#simplify magazine

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 020 — Out of the Box by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

There is no uniform way to get life right.

France has been a helpful friend to this desire for work-life balance and simplicity that I see so many of us Americans longing to have.

…our craziest goals in life—those goals that we tend to put aside and never chase—are actually possible.

…I explored minimalism, which encouraged me to find value in things other than my job title, income, and belongings.

…true success—peace of mind, rest, and resources to pursue passion projects…

I used to think that taking the leap and falling flat on my face was the worst thing that could happen. I was wrong. The worst thing that could happen is to look up at the end of my life and realize the life I have lived was someone else’s.

The only way you can truly fail is to not explore what you know you’re capable of creating.

…an abundance mindset. …makes you better appreciate the things that you have and gives you a sense that you already have everything that you need…

This lifestyle is a journey, not a destination.

Tiny intentional shifts yield noticeable differences in daily living.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 019 — Time by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

…overwork can kill you. A director at the WHO said in no uncertain terms that we must all “wake up to the fact that long working hours can lead to premature death.”

…instead of worrying about how to budge the entrenched levers of power, you start small—very small—in your own life.

Remember Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time allotted to it.

A Lazy Genius is a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.

Slumber… Embrace the stillness where what is done is done and what has not been done has not been done. Put the stressful and engaging things aside. With you unreachable in your own pocket universe, the world will take its nightly one-third turn without you.

Success is being better, not perfect.

Every single moment you pour out and give to your family is golden, and the not-so-secret secret is, the moments are fleeting.

…time spent nurturing creativity and sharing creations has the power to impact the lives of both the maker and those on the receiving end.

Over the past decade, an abundance of psychology research has shown that experiences bring people more happiness than do possessions.

Don’t fall into the societal untruth and pressure that experiences must be extravagant to be memorable. …Be fully present in the moment, and it will be special.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 018 — Personal Finance by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

But here’s the deal: Almost all the time, this news [media] has no bearing on your life.

…you’re not a victim of your habits. You—and only you—get to decide how to spend your money!

…you’ve got a disconnect between your values and your habits. A budget helps align the two.

We confuse riches with wealth… Riches are acquired by spending money on things and services. Wealth is acquired by earning, saving, and investing. You’ll find your riches in your home and your driveway, while you’ll find wealth in your accounts.

Make more money. Spend less than you make. Invest the surplus. That’s the simple formula to becoming wealthy over time.

Saving money is boring… Overcoming this mindset can be the most prominent challenge people face in their financial lives.

…all the clutter used to be money… But it’s not just the money that’s gone—we spend our time working to earn the money we spend.

…there’s a balance between spending on non-essentials and saving. If you don’t spend any money on good food, cool gadgets, and memorable experiences, you might not be living your ideal life. Treat yourself occasionally.

Lifestyle inflation is when your income goes up and your spending follows.

When your income goes up, decide what you want to do with the increase.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 016 — Communication by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

…there is not a human being on this planet with whom you have “nothing in common.”

Dr. King had told her, “You’ve got to change a man’s heart before you can change his behavior.”

“Everybody believes they are the good guy,” she said. “The only real way to disarm your enemy is to listen to them.”

…get into the habit of viewing others as fallible human beings who are just trying to make it in a difficult world.

…the 18/40/60 rule as formulated by my friend Dr. Dan Amen, a psychiatrist. Brace yourself: When you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you. When you’re 40, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you. When you’re 60, you realize nobody’s been thinking about you at all.

We should start with your Bias Blind Spot—your belief that you’re less susceptible to cognitive biases than everyone else—so we can get that out of the way. Pair that up with the Overconfidence Effect, the quiet certainty that your answers are almost guaranteed to be right. We can then layer those two with the Dunning-Kruger effect (the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability) and with the Lake Wobegon Effect (the belief that you’re above average in pretty much everything). And then, to cap it off, and so you can create plausible deniability, let’s throw in Beneffectance, the tendency to take credit for success and deny accountability for failure.

“No” is a complete sentence. …providing an explanation is a courtesy, not a requirement.

