7 Steps to Simplifying Your Wonderful Life

What would simplifying your wonderful life feel like? Look like? Do you crave having less to contend with?

Before you know it, Christmas will be here again! What a wonderful time of year! The festively decorated house, stockings, yummy cinnamon rolls and egg casserole all ready for Christmas morning – at least that’s how we do it at my house. Christmas dinner is prepped, including everyone’s favorites. Carefully selected gifts wrapped and arranged under the tree waiting to be delighted in.

Ugh! I’m exhausted just visualizing it and thinking about all the work it takes to make it all happen! I’m prone to adding more and more to make the day more memorable, but nearly making myself crazy in the process.

Kids Keep It Simple!

Here’s the funny part…back when my kids were small, and now with my seven grandchildren, it happens over and over again! They open up the presents that were chosen with great care only to set the gift aside and spend hours playing with the box it came in.

Kids have a way of delighting in the simple things!

On the other hand, as adults, we are real pros at complicating life in all sorts of ways! We hang on to items when we don’t really need and pack our schedules so full we don’t actually enjoy what we’ve filled our lives with. What if you began intentionally simplifying your life?

There’s even a whole magazine out there devoted to inspiring us to live in a more simplified way if you have the space in your life to read it! Have you picked up an issue of RealSimple recently?

The simple life is one free of clutter, unrushed, and peaceful. It’s focused on what’s most important and free of distractions – all that doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t collect – it savors! Doesn’t that sound deliciously appealing?

Most of us don’t need more excitement in our lives, we need more peace. Can I get an amen?

Over-Complicating?

In nature, things decompose – break down into something simpler. However, as humans the tendency is to add, making life increasingly more and more complex. Before you know it, you’ve created a life that’s tough to keep up with or enjoy.

I frequently hear people expressing how “overwhelmed” they are – a tip off that life is anything but simple.

There will always be moments when circumstances are wild and crazy, but when you stack crazy circumstances on top of an already ridiculously full life – the end result is pure exhaustion.

Maintaining a simple life won’t just happen! It requires boundaries, discipline, and the confidence to make some tough decisions! Having a clear sense of your values – what’s most important to you and your priorities in this season helps! Beware, my simple might not look anything like your simple!

Convinced your life might be even more wonderful if you were to begin simplifying? Here are some changes to consider making:

1. Tackle One Task at a Time

Don’t fool yourself! Trying to do multiple tasks at one time doesn’t help you get more done. Instead, it makes the process less enjoyable and the quality of your work suffers.

Being fully right where you are and focused on just one thing is an amazing feeling! Not to mention it has a way of leaving you feeling significantly less frazzled. Try it! With a little practice it gets easier!

2. Slow Down

A complicated and full life makes you feel a need to hurry. After all, if you don’t, how will get everything done?

Humans weren’t created to be perpetually in motion at break-neck speed! You may be able to keep up that pace for a short while, but eventually it catches up with you and takes a toll on your health, mistakes get made, and it creates issues in your relationships, all of which slow you down in ways that are definitely not fun!

Slowing down, and tackling one thing at a time for that matter, forces you to trust God and it gives Him space to work in your life. It’s actually exciting! Slow and steady wins anyway, right?

3. Prioritize

If you are going to tackle one task at a time in a slower way, it makes sense to put your efforts into what’s most important. That raises the question then: How do you figure out what’s most important?

Surprisingly it isn’t always as straightforward as it seems! It’s the urgent items that scream for our attention, but what’s urgent is not always what is most important! Sometimes things become urgent because you failed to make it a priority in the past.

When it comes to the tasks on your list, ask yourself these two questions:

1. 1. What task will bring me closer to reaching my goals?
   2. What’s the impact of not doing this task?

You must come to grips that you can’t do everything! Try choosing just three tasks each day to focus your energy on. These will be your “Top 3” items to complete. If there’s time leftover, move on to some of the other tasks you’d like to accomplish, but get in the habit of prioritizing – A monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly exercise!

If you’re bent toward productivity like I am, it’s difficult to justify pausing and taking a break. However, after overcoming Lyme disease, I’ve come to appreciate the way breaks help me refocus and get more done! That’s why I prioritize and make space to take breaks, go to bed early, and reflect and journal.

What needs to be more of a priority in your life for you to truly THRIVE?

4. Be Realistic

I get energized by coming up with ideas I want to act on. Even if I didn’t come up with any new ideas from here on out, I think I’d have enough to keep me busy until I’m 103! That’s just how my mind works.

No matter how diligent I am, I rarely accomplish everything I want to in a day. It’s a predictable conversation my husband and I have most every night. He asks how my day was, and I say great – but I didn’t get everything done! Do you relate?

It’s so easy to set out to complete a dozen tasks within a time frame that is humanly impossible. A recipe for frustration and discouragement! That’s why it’s so helpful to focus on your “Top 3” tasks and giving them the attention they deserve. Then at the end of the day choose (and it is a conscious choice to view it this way) to congratulate yourself on what you WERE able to get done. God knows what truly needs to be done in a day and it‘s not always in keeping with what you and I think needs to get done!

If you truly want to simplify your life, you must be more realistic!

5. Just Do Your Best

Did you know that a B+ is nothing to sneeze at? Yep! And that many “C” students are actually incredibly successful in their lives! That’s good news because it means that you don’t have to be perfect or produce A+ work all the time!

Instead, do what you need to do the very best you are able to do it within the time allotted.

Attempting perfection is impossible anyway and it often leads to procrastination. And if you keep putting something off, it won’t get done!

Done is better than never started, even if it isn’t perfect!

6. Say “No” More

The reason your life is full to the point of bursting is primarily your own doing. If you keep saying yes, then there’s no space left in your life. You cheat yourself out of the very activities that nurture YOU when you don’t say no.

Become great at saying “no!” No explanation, just no!

7. Let Go!

Letting go frees up space for you and the new, fresh opportunities that you need and/or want in your life. What do you need to let go of? Don’t forget that it isn’t just stuff you might need to let go of. Consider habits, mindsets, relationships, and more that are not serving you well.

People hang on to stuff for all sorts of emotional reasons. What are the feelings behind whatever you are hanging on?

It’s easy to complicate everything…even the process of simplifying. Don’t try to conquer this list all at once. Changes are more likely to stick if you make them one-by-one. Back to that “tackle one thing at a time!”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to experience more peace and calm in your life? To delight in life’s simple pleasures like kids enjoy the box a gift comes in?

Would your life be more wonderful it if was a little simpler?

Originally posted on 1/2/18, this post has been updated and revised just for you!