SIMPLIFY

SIMPLIFY

“I want my life to be more complicated.” How often have you met a person who has made this declaration? Never? Just because we don’t say it, doesn’t mean we don’t live it. What I do talk about for my life and converse with others frequently about is the need to simplify, to do less and yet be more.

Typically, when one is feeling overwhelmed, over extended, stretched to the limits, the first thought is how to manage all of it. To the already full plate, one will often add a goggle search or the reading of a book on the subject matter. The result may be learning more about doing less than actually doing less. I can assure you that I am not speaking hypothetically.

People - friends, foes, and family -employers and organizations, will extract and squeeze as much out of us as we allow. The idiom, “If you want something done ask a person who is already busy,” is to some degree, true. You can, and people will have you practice the second part of Newton’s first law of motion … “an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” In the case of an over extended life, the unbalanced force can either increase the speed, propelling you toward the edge of the cliff or it can slow you down.

Slowing down (simplifying) is quite easy and difficult simultaneously. When others (include yourself in these others) are telling you to do and asking you for more -STOP – do less. Your friends and family don’t necessarily NEED more from you. They need more of the “it” you possess that makes you capable of doing more. You can’t give the “it” to them. They can find it within themselves should they choose to do so. The easier route for them to take is to demand, ask, request that you do more.

What is true for others regarding you, is true of you regarding yourself. You and I don’t need more time or more of self to spread around. Time is eternal but your time is finite. We need more of the indefatigable spirit we possess, and others see, to rise and help us make better decisions about our finite time.

Better human beings and less complicated lives aren’t created by squeezing more and more into every waking moment, or robbing sleep and rest of its proper due, or by saying “yes” to every request. We become better humans, friends, employees, and family members when we are as comfortable with the absence of being overwhelmed and over extended as we seemingly are in their presence. AND we live longer, happier, and fuller lives. SIMPLIFY!

1 John 2:17

PONDER THIS THOUGHT --- The complexity of my life may be related to my inability to say, “No.”