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Visit Samsung.com slash business to learn more. This is Optimal Living Daily, episode 2805, Simple Living Isn't Complicated, Modern Life Just Makes It Sound Like It Is, by Charlie Brown of simpleandstraightforward.substack.com. And I'm Justin Mollick, where we get right to it as we optimize your life. Simple Living Isn't Complicated, Modern Life Just Makes It Sound Like It Is, by Charlie Brown of simpleandstraightforward.substack.com.
When you strip away everything living simply means, you're left with one premise, do less, but better. You don't need to invest in a $300 simple living course to tell you this. I just did. So why is it so hard to implement a simpler life?
The problem lies in the fact that modern life has become so pressured and so filled with choices that it sounds like living simply is the most complex choice of them all. It's not. It's as simple as this. It's as simple as knowing where your priorities lie.
Do you know or are they buried under a million other daily tasks and commitments of what other people expect of you, of what you expect of yourself? Mine for many years were totally f***ed up, lost in a haze of it's just what you do rhetoric and busyness for busyness's sake. It's only when I turned 28 and made the intentional decision to live simpler that I realized I didn't give a s*** about half of what I was doing, like spending time with crappy friends or going to parties with people I didn't like or shopping on the weekends or trying to build a social media following. At the risk of sounding like a self-improvement bro, I call my priorities my simple living pillars.
These are what I spend 90% of my life doing and there are only five of them. Writing, exercise, food, wine, and coffee, spending time with friends and family, and travel. If you don't figure out your priorities, you'll never be able to do less but better because there simply won't be time. So for the love of God, figure them out.
It's as simple as setting boundaries. If you're a people pleaser, you're going to want to listen to the next 200 words. I suck at setting boundaries. Last week I was staying with family in the UK, bouncing between my brother's house and my mom's.
They live a 30-minute drive apart and I spent most of my days not working, not relaxing, not living simply, but driving between the two houses to satisfy both their wishes to spend time with me. I'll stretch thin because I find it hard to say no, especially to people I love, and I love my brother and mother dearly. Thankfully, this was a temporary problem that largely dissipated once I got back to my real life traveling around Europe. But plenty of people I know have to face their boundary-setting issue head-on every single day.
You say yes to your boss, to your partner, to your kids, your friends, your acquaintances, your wider family, to internet randos who make you feel you should start a side hustle, get up at 5 a.m., and post on a social media platform more. It's no way to live simply. Don't do what I do. Say no more.
Set those boundaries. Start with the people you don't give much of a shit about. Those acquaintances, those colleagues you'd rather stick a pin in your eye than spend time with. Those internet randos.
Work up to family and friends. Set boundaries and watch how much easier it is to do less but better. It's as simple as tuning out TV advertisements. One of the best things about full-time travel is I'm no longer subjected to TV advertisements because I have no idea what they're saying if I watch them at all.
It's glorious. Not so much when I visit the UK, when my family watches the TV, I watch the advertisements. It's a shock to both watch them again and watch what they do to the people around me. If people think TV advertising doesn't work anymore, they're wrong.
I was tempted by a dress from Madeline of unsustainable British clothing store just by watching a 20-second ad. The simple solution? Turn the TV off. If you can, pay for ad-free streaming services.
Do something else entirely. Read a substack or something. It's amazing how much more simple your life becomes when you block advertisements. It's as simple as acting like a nightclub bouncer with your physical possessions.
There's no such thing as a simple life that's piled high with possessions. They take up too much room both physically and mentally. I find the easiest way to deal with too much stuff is to be like a nightclub bouncer. Operate a one-in, one-out policy.
Give them a serious grilling before you let them into your life. Are they the right fit? Will they enhance your life or just make a nuisance? Protect your space from pesky possessions that are going to be more trouble than they're worth because most of them truly aren't worth your time, money, and effort.
It's simple, but it's not easy. When the world wants you to do more but worse, doing less but better isn't the easy choice, however straightforward the actual nuts and bolts of simple living are. The pressure. It's enough to make even the strongest will to view snap, reverting to a normal, boundaryless life filled with stuff facilitated by TV advertisements that take priority over anything more meaningful.
But people do manage it. So here's what you do. You cultivate a few attitude. You take a long, hard look at your priorities.
You establish some boundaries. You turn the TV off. You protect your time, money, and space by limiting possessions. You forget what modern life is supposed to be like, complicated and messy.
Instead, focus on what you want it to be, simple and straightforward. You just listened to the post titled, Simple Living Isn't Complicated, Modern Life Just Makes It Sound Like It Is, by Charlie Brown of simpleandstraightforward.substack.com. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it.
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Thank you to Charlie. The takeaway for me from this one is to reassess those priorities. We might think we know what they are, but then if we look at what we did in the last 24 hours, or in the last week, last month, or even last year, we might see that what we think our priorities are actually rarely happened in that time frame, if ever. I think that's why it's a huge help to actually write our priorities down.
It has multiple benefits. First, we solidify what those priorities truly are. Second, it acts like a reminder. And third, we can compare what we're doing or what's on our calendars with that list to see if we're living true to those priorities.
It can be a bit harsh, but how we currently spend our time is really a demonstration of our true current priorities. If we want to change that, let's say the first step is to simply write those priorities down. So something to try. Let me know how it goes and what your priorities are.
Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.