Things

As with all new years, it provides the opportunity for new starts, new beginnings, new attempts to better ourselves (yes, you know where I'm going with this), new goals for oneself, the dreaded new year's resolutions.

After years of varying participation from the not-really-hipster not-really-ironic mostly-just-idiotic "I resolve to have no resolutions" to a full-out multi-point plan with a number of objectives.

But you know what? Even those are just things. I have too many things. Phsyical, mental, it's all clutter. So, for this year, I'm going to have a simple motto:

Simplify.

That's it.  That's the entire deal.   What does that mean in practice?   I'm letting most of my magazine subscriptions lapse.  I haven't been able to keep up anyway.   I'll go through my wardrobe - I don't need this many clothes.   I'm going to stop getting new books from the library - I own plenty I still need to read.  I'm going to unsubscribe like stuff like crazy.  I'm going to take a long, hard look at my social media usage.  And my Google Reader subscriptions.  And my blogging.  And my Remember the Milk tasks.  And on and on and on.   I'll volunteer less.

Maybe.

Because that last paragraph?  That's crazy.  That is absolutely the antithesis of Simplify.  And that's how it starts.  Take a great idea and ruin it with complexity.
No.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Simplify.


Certainly, some things are non-negotiable.  God, family, work, friends.  Can't really (and wouldn't want to) reduce those experiences.  But simplification elsewhere may free up more time for those experiences that truly matter.  (Composed 11/26 at 10:20 pm.)