A Simple Living Manifesto
So what does it really mean to live simply?
Is it just one or two things we change in our lives? Is it a complete 360 to our way of life?
Is it kicking off all responsibilities and sunbathing on the beach for the rest of our lives?
Can it mean different things to different people?
I think so.
Zen Habits offers the Simple Living Manifesto, with 72 different ideas to simplify your life.
But he starts out with two.
- Identify what’s most important to you.
- Eliminate everything else.
The list they’ve created is great. There’s loads of information there. But as you can see — it all comes down to a couple ideas.
Find out what’s important in your life. Eliminate everything else.
Kinda reminds me of Christian Scripture where everyone’s lining up to talk with this new teacher on the scene, Jesus.
They want to know, “What will it take for me to have eternal life?” and “What’s the most important law?”
They want a check list. Because check lists are easy. We can grade ourselves and know instantly how we’re doing — and we can grade others on that list as well.
But rather than referring the people back to the 10 Commandments, or the Levitical Law, Jesus simplifies things for everyone.
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Jesus left them stunned with his answer. He kept it simple:
Love God. Love others.
So while a list of 72 things is great — and super helpful (I encourage you to take a couple minutes and read the entire list) — we’ll stick with the basics for now…
- Identify what’s most important to you.
- Eliminate everything else.
It sounds so simple – yet so difficult to follow through on. There’s so much that I could “easily eliminate” yet I haven’t — and I don’t.
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