Three Ways to Simplify Your Life



People often get overwhelmed in life. Have you tried to cut back to make life manageable? We get more and more things, then we need more money to maintain everything in our lives. We have become dependent upon electronics and smart phones.  We are in constant communication with everyone and life seems to get more complicated and confusing.

 

Isn't it time that we simplify our lives?

 

I think so...you can empower yourself by reexamining your life, strengthening the essentials, and eliminating the waste in your lives.

 

I am in a season of life where there are simply too many things that I would like to do, but don't have the time. So I have been thinking a lot lately about how I could simplify my life and be happier and feel better about my life.

 

There are three things that will make a person's life simpler and more fulfilling. Actually, I came up with a lot more than three, but realized that I could easily make things more complicated in an effort to simplify life. (Life is full of ironies like that.) I examined all of the things that I had listed and took the three things that I feel will make our lives more fulfilling and they all begin with a realistic examination of our lives.

 

We must honestly evaluate everything that we do and be willing to make the adjustments necessary to make our lives better. I recently saw a definition of discipline and have used this definition many times.

 

DISCIPLINE 

is

choosing between

what I want most

 &

what I want now.

 

I love this definition because it sums up our lives well. We may want washboard abs, but are we willing to diet and exercise to get them. I believe that we all have ability to be healthy and fit if we are willing to do what is necessary.

 

Three things that will help us to simplify our lives and become more satisfied:

 

1. Determine what thing or two is most essential for personal growth and do them every day.

 

If you are not developing personally or professionally, you are declining. Ask yourself what are the most important things that I should do everyday that will help me become the person that I want to be? Things like exercise, Bible reading, praying, mediation, listening to sermons or development experts, or blogging. Make these things a priority and do them daily.

 

"If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority."

 

2. List all of your daily activities, then label them as:

1. Essential
2. Useful
3. Enjoyable
4. Wasteful

Then focus on the essential and eliminate the wasteful.

 

Obviously, the things that essential and useful should be prioritized and strengthened. We should examine those things that are enjoyable--like watching TV for two hours every evening--and determine if we should exchange that activity for a more useful one.

 

But the thing here is to identify and eliminate those things that are wasteful in our lives.

 

3. Eliminate dead weight (i.e. things that hinder us).

 

We have all seen the movies where items were thrown out of a plane or over the side of a ship to lighten the load to prevent a horrible tragedy. Americans want to live outside of our means. I saw a movie years ago where a couple crash landed on a island. They had to walk to the other side of the island so that they could be saved. When the couple started out, the woman insisted that they carry her bags. By the time they reached the other side of the island, they had discarded all unnecessary weight. Her priorities had changed. Things that seemed important actually were hindrances.

 

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Upgrading Your "Life Vehicle"

 

 

You may be satisfied with your life as it is right now, but I have suspicions that there are things that you still want out of life. We should always be looking for ways to advance our situation in life, and to help others advance in their lives. Our life "vehicle" has brought us to where we are, and will take us further.

 

Your vehicle should be equipped to take you to the next level in life!

 

"Vehicle" comes from the Latin vehiculum (a means of transport) which is derived from vehere (to carry). The dictionary meaning is 1) a thing used for transporting people or goods, or 2) a thing used to express, embody, or fulfill something. We each have a "vehicle" that takes us to where we want to be in life, but everybody's vehicle is different.

 

The "vehicle" that takes us to where we want to be in life is our knowledge, skills, and abilities. Some of us have great and reliable vehicles that takes us to places we want to go, however we should always be upgrading. Because life is a journey, it is as much about the vehicle as it is about the road or the destination. Even if your vehicle is adequate for now, we should not be satisfied.

 

You should always be upgrading your knowledge. It is often said that knowledge is power. Every job, career, organization, or discipline has information that is unique. A person that goes to work for Alltel may be a RF engineer and know everything about wireless communication, but still has to learn information that is unique to Alltel. A young man was hired as a leasing coordinator for a company. He worked in a pool of other leasing coordinators, but while the other coordinators did their jobs and earned a paycheck. This young man began to learn how the company as a whole worked and soon became a project manager because he gained the knowledge about the company the other lease coordinators did not.

