2. Our Featured Quote

“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one’s life.”

-Mildred Lisette Norman (a.k.a. “Peace Pilgrim“)

3. Article: Simplifying Life - 10 Steps to

Guest article by Brad SwiftPerhaps you woke up one morning to realize the old joke is true: “Even if you finish the rat race in first, you’re still a rat.” Or maybe, the thought crept in more slowly, wedging itself into your consciousness while sitting in the five o’clock traffic jam as you commute home. However it appeared, you now realize it’s time for a change to a simpler way of life.

But how do you start? These 10 steps will provide you with guidance to propel you along the path.

1. The 1st step may be the easiest for many people because by the time you’re reading this it may already have been accomplished. That is making up your heart and mind that it’s time to simplify, even better if the decision has moved to the level of being committed. If not, don’t worry. It’s quite possible to test the waters of simple living before diving in.

2. A helpful realization to tag on to the decision to simplify is to realize that it’s a process most easily and simply accomplished slowly and mindfully. Bringing the “rat race mentality” of drive, determination and “get the job done no matter what” can be self defeating. So, ease up and enjoy the ride.

3. The next step may be a little more difficult, but it can be accomplished by everyone, even those who consider themselves the exception. Carve out a little space and time for self reflection. Maybe it’s 1 night a week, or a few lunch breaks where you take your bag lunch to a quiet park bench, or a weekend when you tell everyone you’re going away and then you don’t. Or you go somewhere quiet and serene with only one agenda — to be with yourself. It’s fine to take your family as long as they agree to participate in the purpose of the trip, which is steps 4, 5 and 6.

4. In the carved out space and time begin to examine what’s truly important to you. What gives you joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, what makes you laugh or cry movingly. Look beyond just the momentary surface level stuff and see what provides deeper moments of meaning. Remember back to your childhood years. Were there moments with your family that, while they may have appeared routine in the moment, you now remember fondly?

5. While examining what brings joy and satisfaction to your life, also spend some time examining your values. As you do, notice whether your current life is consistent with those values. If not, where have they been compromised, and how might a simpler, less complex life allow for a renewal of those values.

6. Last of all look at your life to see where it’s primarily being shaped by a particular lifestyle, as in the “keeping up with the Jones mentality” and where it’s being shaped by your values. One useful way to do this is to draw a line down the middle of a page of paper. On one side write “Lifestyle-based Life,” on the other write “Value-based Life.” Then, looking at your life write down whatever fits under the two headings.

For example, does the car or cars you own represent your values or your lifestyle, how about where you live — the home and neighborhood, how about your job, how much or little you’re involved in the community, etc? By the way, there’s nothing wrong with lifestyle. It’s just not a very good way to shape a life if you’re interested in joy and satisfaction. There are also no right answers. Each person must look and make the call for themselves.

7. By this time in the process you’ll probably see some areas that could benefit from simplification since it appears that a “value-based life” and a simple life go hand-in-hand. If you’re into making lists, you might want to list what possible actions you could take towards that aim, then prioritize them. Or just pick two or three activities that would be fun, engaging and would move you further down the simplicity path.

8. Simplifying your finances is often one of the most strategic steps to take for people who have identified that much of their life energy has been devoted more to lifestyle building than value building. A very powerful and effective process for financial transformation is outlined in the bestseller, “Your Money or Your Life” (YMORL), by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. I highly recommend this book for a more thorough look at this area of life.

In the meantime, here are a few steps to get you started:

a. Find out where your money goes. Most people don’t have a good handle on where all their money goes. The simplest way to determine this is to keep track for a few weeks or months where every cent is spent. This one step can be very revealing because once you realize that you’re spending $5 a day on Cappuccino which equates to $150 a month or $1800 a year, you realize that it might be possible to streamline your budget starting here.

b. Start to measure your spending against how much fulfillment and satisfaction you’re receiving. If you think of money as something that you exchange your life energy for, you’re spending naturally becomes more conscious.

c. Determine how much money you’re exchanging your life energy for in your job or career. Again, most people don’t realize or take into account how much it costs them to work, so they often have an inflated view of how much money they make. To figure this out, take your base amount of pay and subtract all the expenditures that are directly related to work. In other words, if you weren’t working would you be eating your lunches out each day? How about the cost of that 30 minute commute (also factor in the commute time as hours worked)? How much do you spend on business attire? Factor all of this to determine how much you’re really taking home. People often realize from this exercise that instead of making $20/hr at work, their actual income is only $8-10. Suddenly, the $5 Cappuccino is costing them 30 minutes of their life energy. It can be a revealing experience going through this process.

9. Many people realize from step 8 that one big area of their life that could be simplified and would have an accumulative effect elsewhere is to eliminate their debt. Debt-free living is a great way to live life. I call it living a life paid in full. Much of the lifestyle we’ve come to expect and take for granted in this country comes with an incredibly high price tag, especially when we’re “buying now and paying later.” Besides YMORL another beneficial resource on debt elimination is the “Financial Independence Network Limited” (FINL). FINL provides simple and effective methods to eliminate all debt within 5-7 years for most people while also providing the inspiration and encouragement to keep you on track.

10. The last step is patience and persistence. Remember, it’s taken most people years, perhaps even generations to develop the complex lives they live. It’s unrealistic to think it can be all turned around at once. Besides, it’s the journey that we’re here for, not the destination. Enjoy the ride!

