How Simplifying Increases the Overall Quality of Our Life (Petites Pensées Lundi)

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  PETITES PENSÉES LUNDI

A new addition to TSLL's regular postings, available to all readers, non and Basic and TOP Tier members. Enjoy the Petites Pensées Lundi post each and every Monday as you begin the week, a shorter post replacing the Monday Motivational post, as I dive into completing TSLL's 4th book. This post, sharing thoughts to ponder, or as I am choosing to title them, Petites Pensées, 'small thoughts', while not small in depth of content, but rather small in length - no more than 1-3 paragraphs, with an introduction sharing from where the post was written or conceptualized wherever in the world I might find myself will offer a glimpse into one of the numerous and unique ways to live a life of contentment.

The Setting:

Lieu: Roundabout Books’ Café
Thé/drink: Metolius Earl Grey
Des Sons: classic jazz filling the shop with soft, hushed conversations as shoppers perused the shelves

“Being busy isn’t a mark of status: It’s a mark of servitude.” —Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World

A gallery of art. Each piece displayed standing alone or distinctly separate from others so that the viewer is undistracted, fully able to see the work and explore the artist’s intention.

The quality of our lives, should we desire to elevate all that can be experienced and realized, works the same way.

First, know what you value. As consultant on self-reinvention and author Dorie Clark writes, ‘get clear on your North Star’. In other words, Who do you want to become? Once you know your answer, knowing where to simplify, in other words, what to say no or yes to, becomes simpler. But you might ask, How do I figure out what I want to become? And thankfully, the answer is also quite simple: Follow your curiosity. “Optimize for interesting”. In other words, what do you want to learn, what are you interested in? Say yes to those things and aha moments and discoveries you could never have predicted will come to the surface revealing where to go next, what to do next.

Keep it simple – follow your curiosity. But I have a job I have to do to be able to pay the bills, you say. I understand – fair point. Here is what you will want to do – Really examine your life. What are the nonessentials that you can let go of to create space to just explore and heed your curiosity? Be brave. Be honest with yourself.

“To become a better, sharper, and more strategic thinker, the first step is clearing away the nonessentials.”

In my own life, my curiosity has always led me to the French culture and more specifically, learning and being able to eventually speak with confidence the French language. Now in my third year of learning the language through Washington D.C. Alliance de Français, I had to rearrange my budget a bit, and currently, I had to rearrange my schedule to attend classes at 6:30 in the morning twice a week. But I did so without hesitation, and my French has improved, my comprehension is deepening. It’s a long-game strategy, and one, due to knowing who I want to become, an investment in a future that is down the road a bit, but in order to give myself the opportunities I dream about, I have to simplify and invest little by little each year for many years.

So the question to ask yourself is, Who do I want to become and what supports this? Often, as Clark points out, it is the ‘medium’ good things that we must say no to that are the most difficult because there is nothing wrong with what is being offered. It might be something we like, want, enjoy, etc., but does not support what we say we value. Instead these previously made choices just take away time, money or energy from being able to do what is most important to us. However, if we are clear and focused about our priorities, saying no even to these ‘medium’ things will be easier to do.

And this is where simplifying our lives helps us elevate the quality. Once we have the clarity of simplifying our life – knowing what we value, making those decisions, not that they are easy to do, but it becomes simple to understand what we need to do in order for the life we say we want, the person we wish to become, to have the opportunity to actually do so.

”It takes courage to be a long-term thinker, and a willingness to buck the near-term consequences. But the payoffs can be enormous.”

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