10 Most Important Things You Should Do To Simplify Your Life

There seems to be a general consensus these days that we live in a world where consumption is at an all time high. More seems to be better and somehow reflects our place in society. Success is measured by more money, a big house full of countless gadgets, cars, phones, and even by how many friends we have.

So what happened? Is the world more happy now than it was when we led more simple lives? Has the introduction of consumerism really increased our mental well-being?

The answer is NO. Everyone knows the benefits of having a good clear out – throwing out unnecessary and unwanted items can not only free up literal space around us but also frees us of much-needed space in our minds. Living a more simplified life can improve how we think, feel and move around in the world. Here are 10 ways to simplify your life while creating space for happiness and well-being.

1. Abandon Your Negative Thoughts

As humans, we spend a lot of our time caught up in negative thoughts that brings nothing good into our lives. While we should deal with negative emotions and not shy away from them, negative thoughts are much more dangerous as they can grow rapidly and cause unhappiness and do nothing to improve our quality of life. Negative thoughts such as bitterness, resentment, jealousy and hate do absolutely nothing for us except ultimately make us miserable.

We have great control of our thoughts so choose to cut down the amount of negative thoughts and feelings you have. Learn to forgive and choose to think and see the positives in life.

2. Reduce The Amount of Screen Time

We spend so much time either staring at a computer screen or the TV. With binge-watching shows the latest addiction, we can often end up spending hours of our day with square eyes especially if, like most people, we use a computer for work as well. While TV, watching endless YouTube videos or playing computer games can be a nice form of escapism, too much can have a negative impact on your outlook and attitude. You don’t realise the amount of time you’re robbing yourself of that could be spent doing more beneficial and productive activities.

3. Use Fewer Empty Words

This isn’t to say stop talking! However, note the types of words you utter. Are they positive? Honest? Meaningful? Or are they purely coming out of your mouth in the form of gossip, hate or jealousy? Take note of what you say – we’re not perfect and most of us have a tendency to indulge in words we know we shouldn’t use. Eliminate the empty words that bring no real meaning to what you think or want to say. Quality is always better than quantity.

4. Cut Down On Social Media

Social media is so present in our lives that there’s rarely anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter profile. But despite there being positive aspects to social media, being constantly bombarded with ‘friend’s’ lives can take its toll on us. Sometimes when life isn’t quite going our way we compare ourselves to others but we often forget that we’re basically looking at people’s highlight reels. We never really get to see the full picture and this can cause us to feel dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

Simplify your life by cutting down on social media – not only for your own sanity but to stop the endless checking every five minutes. Getting those notifications may make us feel important but it’s fleeting and empty importance that doesn’t actually add anything to our lives. You can gain a whole lot more time by having a break once in a while.

5. De-Clutter Your Possessions

The amount of material possessions we own can have a detrimental effect on our lives. They distract you from the people in your lives and allows you to ignore the world around you and even your values. Being surrounded by stuff and having the need for the latest gadgets can often be a sign that we are focusing our happiness in the wrong way. In reality, they take away our energy and attention (and not to mention our money) that could be directed in more beneficial ways. Having less things creates more appreciation for the things we do have and cultivates a happier mindset.

6. Eliminate Your Debt

Money creates so many problems for a lot of us. Our relationship with money defines how we end up in debt, rich or poor and many of us don’t have a healthy relationship with it. If you’re in debt, start to make steps to get yourself out of it. Set up a monthly payment plan no matter how little it is. Any actions towards reducing debt, despite how small, will bring a sense of financial freedom for the next day, month or year.

7. Eat Fewer Unhealthy Foods

It’s really important to be aware of what we put into our bodies. Make a conscious effort to eliminate constant bad foods from your diet. Foods high in refined sugar, salt, trans fats, artificial flavourings, and refined grains can be toxic for us if we eat them on a regular basis. Leading a healthy life can rapidly bring down the amount of illnesses we encounter especially as we enter old age. Cutting down on bad foods will not only help you feel much better and give you more energy but it will also simplify your life in the long run.

8. Reduce The Number Of Goals You Set Yourself

In the effort to make ourselves better people and improve ourselves we often set goals – which is great – but having too many goals can prevent us from achieving them because our focus is spread too thinly. By only having one or two important goals, your focus can be more concentrated and your success rate higher. Once you’ve accomplished your goal then start the next one – this will stop any stress and give you a sense of order and a greater sense of accomplishment once it’s done because you know you put 100% attention and effort into it.