©2005 Brad Swift of Life On Purpose Institute, Inc. This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box are included

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4. Your Simplification Tip

The Time Audit

Most people have heard of a time audit, though this incredibly informative activity is quite often brushed aside. “Oh, I did that once.” or “I don’t have time for that!” (LOL) or “I don’t need to do this, I already know how I spend my time.”

Now, if you are totally content with how you spend your day, how you feel at the end of the day, and the progress you are making towards your goals, then OK, you’re off the hook. If not, keep reading and get ready to track your time.

There are two parts.

1. Create an Ideal Time Budget of how you’d like to be spending your day to be in line with your values and goals. To get the juices flowing, here are my categories (time per activity not included): sleep; yoga & meditation; personal care; client work/work for others; admin/email/phone calls; high payoff activities (networking, marketing/sales, delivery systems); reading/education; social/nature/free time.

The challenge: narrowing your category times down to 24 hours in a day!

2. Audit your time spent. What activities are you actually doing over the course of the day and how much time is spent on each? Described below are two methods, a hardcopy method using a notebook, and the digital version using an Excel spreadsheet.

Hardcopy version: Keep a notebook with you at all times. Record the amount of time spent in each activity you engage in. Example:
7 hours – sleep
45 minutes – shower and dress (personal care)
1 hour – make and eat breakfast, read the paper, clean up kitchen (personal care)
1.5 hour – read and respond to emails, make phone calls (admin)
3 hours – travel time + client appointment (client work)
45 minutes – lunch (personal care—unless it was a networking lunch)
and so on, all day, every day for at least a week.

You can write/type up your Ideal Time Budget as a list and make columns for each day. Record the amount of time spent in each activity category by day. Then compare with your Ideal Time Budget from above.

Excel version: Courtesy of Bob Walsh at Safari Software (http://safarisoftware.com)

1. Download and open the file. (Here’s link to it; you can also find it in the left column of this page. )
2. Change the dates for your use in row 3 after “Week of:” and in row 17 above the days of the week.
3. Determine a max. of 10 activities you engage in daily. Enter them in column B, rows 6-15, replacing “activity 1” “activity 2” etc. Note the 00:00 to the right of this is a formula so don’t change or type in these cells.
4. For each 15 minute increment of the day, type in the number that corresponds with the activity done, under the day you are in.
5. You’ll see the totals are automatically calculated for you after the names of the activities.
6. Since this is a Weekly timeframe, multiply your Ideal Time Budget by the number of days tracked and compare.
7. Rejoice! Or, hunker down and figure out where you can make some changes to get them more in line with each other.

The point isn’t to be robotic, the point is to give you a reality check on how you are actually spending your time. With the details spelled out in your audit, you can make informed decisions to better support your values and goals.

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Spread simplicity - forward The Simplifier to your friends and colleagues!
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5. In the News

If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!

Keep it simple (The Press-Enterprise - Inland Southern California)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/yylhpf
This is a good overview of the modern movement toward simplification.

Averting seasonal/holiday insanity (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne, IN)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/yy6vav
It’s the fabled “holiday season” again—which means it’s time to lose your mind with stress and franticness. Unless…

Basement? Don’t waste it (McClatchy Tribune - Wilkes-Barre, PA)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/y5kro3
Basements, which are dreadfully under- or -mis-used in many cases, can be one of the most useful areas of house. This article breaks it down for you.

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

The Best of October

October was a pretty low-volume month in terms of blog posts (see the “Oct. 28 06 status check” link). In fact, we could probably call this “The Most of October”. ;-)
Actually, since we’re the editors, we could call it whatever we want. But we digress…on with the posts!

(Click the title to read a given entry.)

Where is that file?

Waking up before the birds

Meditation beginnings

How can meditation help you de-stress?

Oct. 28 06 status check

clutter-busting with a friend

Traveling without bags

7. Keep Smiling

Laughter clubs

Laughter is the best medicine - everybody knows that! But how many times do you actually laugh each day? 5? 10 or 15? Did you know that children laugh an average of 400 times a day?

Now, picture a room full of grown adults, laughing their heads off, just for the sake of doing it. No jokes or funny movies playing, no tickling, no laughing gas…just a “let’s just laugh and laugh because it feels great” kind of thing.

Sounds pretty weird, eh? But put that reservation aside for a moment and think about how it might feel. Exhilarating, invigorating…and probably a lot of fun, right?

Well, you don’t have to go through the Alice in Wonderland looking glass to find these zany laugh-ins of which we speak—though it would help if you lived in India, where the “laughter club” movement started. But even if you don’t live in the subcontinent, it’s likely that a laughter club is in your vicinity, or will be before long. (There are more than 5000 clubs worldwide.) And if not, you could always start one.

Still doubting? (Or, ironically, snickering?) Check out these results: “Many members claim that the laughter clubs have changed their entire outlook on life. In fact, 72% of Laughter Club members report improved interpersonal relations with co-workers, 85% say it has improved their self-confidence and 66% suggest it has improved their ability to concentrate.”

For more, check out the website for Laughter Medicine, by the “founder” of the laughter clubs, Dr. Madan Kataria. Or just browse through a Google search for laughter clubs.

Why not try it right now? Go on, be brave…just laugh out loud, for the fun of it! We tried it, and 100% of us report enjoyable results. :-)

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Thanks for reading!

Publication Information
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The Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com