Their inability to respect your boundary is a clear sign that your boundary is necessary… This is work they need to do, not you. It is not your job to do the emotional labor of helping them get through your boundary.

…most people fall into two categories: those who think, “There you are!” when they walk into a room, and the rest of us who say to ourselves, “Here I am!” Interpretation: The There you are crowd holds the listeners, the Here I am mindset belongs to the talkers.

“A person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language,” writes Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 015 — Positivity by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

…people who are more socially connected live longer and healthier lives.

A quote by Friedrich Nietzsche hangs on my home office wall: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

Researchers at University of Kentucky analyzed handwritten autobiographies… Sunny disposition meant on average an additional ten years of life.

…our moods influence our health behaviors. Research indeed confirms that happy people are more likely to be physically active, eat well, and sleep long.

Hedonic happiness is happiness derived from material or bodily pleasure, such as eating well or getting a massage. Eudaimonic happiness is happiness derived from having meaning in life, a deeper satisfaction you may obtain from intellectual pursuits, social relationships, or charity work. It turns out, hedonic happiness is not as good for you as eudaimonic happiness.

Author Tal Ben-Shahar calls this the “arrival fallacy,” which is the belief—often false—that when you arrive at a certain destination, you’ll be happy.

…no one can rob you of your happiness, because no one controls it other than you.

…if you can crystallize your anxieties through writing them down, you can actually eject them from your mind.

“Focusing on what you can control versus what you cannot makes all of the difference in your level of stress.”

Getting away will either reinvigorate our mission or send us in a different direction. Both can be good…

[soyboyjames]

Simplify: Issue 017 — Organization by Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

…organization is not limited to physical spaces.

Streamlining redeems time and offers space to create and thrive.

…the physical space is freed up and the mental space clears as well.

…be acutely aware of where your money is coming from and where it is going. You can’t take action if you don’t know what’s going on, and without action, there can be no growth.

Create two folders on your desktop: “Important Documents” and “Spark Joy.” …Move every item on your computer into one of these folders or the trash.

Reorganizing our space is how we protect ourselves against bad habits.

Vacation settings for your email don’t only have to be used for actual vacations. Is there something you need to take a time-out for? Email will be waiting for you when you come back…

“Have as many as you need but as few as possible.”

…sometimes you have to step back before being able to move forward…

Just enough is a powerful way to live.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 014 — Habits Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

…Will Durant said it best: “We are what we repeatedly do.”

Think of the most discouraging day you can… Before starting, think of what you can do that day. Then start there.

The extremely happy couples ask the hard questions, listen, and build their relationships around each other’s answers.

…approach with inquiry rather than accusation…

Above all, be sure to show yourself grace.

A study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people who were prompted to use the words “I don’t” versus “I can’t” were nearly twice as likely to resist the temptation of choosing unhealthy foods.

The creative mind is a mind at play.

Working with your hands is powerful medicine for your brain… busy hands mean a less-busy mind.

…most people are struggling on any given day.

[soyboyjames]

Simplify Magazine: Issue 013 — Work and Play Becoming Minimalist/No Sidebar

10 Favorite Lines:

…those who feel the most fulfilled at the end of their lives are those who have chosen to work hard on the right things during it.

…the pursuit of riches and wealth as an end goal is a losing battle. Riches will never fully satisfy.

Creativity is a gateway to children’s autonomy, as they learn to make decisions about what they wish to create.

Ironically, this glut of goods may deprive a child of a genuine creativity builder: the gift of their own boredom… We rob children of opportunities to test their own creative mettle when we step into every breach and answer every sigh with another toy or offer of entertainment.

Winning parents focus on raising hard workers, not high achievers.

There isn’t one right path. There are many fantastic paths.

Play helps us change with the times… a source of creativity that benefits the individual “by enabling it to discover new ways of dealing with an ever-changing environment”…

…remember everyone is trying to do their best. There’s no need to critique.

…perfectionism is crippling and, to counteract it, we must fail often.

Without a desire to listen, collaborate, adapt, and express empathy, we are lost.