Simplify

Here's a question: when did we become convinced that more is always better? That being busy is a badge of honor? That getting eight hours of sleep is optional and four will do the trick? That more money equals more happiness? 

Sometimes, the tasks and to-dos feel like waves of the ocean that just keep coming. And not the gentle waves lapping the shore but the kind of big crashing waves that tell us a huge storm is brewing just out of sight. On those days, I sometimes consider going "Walden Pond"—embracing my inner Thoreau and walking away from my email, my phone and the vast majority of my responsibilities. I romanticize abandoning the busy and seeking simplicity. Then I remember how much I love my life and all of the people, projects, adventures, and challenges with which I have it filled.

Nevertheless, I suffer from a lifetime habit of creating too much busy, taking on too many projects, buying too much stuff and holding onto things that no longer serve me. I have a junk drawer that I can barely open, t-shirts I never wear, an inbox that, well, don't ask, 5,313 photos on my phone (and 26 different photo editing apps), and 94 things on my five different "to do" lists (I just counted them).

It's too much. And I suspect that many of you share the sense that there are too many days during which you are treading water instead of floating on your back in the sun, or swimming with purpose to the other shore.

I don't want to feel that way. I want there to be space and time for me to not just do the things I want to do, but to savor them. I want to remember that simple is good and that sometimes the act of simplifying is just that: an act. Something that requires intention and purpose and, yup, even work. 

As we head into October with its cooler days and longer nights and the holiday season lurking just around the next bend, I think there is no better time to take stock of where we have over-complicated and simplify where we can.