 

My daughter works for a restaurant chain. Not being satisfied with just earning a check and because she has an inquisitive mind, she determine that she wanted to know everything about the restaurant chain. As a result of her gaining more knowledge and showing her dependability, she has become a manager and goes to other restaurant grand openings to assist. She is on her way to having her own restaurant--and she is only twenty years old.

 

Upgrade your knowledge and become an expert in an area that is vital for the company success or can become a marketable asset. Become the "go to" person in that area.

 

As you upgrade your knowledge, upgrade your skills also. A skill is a combination of abilities, techniques, and knowledge that makes a person do tasks at a higher degree or standard. Skills are primarily learned behavior. We attend college, trade schools, or take on internships to gain the skills needed to advance our careers. Skills come from putting knowledge into action. Knowledge that it not followed up by action is useless.

The third upgrade should be to your ability. Ability is the generic make up of a person that is generally inherited. Abilities are either cognitive or physical and everybody has an inherent level of abilities. Ability is part of a person's overall make up that includes personality, intelligence, and emotions. However, abilities can improve or diminish. 

 

Knowledge, skills, and abilities work together. An athlete may be big and be able to run very fast, but that ability will not make him a football player. The athlete must gain football knowledge. Being big, able to run, and having football knowledge still does not make that person a running back. Skill comes when a person's ability is combined with knowledge and put into action. This continual action produces skill.

 

This combination of knowledge, ability, and skill is the vehicle that will take you toward your destiny.

Coaching Questions:

1. Are you satisfied with your level of knowledge, abilities, and skills and are they able to take you to the next level?

2. Which is your greatest strength?

-Knowledge
-Abilities
-Skills

3. What is your greatest weakness

-Knowledge
-Abilities
-Skills

4. Which of these three need the biggest upgrade?

5. When and how will you start this upgrade?


 

Do you need help in advancing to the next level?

 

Have you considered getting a coach?

 

Coaches can help you identify your next level and work to achieve it.

 

For more coaching information email me at jimbayes4@hotmail.com

 

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Empower Your Dreams

 

Do you know what it takes for you to be able to achieve the dreams that you have for your life?

 

A fact of reality that comes with getting older, is looking back at our lives and seeing the things that we wanted to accomplish go unfulfilled. Sure, some of the things we wanted to do were out of our control and sometimes doors that we wanted to open remained shut. Reasons for unopened doors often remain hidden to our understanding. I also look back at opportunities I let go by and wonder. I wanted to be a foreign missionary. I had an opportunity in my twenties to work for Teen Challenge in Germany--I turned it down. Maybe I should have looked at that opportunity more closely. I was also asked to start a church in West Texas, but didn't feel ready for the task at the time. I wonder where I would be today if I had chosen another path. I choose, however, to dwell upon the things in life that I have accomplished. I can honestly say that, although I look back and wonder about paths not taken, I have no regrets and I love the place in which God has placed me.

 

I have more dreams I will accomplish in the near future and know that there are five things that will get me there.

 

1. Determination

 

Our plans for the future should be directed by God. God directs our plans if we allow Him. Once we have a direction from God, we should follow that path with determination. Often the paths that we believe God is directing stops or changes direction. These unexpected changes are usually from God. He seldom gives us the whole picture and usually the way that we envision the future seldom comes true in the exact form we imagined. We may dream of teaching in a University,  but God may have us teaching a small group on Thursday nights. We may have dreams of writing the greatest novel in the twenty-first century, but can only manage a weekly blog. I watched a video of a couple that felt from the beginning of their relationship that they were going to have a daughter and that her name would be Chloe. After years and years of trying to have children, they only had heartache. After they decided to adopt, they found that the mother of the girl they were going to adopt wanted to name her Chloe. They had thought that they would give birth to Chloe, but realized that God had different plans. We may have dreamed of marrying Veronica, but ended up married to Betty. The circumstances of the dream God gives us may change, but the essence of the dream remains in tact--having a child, having a spouse, teaching, being a missionary, etc. We need to be determined in seeing the dream God has given use come true and not necessarily the circumstances as we planned them.

