How to Simplify your Life in 5 Steps

 

 How to Simplify Your Life in 5 Steps

Dr. Tim Ong

 The modern lifestyle is a stressful lifestyle. It is based on the belief that more is better – more things to do, more things accomplished, more gains, more activities, and more sense stimulation. Thus the need to have more money and more possessions prevails. However, such a life is not necessarily more fulfilling. In fact, it often leads to a more stressful life, more sickness and more frustrations.

Great rewards await those who can simplify their lives. A simple life can be more fulfilling, more peaceful and more beneficial to you. It can be more conducive to a happier and healthier life, and it can improve your relationships tremendously.

 Here are 5 steps to simplify your life:

 1. Prioritize

The first thing to do is to spend some time to decide what is truly important to you. Is it your health, time with loved ones or service to community? It might interest you to know that people in their death beds do not worry about how much money or properties they have accumulated.  Rather, they are concern about the quality of the relationships they have, and they are particularly worried about any unfinished business or unresolved conflicts with their loved ones. Rather than repairing damaged relationships when we are dying, is it not wiser to cultivate quality relationships while we are still healthy and alive?

2. Slow Down

Do not measure your life by the number of tasks you do each day. Many people squeeze as many tasks as they can into their day, thinking that the more they do, the more they achieve. In doing so, they are able to accomplish more tasks but at the expense of truly living and enjoying the tasks they do. They sacrifice quality for the number. The way to truly live is to slow down and enjoy each moment and task that you do. Make each task meaningful. Be present in the moment instead of rushing through the task. When you have worked out your priorities (in #1), you will be able to know what is important and what is not, and you can then reduce the unnecessary tasks, leaving you with more time for the more important tasks.

3. Discard the Unnecessary

Take time to unclutter your life. Begin by uncluttering your possessions. Look at your table.  Check out the storerooms. Are there anything there that you can discard? Are you hoarding too many things in your life? The habit of hoarding is a sign of insecurity, a manifestation of fear.  The more things you need to feel safe indicates the more fear in you. Material possessiveness is just one sign of this insecurity. Look within your mind and you will probably see that there is more sense of insecurity in your thoughts. Learn to let go of those fear too. The more you let go, the lighter you will feel, and paradoxically the less you fear. Remember that there are many people who have been able to live with far less than what you have. Note also that the more you feed this hoarding habit, the stronger it gets and the more insecure you will feel.

 4. Reduce Information Overload

Our modern life is bombarded by information from all directions. We are reachable every minute with our mobile phones, and we are constantly connected to news via the internet, emails, social networks and the traditional newspapers, televisions and radios. If we want to find some peace of mind, we need to reduce all these bombardments. We need to be able to switch off our phones, computers, televisions and radios, and reward ourselves with some time free from all these intrusions. We need to spend some quiet and uninterrupted time with ourselves and our loved ones.

 5. Learn Gratitude

Rather than cultivating a habit of feeding our wants and needs, which is like a bottomless blackhole that can never be filled, it is more fruitful to cultivate a habit of reducing our wants and needs. Learn instead to be grateful for whatever we have. We can be grateful for all the things that went right in our life, such as the party we planned for our child’s birthday, a wonderful weekend trip with the family or simply spending a restful evening with our loved ones. We can also be grateful for the things that did not go wrong in our life. Many of the things we take for granted can go wrong. For example, our daily trip to work can be met with an accident or a flat tire or unexpected natural disaster can take just about everything away from us. The fact that they did not go wrong is something to be grateful for. Finally, even if something did go wrong, we can still be grateful for the lesson it has taught us.

When we slow down our life, we get to listen to our heart. We learn to appreciate every moment and every interaction with others more deeply. Our senses can become more acute and sharp, and life is more likely to unfold beautifully before our eyes. Try it and you will find that it is easy to fall in love with the simple life.

 

About the Author:

Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor with keen interests in self improvement, mind science and spirituality.  He is the author of “The Book of Personal Transformation” and “From Fear to Love: A Spiritual Journey”. You can find more articles on self improvement at his websites at http://theselfimprovementsite.com and http://mindscience101.com

 

Which one are you?

I am a quiet achiever.  For me, I find that it is more of a strength than a weakness.  i do see the fact that sometimes people can take advantage.  I am aware of that.  The key is to be very careful and very aware of what’s going on around you.  It won’t hurt to be a little paranoid, especially in the workplace.

Also, surround yourself with good friends.  I’ve been blessed with a bunch.  I will forever be grateful for that.

Another good article from Anna Johnson –

 

Champion Personality

Have you ever felt drained, tired, stuck or just that you’ve had enough?  These 4 questions might move you to push a little harder.  Just a little bit is all you need to get out of that pit that you are in.  Read up and learn… it’s been a reminder for me.

Another wise article from Anna Johnson –

“Just When You’re About To Give Up… Do This…”

Whether it’s saving money… writing a novel… losing weight… getting fit… building a business… overcoming an addiction… or doing anything else worthwhile…

…chances are that at some point along the way it’s gonna get tough.

Your mind or body or both will be screaming for you to stop.

That it’s all too hard. That you just can’t continue. That you’ll never achieve your goal. That you should just quit right now.

And you know what? It’s what you do at that very moment that will separate you from the wannabes, also-rans, and, dare I say, losers.

You’ll keep on going. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna be tough. But you’ll press on regardless.

