Message of the Day - Complexity vs. Simplicity The battle of our daily lives

Good Morning,

 

I keep getting emails and seeing or hearing commercials for products or services which will make our lives easier. Something to save us time, something to do more with less, or something to change the way we do things entirely, and some of those come with screaming announcers, right Billy! It all sounds so appealing, but we know it is a trap. The more time we free up, the more things we will find to fill up our lives to do (or our bosses and loved ones give to us the second they perceive we have a free nano-second or more).

 

Think about all of the ‘time saving’, ‘organizationally efficient’, ‘faster & more efficient’ stuff we use on a daily basis. These things, and there are many of them, tend to make our lives more complex. We add to our daily rituals and perform many new tasks which free up our time to do more rituals and tasks.

 

We can swiffer the floors, grab meals on the go, drive through most types of stores, email – text – call anyone almost anywhere, at any time, etc.

 

All of this sounds nice but what happened to simplicity? Taking a stroll in the park (wait, let me see on my calendar when I can fit that in, yes, three Thursdays from now between 1:00 – 1:30 when I am only double booked).

 

If we take a step back we may see ourselves not so much as empowered and equipped people taking control of every moment of our lives, maximizing our potential and capitalizing on our knowledge, rather we may start to appear as prisoners of an overly technological prison-world. Living in a world where we are in a forced race against the Jones’ and every second and penny spent counts. Oh yeah, we are two laps behind in the race because after we finish each lap, or hit each milestone, two or more goals appear, and before we can take a breather of accomplishment or reflection, we are off racing again.

 

We work toward retirement, but look at the retired; they are also in a similar race following Parkinson’s Law of filling up every loose second with something to do.

 

Maybe we need a little more simplicity, or as others call it: Margin, in our lives where we can have some more sane moments and slow the train down for a few days, hours or even several minutes if we can.

 

 

 

I will wait for you to stop laughing at my presumptuous folly…

 

 

 

We can slow down and simplify our lives, but the key is doing it NOW, in small doses. Give yourself five minutes a day where you just sit and close your eyes and think. At first, you may fall asleep, but over time you will learn to appreciate the silence and quiet. Try to expand this time, maybe start reading a bit each night or each morning, or sometime during the day.

 

We are entitled to US time. And yes, we will have to fight for it, because everyone wants our attention, the beeping dryer telling us to take out and fold the clothes, the cats that know we opened a book to read and come for some loving, friends who call to talk to us, jobs that need to be done, games that entice us to play, and the list goes on and on.

 

Taking this time will give us a breather and make the harder parts a bit more bearable. At least we know how to catch a breath. We just need to do it!

 

We can simplify our lives for short periods of time and this can help give us some breathing room during the crazier parts of our days, usually most of the time we spend awake these days.

 

Simplify, take some YOU time.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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