 

2. Responsibility

 

Our life is our responsibility. This includes our dreams. Our life is not the responsibility of our parents, our families, our friends, our spouses, or even God. It is ours. Self-leadership and self-management are vital keys for realizing dreams. They are defined as having the ability to lead and manage yourself. Leading and managing your life means taking responsibility. If we have gotten off of track, it is important to understand that we can do little to change past decisions. However, we can repair damage that may have been done, mend or heal our current situations, and plan our future decisions. Important to self-leadership and management is making informed decisions. That brings us to the third thing.

 

3. Education

 

Education is defined as the process of receiving systematic instruction, but it is also defined as having an enlightened experience. Regardless of what your dream is, there is a level of knowledge and understanding that is needed. The old adage says that knowledge is power. In our pursuit of this power, look for mentors. Look for someone who is or was where you want to be and ask them to mentor you. I cannot stress this enough. One of the great failures of not accomplishing our dreams is not having good mentors. Many people who are qualified, do not place themselves in the position of mentoring others. When they do, they often choose others and may not think of mentoring you. That is when we need twenty seconds of insane courage to approach that individual and ask them to mentor us. If they say no or they don't have the time, don't take it personally. They can still mentor you by observation. Each boss or supervisor that I have had were my mentors. I observed them and asked questions and learned from each of them. Although I didn't always have an official mentoring relationship, they were all my mentors.

 

4. Attitude

I will never forget. I was walking down the hallway of a hospital and passed a man pushing himself in a wheelchair. The man had on a t-shirt that said, "Attitude is everything." It was clear that this man's ability to deal with his handicap was because of his attitude. The difference between this man's life and the life of someone that has lost the use of their legs and gives up on life is in their attitude. The attitude in which we approach life determines not only the destination, but also how smooth the ride getting there will be. People whose attitude is right are successful. People whose attitudes are informed by faith, trust, and belief in God are unstoppable.

5. Motivation

Motivation explains why we do the things we do. This is important. We need to have the proper motivation that will put us in a situation to accomplish our dreams. Those of us that have college degrees have them because we were motivated enough to endure everything that is required to get that diploma. Accomplishing our dreams directly relates to the motivation to accomplish that dream. The right motivation supplants every force bent on stopping our dream. Psychologist talk about intrinsic and extrinsic motivational forces. A person that is intrinsically motivated is motivated from within themselves. They have an inner desire for accomplishment. A person, on the other hand, that is extrinsically motivated gets their motivation from external forces--a paycheck, the threat of punishment, fear of being fired, or that large bonus for a job well done. Both motivational forces are legitimate. Sports athletes are internally motivated to succeed, but often need that coach in their face to insure they are doing their best. I will suggest a third kind of motivation; God-motivation. Every Christian, regardless of internal or external motivation, should be motivated by God. He is the one who designed us and knows for what we are best suited. God sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us. We should be motivated by His Word and by His Spirit.

These five things can help us achieve our dreams.

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I feel that there are many people that need some encouragement. Some people have lost sight of their dreams and God's plans for them seem far away to them. I feel that God wants us to encourage them. GOD IS NOT THROUGH WITH ANY OF US YET.

 

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How to Live With No Regrets

The last thing that we want is to look back over our lives and regret the way that we lived our lives. Bucket lists have become very popular. There are many things that we all would love to do and places that we would like to see, but there never seems to be enough time or money. However, our lives are much more than a collection of experiences. A recent Hospice report lists the five most common regrets from people who are dying.

They are:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

We are told to dream big, set goals, and succeed in life and many of us (especially males) are driven to do this. What is not always realized-and what the dying know-is that we often lose sight of what is really important and exchange what we aspire to for what is expected.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

This is one of the most common regrets among men hospice patients. I am sure that these individuals would not suggest that working hard is not important, but my interpretation of this is that we need to balance our work with other important aspects of life. Men too often sacrifice spending time with their family for the sake of work. Let us not make this mistake.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

As I contemplate this regret, I am mindful of all of the people that have touched my life that probably don't know what they mean to me.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

The popularity of social media has made contacting friends and acquaintances from the past much easier; do not neglect this mean of staying in touch

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

I realized some time ago that happiness is a choice. Do not make the mistake of NOT choosing to be happy.

What is NOT listed is as revealing as what IS listed. Notice that specific places and experience do not seem as important to people coming close to the end of their lives.

It is often said that hind-site is 20/20. Looking back is always easier and clearer than looking forward and we cannot change our past, but we can influence our future.

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