Why will you continue when everything and everyone (including part of YOU) will be telling you to quit? Because you’ll answer four simple questions:

1. Why are you doing this?
2. How will you feel when you reach your goal?
3. How will you feel if you give up?
4. Can you just go a little further?

Your answers should leave you in no doubt that you CAN and WILL push onward.

And by the way, when you’re in super pain, it’s Question 4 that might well be the clincher. If you can go just a little further… and then a little further… and then a little further… the end will be in sight before you know it.

Want to see people fighting onward through incredible pain when their bodies are urging them to stop?

Watch the Olympics. In particular, watch any middle or long distance swimming, cycling or running event. I GUARANTEE that every one of those athletes reaches a pain crescendo where their bodies want to do nothing but stop. But Olympic athletes don’t quit – they push harder. And that’s WHY they are Olympians.

By simply pushing on despite the odds… despite the pain… YOU too are a champion.

 

Law of Attraction…

Ok, I know this can be controversial.  We can go on and believe (or not believe) this “law” all we want but this article from Jack Canfield makes real sense.  I do believe it but I would not go all the way to the extreme and assume reasons for people getting “not favorable” days.  I know for a fact that one’s attitude affects everything that we do.  If we’re excited, things tend to come out right.  If we are dreary and whiny, everything seems too hard to handle.  Is it vibrations?  Maybe, or maybe not.  Looking at the positive side of every situation greatly affects the outcome.  Enjoy this reading:

Utilizing The Law of Attraction
by Jack Canfield

The law of attraction states that you will attract into your life–whether wanted or unwanted–whatever you give your energy, focus, and attention to.

You are constantly giving off vibrations of energy when you think and feel. These vibrations can be picked up and received by other people. That’s why people say, “he has good vibes,” or “he gives off bad vibes.” You are constantly giving off vibrations — literally!

If you’re feeling excited, enthusiastic, passionate, happy, joyful, loving, appreciative, abundant, prosperous, relaxed and peaceful, you are giving off positive vibrations.

On the other hand, if you are feeling bored, anxious, worried, confused, sad, lonely, hurt, angry, resentful, guilty, disappointed, frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed out, or depressed, then you are giving off negative vibrations.

The law of attraction states that the universe responds to whatever you are offering — by giving you more of whatever you are vibrating. It doesn’t care whether it is good for you or not; it simply responds to your vibration.

If you saw the film The Secret, you saw this explained in great detail.

The problem is that most of the time, you are not aware of what vibration you are offering. You are simply responding to things outside of you–current events, the news, how people treat you, the stock market, how much money you are making, how your children are doing in school, whether or not your favorite sports team wins–and then having a feeling that is either positive or negative.

When you are simply responding unconsciously to what happens around you, you tend to stay “stuck” in your current condition. This is why most people’s lives never seem to change very much. They get stuck in a repeating cycle of recreating the same reality over and over by the vibration they are sending out.

It works like this… First you observe what you currently have and are currently receiving in your life. You call this your “reality.” You respond to what you observe with a feeling, positive or negative, which then gives off that vibration to the universe. The law of attraction then responds to this vibration and brings you more of what you were vibrating. This keeps the cycle going over and over, until you choose to change it through the exertion of your will. You are a victim of your lack of awareness of the law of attraction.

The Process of Intentional Creation

It is possible to get out of this vicious cycle and create what you want instead of continually recreating what you already have. It is a simple three step process that you can begin immediately.

If you’ve been implementing the action steps I coach you through in The KEY to Living the Law of Attraction, you have already begun this process.

Step 1: Identify what you truly desire & eliminate the negative

It is important to focus on what you want rather than what you don’t want. You must state it in the positive and filter out the words don’t, not and no. Remember, your mind works in pictures and if you say I don’t want to be mad, you are creating the picture and thus the vibration of being mad. You must create the opposite of what you don’t want.

Step 2: Raise your vibration level

Your job in stage two is to create a vibrational match for that which you say you want to have. How would you be feeling if you already had those things–the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the mount of money that you want to have?

Your job is to identify what makes you feel good and do more of it, then learn not to tolerate your negative feelings.

Affirmations are an important component in raising your vibrational level to what it is you want. Remember, the law of attraction does not respond to the words you use or the thoughts you think. It simply responds to how you feel about what you say and how you feel about what you think.

For information on how to create even more effective affirmations, review chapter 10 in The Key to Living the Law of Attraction, where you’ll find my guidelines for creating effective visualizations.

Step 3. Release it and allow it.

In this third step you simply release your affirmation, your vibration, and your feelings to the universe to take care of your “request” or “order” as I call it. But you have to abstain from any doubts. If you doubt you can have it in any way, then you are not allowing it. You are pushing it away and you end up with contradictory messages to the universe

It is only when the contradictory thoughts, talk, and images are removed that your desired results will manifest. The faster you remove your resistance, the faster your dreams can be realized.

© 2008 Jack Canfield

 

Visualize and Affirm your Dream

Another great article from Jack Canfield…

Visualize and Affirm Your Desired Outcomes:
A Step-by-Step Guide

You have an awesome power within you that most of us have never been taught to use. Elite athletes use it. The super rich use it. And peak performers in all fields are now starting to use it. That power is called visualization.

The daily practice of visualizing your dreams as already complete can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams. Visualization of your goals and desires accomplishes four very important things.