I realized I have not written an actual post on simplifying, yet it is one of the main practical tasks of meaningful living and becoming a happier person. I know there are probably some skeptical people out there, since we live in such a consumerist society where we are taught that more is better.

It makes me kind of sad that we are pressured to keep up with the Joneses. This causes a stressful life, where we compare ourselves to the success of others and the material possessions or status they have achieved. Life is not about that, at least in my perspective. I’d rather know that I lived my life meaningfully, that I gave back, inspired people, focused on my passions, my friends and family, and didn’t stress myself worrying about having the latest and greatest. That’s just exhausting and a waste of precious time and energy.

I can’t even begin to tell you the mental shift you get when you start to focus on what really matters.

Call it minimalism/simplicity/essentialism, they all boil down to the same thing: Figure out what is the most important to you, and get rid of everything else.

All of that extra “stuff” is just a distraction to living the life that we want. And I don’t even mean the physical stuff, but other areas as well can be simplified:

• Material things: getting rid of the material possessions that don’t serve us
• Time commitments: only saying yes to things that bring us value
• Debt: spending less money on things allows us to save more money
• Our computers: clearing out all of the junk files and pointless emails. Unsubscribing from junk mail.
• Clothing and shoe collections: only keeping what is used most frequently
• Food quality: choosing to eat healthy foods only, cutting out the bad chemicals such as caffeine, alcohol, sugar, processed foods
• Time spent online: spending less time wasting our hours away surfing the internet (I am very guilty of this one as I’m a self-help and bloggoholic haha)
• Negative self-talk: learning to control our thoughts and not allowing negativity in
• Distractions/vices: getting rid of any habit that is not good for us
• Bad people: cutting our ties from those who are bad for our souls and our growth

And the benefits!

• Less stuff to clean (yay!)
• Less stress
• Save more money
• More time to do what we love and what is important
• Less worry about our possessions, they don’t own us
• More freedom
• More environmentally friendly and less consumption
• Less focus on the superficial
• More confidence
• Less fear of failure
• Having high quality things
• More happiness!
• More time to focus on health, precious people, and our passions
• No more keeping up with the Joneses
• Time slows down and being more present
• Inner peace and a zen state of mind

But it’s one of those things, it doesn’t really sink in until you try it for yourself. The idea that we can let go of constantly wanting things is so liberating, you’ll never go back.

Let me know if you already live like this. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or send me an email at lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com.

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