THE POWER OF LESS!

I woke up, I went to work, I worked hard all day, I came home, I did more work, I went to bed and considered: “…what did I actually accomplish today???” Ever had a day like that? I know I have! Now, how do you overcome the problem of “spinning your wheels?” I hope my blog starting today can help you accomplish exactly that. God Bless! – Aaron.

After discussing it with Anna P., and brainstorming a little bit, I have decided to attempt a daily blog in correlation with a book that I am reading. The book is: The Power of Less – the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential… in business and in life. The author is: Leo Babauta. (websites: zenhabits.net & writetodone.com). This book is intended to help people do with less (in volume) and yet be more productive and effective with what they have.

The concept is simple: if you’re doing a smaller number of things, then you can do all of those things more effectively and efficiently. The desire behind this is to be able to have less stress and build a better “me” through actually accomplishing the things that individuals want to accomplish (instead of 100 other things that they don’t care about). So, for the next week or two, I am going to be shooting for a daily post dealing with the principles and concepts of this book… I hope you enjoy and give me some feedback on the content and structure of these posts!

INTRODUCTION: “There has never before been an age in which we could get so much done so quickly. There also has never before been an age in which we were so overwhelmed with information and tasks, so overloaded with e-mails and things to read and watch, so stressed by the incredible demands of our lives” (Babauta, vii).

I don’t know how many of you have ever seen the movie Kate & Leopold (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035423/). There is a scene where they are discussing the difference between his life (in the 1800s) and life in NYC in the 2000s. He states that he misses the “pace of life.” We can all probably list 20 people who have mentioned to us with great nostalgia “I wish I lived back in ____ time when life was so much slower.” Yet, they continue at a breakneck speed in their own life thinking they have no choice because they live in the 21st Century! Yet Psalms states, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psa. 46:10). Therefore, we should strive to accomplish a pace of life that affords us the time to have a PEACE of LIFE.

I take a great deal of personal fault for the speed at which my life goes and the fact that I AM NEVER CAUGHT UP! Therefore, I am going to seek, starting today, to begin making a change. Maybe, through this blog series, you can begin to do the same (if you need to do such). Now, to conclude today’s blog, let me introduce some important concepts we will discuss more tomorrow:

How to Simplify:
1. Identify the Essential.
2. Eliminate the Rest.
6 Principles of Productivity:
1. Set Limits.
2. Choose the Essential.
3. Simplify.
4. Focus.
5. Create Habits.
6. Start Small.