Monday, January 18, 2016

DEFINING SIMPLE IN OUR LIVES

As I started this blog, I quickly realized that "simple" is not such an easy word to define. Sure, Merriam-Webster offers up a good bare bones definition:
"not hard to understand or do
having few parts : not complex or fancy not special or unusual"
But, defining "simple" and "simplicity" in our lives is not so easy. I've heard it said that the truth defies simplicity. And, in a busy, complex, and confusing world, the truth is life is not simple.

We are constantly living at a fast pace. We feel hurried and harried. Too many things to do, in too little time. We strive to be busy, and never idle. Hell, we've even built our own proverbs around the ills of idleness (idleness being the devil's workshop).
Simple, as a concept and idea to be incorporated into life, turns out to be living at slower, more deliberate pace. Filling your life with meaningful people and activities. Finding and cultivating your passions. It is not going with the flow of the fast-paced, consumer-driven world we live in today. By going with the flow, you'll soon find yourself among the flotsam and jetsam of discarded products, fads, and trends -- that quickly move from being in vogue to being over.

Keeping up with what is popular in the moment is a futile exercise. Your grandparents don't know the difference between Kim and Khloe Kardashian, but do know the difference between shit and Shinola, you can bet on that!

In order to incorporate the idea of simple into our living, we have to first turn down the noise of the outside world, and turn up the volume on what matters to us the most - friends, family, passions, etc. It means tuning out the world that is sold to us everyday, whether it be through radio, TV, or internet. Those channels try to whet our appetites for things, or imprint on us the ideas of what success in life looks like.

You can feel free to wax poetic with Thoreau or Tyler Durden (Fight Club), whomever you like most, but the idea is the same. You gain a VIP membership into simple living by figuring out what is essentially and necessary in your life, and then cutting away, or cutting out what is not. Altogether, that ends up not being a definition as much as it is a pattern of thinking that gets us back to what is important.  

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