Simplification

“Do not keep anything in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” -William Morris

This is great quote and the motto behind what will be my spring cleaning in May. I’m waiting to take on anymore big projects until after I graduate, which is just 59 days away.

But, I think it is also a great quote to use for life in general- don’t keep anything that isn’t functioning in your life or that isn’t beautiful to you! That’s probably why in simplifying things, the first question to ask yourself is what are your values? What are the things that are important to you that you want to spend time on?

These values for me are as follows:

• My relationship with Christ
• Me- my health and well being
• School
• Relationships with my immediate family (Jim)
• Relationships with my extended family (Parents, siblings, etc.)
• Relationships with friends who I want to remain close to

Defining these value may be more difficult for some. The difficult thing for me is actually putting them into practice. It’s easy for me to follow a list, but not easy to make it about more than following a list. It’s also important to remember to constantly (I’m going to start out with monthly, as a lot of things will be changing for me in the next months) be re-evaluating those values. As we pass through seasons in our life, things naturally move in and out of our lives, and the things we want to hold in high value will require different kinds of attention.

The reason for defining your values is so that you have a measuring stick to gauge commitments against: when you are asked to do something, if it doesn’t fit in your core values, don’t commit to it. That’s easier said than done sometimes; trust me, I know- I’m a people pleaser at heart and it took me a long time to learn how to say “no.” You can’t do everything. And if you try to do everything, nothing will be done well. And that’s reason enough for me to visit this “simplification.”

Because I don’t want to do a lot of things half way- I want to do a few things well, and really get out of them everything I can. I try to cram as much as I can into every ounce of the day and then am left feeling unfulfilled despite all of my busyness. That’s not how I want to live life and it’s not how I want my kids to live life. So, I’m on a journey to change that.

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