real life coach
480.998.5843

 Simplify Your Life
By Kathy Gates,  Life Coach
Word Count 613

A lot of people have a misconceived idea about what "simplifying your life" means.  Some think it means giving away all earthly possessions and joining a cult (ok, so that was one extreme case!)  Others think it means that you need to sew your own clothes and make your own bread.  Others think that it's a nice thought, but simply impossible in today's world.  None of those is true.  The truth is that it IS possible to simplify your life without giving up the things you want and love in your life. 

In fact, by simplifying your life you will have MORE of the things you want and love in your life, because they aren't getting squeezed out by the things that you DON'T want in your life. 

Simplifying your life is the cornerstone to living a great life.   It helps you get back in touch with who you really are as a person, and what you want your life to be like.  

Simplifying means not only getting rid of things, but  finding another way to deal with the things that complicate and upset your life.  With my clients I often draw the image of redecorating an old storage room.  It would be very difficult to transform that storage room into a lovely guest bedroom if you tried to add a bed and dresser to all the boxes, extra chairs, leftover paint,  and broken shelving that was already in the room.  You would clean it out first.  And if you want a great life, you must first make room for it…by simplifying.

Simplifying your life comes in many forms, big and small. Here's a very simple (pardon the pun!) example of day to day simplifying.  

I found that every time my cat sat in my lap, his brush was always "in its place"  -- after all I was trying to be more organized.  But that of course meant I had to get up and go get his brush and then the cat was no longer in the mood to be brushed.  

I simplified that by creating a place to hang the cat brush near my chair.  A client I had was raising a large family as a stay-at-home mom,  and homeschooling the children as well.  She was aggravated almost constantly by what she called "living her life in the dishwasher". She simplified her life by having an additional dishwasher put in. They just used the dishes right of the dishwasher and then put them back in the other one. 

Simplifying your life allows you to quit focusing on the fundamentals of life, and frees up your time and energy to focus on the things that are really important...and YOU have the power to make it so!   It doesn't hurt to try, and it's really not impossible.
===============
Return To Articles List                       Home Page

PUBLISHING NOTICE:   Please feel free to use this article for your newsletter, ezine, or website, in its entirety including the resource box.  Please notify me of publication by sending a website link or a copy of your ezine when published to information@reallifecoach.com.  Thank you. 

Resource Information:    Life Coach Kathy Gates specializes in helping people who are ready to create a simpler, less stressful, more joyful and meaningful lifestyle.  Visit www.reallifecoach.com to learn more.