Spring serves as a reminder to get busy with the spring-cleaning. It's message says that we can lighten the load and pack up the winter gear in exchange for the things that are less burdensome.
Spring is my reminder to live the simple life. I get visions of enjoying ice tea and warm weather and taking walks in the park and throughout the neighborhood to watch the bulbs planted last fall come into their own.
It's enjoying these simple things that makes life grand, and it takes this time of the year to remind me to check and double check that I continue to simplify my life.
You may think that being an entrepreneur and simplifying your life are contradictory activities, especially if you envision the entrepreneur as having a busy schedule and a simple lifestyle as being laid back and easy.
The truth is that many people are happy living a simple lifestyle. And a great number of people are millionaires who are first-generation entrepreneurs.
One of my favorite nonfiction books is The Millionaire Next Door. The authors, Thomas Stanley and William Danko, learned through extensive research that most financially well-heeled entrepreneurs achieved their success because of a simple lifestyle.
They wrote that self-discipline is the key word they consistently came across when studying how successful individuals, most of whom were entrepreneurs, attained their way of life.
Simplifying your life isn't difficult if you apply a little self-discipline. You don't have to give up your city home and rush off to the country to buy a farm. You can start right now and where you are.
To live a simple lifestyle, you can trade material trappings for freedom and less stress, quality instead of quantity.
! Take a look at how you spend your money. Do you insist on designer clothes, flashy cars, support your adult children, buy all the latest gadgets, and have to attend every social event?
If your money is fueling one or more of the above and you are happy, skip the rest of this article. Simple living is not for everyone.
I remember some time ago when cell phones became popular I was walking the park and stopped to go to the restroom. I accidently dropped my cellphone into the toilet. When I called the cell phone company to see if they would replace my phone they told me that they would be happy to replace the phone for a mere $400. I wasn't interested in buying a phone and decided to see what would life be like without having a phone attached to me.
I spent 3 years without a cell phone and it was the most peaceful years of my career. Yes I now have a cell phone that no one calls me on because they know I will not answer but I do receive and send text messages. It seems to be a much easier system of living.
Recently I was standing in line at the post office and a phone started ringing. Three women started rummaging through their purses in search of their phones to see if it was their phone that was ringing. Turns out the ringing phone belonged to the woman in front of me and she dropped her packages and nearly dumped everything out of her purse in search for that ringing phone. By the time she found her phone it had stopped ringing and she looked both frustrated and aggravated. I am all to familiar with the problems that a purse can bring.
I decided one day that life should become less complicated as I grew older. I started by giving up the burden of carrying a purse. Who needs both a purse and a brief, was my thought. The decision wasn't difficult, since most of the time I could never find things in it when I wanted them. Just searching for my keys was a major event.
The final straw came one morning when the trash had to be taken out. To save myself time ! and an ex! tra trip back into the house, I grabbed my car keys from the kitchen counter, my purse, briefcase and the trash.
I dropped the trash off at the curb and took off in the car headed for the office. After arriving at my desk after a 45 minute commute, I reached for my purse to put my keys away—and yikes, no purse! I ran back to the parking garage to search the car, hoping that maybe I had left it on the seat. There was no purse in the car!
Then I thought it might have slipped off my shoulder when I set the trash down. I had visions of my purse being crushed in the garbage truck's compactor.
I drove at breakneck speed, shaving about 15 minutes off of that 45-minute commute. I prayed all the way home that the trash men hadn't arrived. When I turned onto our street I breathe a sigh of relief. The trash was still there! I jumped out of the car and rushed over to the green plastic bags, feeling certain that my purse would be there. No Purse!
Frustrated and upset, I entered the house. When I walked into the kitchen, there on the counter, was my purse.
That fiasco was more than enough for me. That day, instead of returning to my office, I stayed home, emptied my closet of purses, and donated them to Goodwill. The problems, time and energy my purses had caused were just not worth it.
Cutting back on spending is another way to simplify your life. If you are looking to simplify, the next time you go shopping and see what you think is a "must have," ask yourself, "Do I have to maintain it, dust it, wash it, feed it or store it?" If you answer yes to these questions and it doesn't cause clutter or a burden in any way, then go for it.
That brings me to my final thoughts on simplifying life; clearing and cleaning away clutter. I once read somewhere that if you go through a whole season and didn't wear it or use it, then get rid of it.
A simplified lifestyle means more freedom, which means more time, More time for the things you want and need to do to balance y! our life.!
Once I simplified my life, I spent less time cleaning, dusting, and looking for things like my keys and I enjoy life more.
Let the joy of these spring days be a reminder of how beautiful the simple life really is.
Gladys Edmunds, founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh, is an author and coach/consultant in business development. Her column appears Wednesdays. E-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com. An archive of her columns is here. Her website is gladysedmunds.com
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