9. Stop Multitasking and Eliminate The Need To Be Busy

Like setting too many goals, multitasking in everyday life can cause unwanted stress and anxiety. Don’t take on too much and feel that being busy means you’re leading a full life. By being busy and taking on too much, we rob ourselves of our present moment and it’s really important to be aware of our present moment to be happy. Multitasking can also lead to burn-out if we’re running around trying to do too many things at once. Simplify your life by completing one thing at a time and maybe actually sit and relax in the moments in between. This way of doing things will do wonders for your physical and mental well-being.

10. Release Yourself From Time Commitments

We often hold on to the concept of time – time is running out, the hours and days seem to pass far too quickly. We live our lives around time commitments and everything needs to be done by this or that time. Try to let go of the need to complete tasks, activities or goals in a specific time limit. Not only does this free your mind from the pressure but allows you to do things at your own pace – a pace that’ll make you feel more happy.

Remember, findings small ways to simplify your life can make a huge difference to your mindset and outlook on life. Simplification means freeing up more time to appreciate and live in the present moment that will lead to a more free and happy mind.




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7 Ways to Beat Procrastination and Start Taking Action Today!

With the advent of the Internet, smartphones, and Wi-Fi, low productivity has become one of the most prevalent diseases across the globe. It will be a long battle to regain our attention control, and I recommend you to take baby steps during the process.
Below are 7 simple ways to help you beat procrastination so you finally take action on the goals you have set.

1 No More "Someday I will... "
Recognize that the best time to take action is 10 years ago, the next best time is now.
Stop living in the delusion that you have millions days in the future to pursue something your heart desires.
If there's something that you really want to do - whether it's to start a blog teaching people your cooking expertise, or making the phone call and ask your crush out, or giving a surprise visit to your parents whom you haven't seen for a year - you've got to plan when you are going to do it.
Time doesn't wait.
According to Bronnie Ware, author of the bestselling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, the number one thing people regret is that "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
Procrastination may be a short-term relief, but it's not going to get you anywhere.
Choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret.

2 Take Massive Imperfect Courageous Action
Forget about perfectionism, just aim for the "85% good enough" standard and get it out there.
Your life-changing products or services aren't going to change a single life until you push it out to the market.
Your relentless studying and reading won't do humanity any good until you go out and implement the wisdom.
Your genius ideas aren't going to turn into a billion dollar business until you pitch it in the Shark Tank.
The key to success, especially entrepreneurial success, is your speed of execution.
Results come from nothing but massive imperfect courageous actions, not affirmations, visualizations or meditations.

3 Action Leads To Motivation
Do you think you need motivation first before you can take action?
Do you believe you need to wait for the "perfect moment or timing" before you can take action?
Do you trust yourself that you are good enough to at least start taking action?
In the self-help world, many people fall into the thinking trap that they need to "prepare more" before they can really initiate the task they want, whether it's about starting a conversation with a lady, starting an online business, or starting to workout.
Sadly, these preparations often become excuses for them not to take action.
The truth is motivation comes when you take that scary action.
If you're willing to force yourself to "do that thing" for just 5 minutes, you'll be surprised that action is easier than you thought and you'll be motivated to continue taking action and make some real progress.

4 Plan Your Day the Night Before
You never want to wake up not knowing exactly how the next 16 hours will be.
Planning should always happen the night before, so that the moment you open your eyes, you are in automation mode and you don't need to spend extra thoughts to craft out your day.
Before you know it, you're already spending your first 2 hours doing the one big thing of the day that will yield you 80% of the progress.

5 Stop Multitasking
Science has proven that our brain is incapable of multitasking.
All we are doing is reacting to that stimulus, switching our attention to a different task, finishing the unimportant stuff, coming back to the original task having no idea where we are at, spending extra time & energy to get back into flow.
CNN World has reported that switching tasks make you dumber than being stoned, because our IQ drops by 10 points when we switch tasks while our IQ drops by 5 points when we smoke marijuana.
Don't want to be an idiot?
Time to cut off all the emails, phone calls, Facebook, app notifications, news updates, or chit-chat with your colleagues while you work!

6 Chunk Things into Baby Steps
I am annoyed by this cliché but it's true: You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
One main reason we procrastinate is because we feel it's too difficult, too long and too much to do it.
Big goals are fantastic, but when it comes to action, you want to make them seem as easy as possible.
So chunk them into mini segments so that the pleasure of completion outweighs the pain of taking action.

7 Reward & Celebrate
Nothing pisses your brain off more than enduring some painful discipline for a long time and not getting rewarded at the end of the process!
You've got to reward yourself kindly at the end so that you anchor massive pleasure to the beautiful moment of task completion.
Pet yourself on the back so that when you start another boring, mundane, yet significant campaign, you can motivate yourself to finish it as soon as possible and arrive at the end of the pleasurable tunnel!
I'm going to reward myself now, how about you?

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