Simplify

Simplify. This is the word which has come up repeatedly in my life lately.

Part of it is an simply an extension of how time is flowing in my life - I'm continuing to find that I seemingly have less and less time - so I have to simplify what I can do with my time. They'll always be more to do than I will be able to do, so I have to more carefully choose what I will do.

Maybe some of this is simply part of the years passing - we learn that there are things that we are simply never going to do. I can hold out my hopes for a touring gig as a harpist, but I think the chances of that happening are small at this point.

On the other hand, things we can't do doesn't mean there aren't thing you should never do. Maybe I'll never be a harpist, but I picked up the mandolin. Sure, I won't ever be a performing genius, but I'm learning something new.

It's also looking at everything which is in your life and questioning the presence of each thing that is there. Where did these come from - I mean really come from, not just the fact that they've been in my life forever. Why am I doing them? Should I continue to do them? In Brian Tracy's words "Knowing what you know now, would you start/continue this thing?"

It's hard letting go everywhere - at work, where delegation becomes a fact of life and at home, where perhaps things which have become as comfortable as a good set of sweatpants are moved on in our lives. But the benefits are seeming to outweigh the pain: less clutter (physically and psychically), a greater sense of choice about what one does, and the very real sense that one is using one's time in the very best way possible, doing the things that are really important.