Image courtesy of Reckon

Many years ago a pop singer named Peggy Lee recorded a song titled, “Is That All There Is?”  She sang about how her life had turned out, ending each verse with the plea: “Is that all there is?”

Unfortunately those words could sum up the lives of millions of people today whose lives have not fulfilled the promise they felt as children.  Our romantic relationship (if we even have one) is okay, but “is that all there is?”   We go to work (if we do) but the excitement about our jobs (if there ever was any) seems to have dimmed.  We get by financially (if we do) but there never seems to be enough.  And life in general is okay (we don’t need a therapist), but life would be so much more fulfilling if only….  Is that all there is?

I’d like to suggest that there is a simple explanation why this feeling is so common and that there is a simple solution also.

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We’ve done the binge thing for awhile; now it’s time to do the purge thing. Most of us have a tremendous amount of excess. Too many expenses, too much stuff, too many commitments and responsibilities.  Do you dream of calm over chaos? Do you wish you could hit a button and be transformed to the tranquility of another era? You can create an oasis of peace for yourself and your family, but you’re going to have to relearn what it means to simplify as I bust the top three myths about the subject over the next month.

Myth #1 – Simplifying means having and doing less.

Wrong! Simplifying is not necessarily about less. It can be about more. More time. More enjoyment. More joy. More fulfillment. More of what enriches you.

If you do or have a lot of things that don’t bring you joy or support your long-term plan, then doing or having less of that kind of stuff makes sense. But you can’t eliminate everything. If you throw out, reduce, cut back, and cancel as much as you can, you’ll be left with a void. The purpose of simplifying — at least as I see it — is to chuck what’s not important and add what is.

To understand what should be removed and what should be added, try thinking of activities and things as either assets or liabilities.

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