have lives they consider “simple “ because although they may have an idea of what a simpler life looks like, they don’t know specifically how to achieve it.
Over the next four weeks, I’ll share with you my Four C’s of Simplicity. I hope you’ll share them with your friends and family, and that you’ll begin doing things a little differently in your own life.
The First C: CLARIFY Your Priorities
According to the American Medical Association, stress is a factor in more than 75% of illness. Wow. It’s no secret that many Americans are stressed and it’s partly due to overwhelm. We have SO much to on our plates! Home and family obligations, work commitments, volunteering, church, sports, hobbies, kids’ extracurricular activities and caring for aging parents, not to mention taking care of your own health. It’s amazing the amount of STUFF we have to do and some folks handle that pressure better than others.
Which is precisely why taking time to clarify what’s most important in your life is a worthwhile exercise. When everything seems equally important, it can cause overwhelm paralysis. Because nothing stands out as more important, you don’t know what to do first, you don’t know how to manage it all and often you shut down and do nothing or you focus on trivial tasks that keep you busy but really accomplish nothing major.
When you spend your time doing things – either for yourself or for other people -- that don’t further your personal goals, or support your primary roles and values, you feel stressed and conflicted. Plus, your goals get neglected, adding more anxiety.
If you were a horse trainer, wouldn’t you be stressed if you spent most of your time reviewing barn blueprints, cleaning saddles and shoveling manure? The horses don’t know jack but gosh the saddles and stalls are clean and you know the layout of the property like the back of your hand, don’t you? Of course you’d be stressed and conflicted because you’re ignoring the very area you should be focusing on, in favor of things that someone else could be doing. This is why clarity of purpose is so important.
Until you figure out what your most important roles and purposes are, you can’t possibly know what tasks are most important. Once you know what your main purposes and roles are, it’s much easier to discern and focus on the activities that support them. When you spend your time and energy on things that support your goals, you feel satisfaction, and you feel you’re spending time in a productive, effective way.
Begin paying attention to where you spend your time and energy, and ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this task/activity related to one of my key roles, purposes or goals?
- If this were the only thing I got done today would I be happy?
- Am I being productive or just active?
- Am I doing something that someone else can do better/faster than I can?
- If I didn’t do this right now, what would be the best use of my time?
Keeping these questions in front of you is a helpful way to stay on track and keep your purpose and priorities in mind as you move through your day. Stay tuned to my blog for the Second C of Simplicity, which will release next Thursday. In the meantime, I’d love your comments -- how you plan to clarify your priorities to maximize your effectiveness?
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