One of the great joys of my life is living simply, and every now and then finding ways to return to simplicity. Life tends to get complicated with time, and so I find ways to simplify. I’ve done lists with 100 ways to simplify, but obviously that’s not very simple! So today I’ll share five…

The minimizing of possessions acquired over a lifetime is a consuming, multi-tiered process with layers that must be peeled back and muddled through one at a time. If you are anything like my family and me, you may find it best to tackle the easiest layers first. Just the thoughts of turning loose of sentimental…

The word “boundary” has received an undeserved bum rap because we live in a civilization that screams “accumulate more,” and “if it feels good—do it, buy it, and allow it access into your life.” Who wants to be told there are limits? Despite what the world around us tries to coerce us to buy into…

Feeling overwhelmed with work and personal tasks is one of the biggest problems that the people I work with are facing. It turns out our lives can be pretty overwhelming. There’s so much to do, never enough time to do it, and who knows what we should be focusing on? We’re always behind, barely treading…

There are some people who seem to live their lives with Rocky Balboa levels of discipline. But from what I can tell, my personal supply of willpower hovers around average… at best. It’s not that I haven’t attempted to increase my discipline over the years. I’ve tried to apply many of the various tactics and…

We strive to improve our lives, often because we are dissatisfied with how things are. I know this, because I’ve lived it. I don’t like the way I look, so I try to improve myself. I don’t like my house, so I work to get a better one. I want everyone around me to improve…

Often when we want to solve a problem or make some kind of change in our lives, we’ll go out and buy something: We want to get organized, we’ll buy containers or folders or closet organizers. We want to lose weight, we’ll buy diet food or an exercise machine or a gym membership. We want…

Is that even possible? In this consumerism-obsessed, materialism-driven age of time? Is it possible to make a complete mental transition from being obsessed with what we want to being content with the simplicity of what we actually need? Can a person truly turn their needs into their wants and make their needs few? I am here to tell…

In 1899, Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech in Chicago in which he extolled the virtues of what he called “the strenuous life.” “[T]he life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who…

Starting with an identity theft nightmare that also served as a wake-up call in 2015, my family and I have been on an intense mission to simplify our lives. We sold our home and two acres of land, let go of about 90% of our physical possessions, paid off all our debt, and removed everything…