Simple Life Together

Designing the life you were meant to live is not only possible, it’s is something you can take control of yourself and MAKE it happen. A great place to start is by making the commitment to simplify your life. As I said in the last episode, simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do.

As we bring Simple Life Together to a close, we wanted to offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. This is Part 2 of that update. Do yourself a favor and listen to Episode 78 first 😉

This is what will most likely be our final update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I’d suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 78: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 1 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It’ll be worth it, guaranteed!

Thank you all so much for listening in! It has been a great ride and I’m sure we’ve learned much more from you than you learned from us. Please…go out there enjoy your… Simple Life Together!

Simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do to ensure you’re living the lifestyle you’ve designed for yourself. The life you were meant to live.

In this episode of Simple Life Together, we offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. And…it has been amazing!

This is an update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I’d suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 79: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 2 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It’ll be worth it, guaranteed!

It’s been a while since our last episode and many of you said you wanted an update. So, we posted on the Simple Life Together Facebook page and the Edit & Forget It Facebook Group and asked for your questions.

Vanessa launched her S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System course to a small list of people and it went really well! That said, we’re not really happy with how the course is currently hosted on an external site.

The content is proven and system works, but we’re just not happy with any platforms we’ve tried. They’re too expensive and seem clunky. So we’re considering just making the course an “in your Inbox” course, so people don’t have to log into an outside website, remember another log in, hope the site isn’t slow, etc. People are comfortable in their Inbox. They go there every day. And it would lower the cost of the course dramatically. So I’m working hard on that, to bring Vanessa’s amazing system to more people in a simpler way.

If you want to be in the loop with Vanessa’s course, the S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System, you can sign up for updates at GetOrganizedSOS.com and you’ll be the first to know when things are ready to go!

Simplifying The Holidays

– Tips on storing your Christmas decorations and paraphernalia…for next year

– Giving experiences instead of things

– How to keep the holidays simple

– How to be present…NOT perfect…for the holidays

– Tips on simplifying cleanup after the meal

– Creative non-material gift giving ideas

– Favorite holiday traditions

– What to tell people when they ask what gifts you’d like

– Favorite podcasts, audio books, blogs, simple living role models you find inspiring, iPhone apps as gifts

New Year’s Goals, Resolutions

– Setting  goals and resolutions for the New Year or any time

– How to stop procrastinating

– Simplicity when no one is watching or listening

What We’ve Been Up To

– Expectations vs. Reality as we transition

– Updates on our move, status of the house build, etc

– How Sunshine, our son, and his mom are dealing with our move

– Our teardrop camper, favorite trips this year, planned trips for next year

– New business ventures/challenges for moving Vanessa’s organizing business

– When we’re getting our nationally syndicated talk show on HGTV and/or Oprah (we loved this question!)

– Changes/updates to our exercising routines or smoothie making/juicing

So, we answered your questions…how about you answer one for us? What are your plans for the New Year? How do you plan on incorporating more simplicity into your life? We’d love to know!

We’ve had lots of great comments on iTunes…thank you so much! The show went a little longer than we expected, so we’ll be sure to read the comments on the next episode.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit 

There are so many reasons to simplify. But one very lucrative reason to simplify is to increase the sale price of your home and set the stage for a quick sale. So, let’s talk a little about simplifying to sell your home.

To do that, we’re going to share some of our experiences with doing exactly that over the last couple of months, so if you’re selling your home…or know someone else who is…or if you’re simply looking for a fresh start in your current home, maybe we can shed some light on things that worked for us. Read More…

We recently had a fantastic sales experience when selling our home in preparation to move to East Aurora, NY.

Our home went up for sale the evening of the 15th of May…and before our realtor was even able to put a sign up in the yard, it sold on the morning of 16May! The first 3 couples that looked at the home all put in solid offers. The first 2 for $10k over asking price! We accepted both and had a back-up offer throughout the entire closing period (yeah)! In the end, it sold for about $35K more than we had originally even hoped for!

So as we mentioned in the last episode, we’re moving from the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas to the little village of East Aurora, NY, home of America’s simplicity movement back in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

Well, back in December of 2014, I was doing some backwards planning and realized that in order to build our new home on schedule, the right thing to do was sell our house in San Antonio in the Spring of 2015. So, we planned on listing at the start of the real estate season…1 May.

But in the mean time, all through Jan, Feb, March and April, I had been working out all the curriculum, scripts, testing the right platform, etc, for Vanessa’s soon to be released training product, Get Organized SOS, which is an intensive online course that teaches her proven system to organize any space. All this while prepping our house for sale. Vanessa and I planned to work on things in the background during this busy time, and launch a beta or test program in the late summer.

But while meeting with my marketing coach in April, he challenged me to launch the beta NOW. I insisted that now wasn’t the time…

Vanessa was actually in the middle of attending her week long annual professional organizers conference…

Plus we were prepping a house, listing a house, selling a house, packing to move and moving into a new place over the course of the next 6 weeks.

And, while Vanessa and I had all the material ready, we had exactly NO videos done! Plus, some of the video conferencing platforms were new to us. We needed more prep time!

No…now was not the time to launch!

But as any good coach does, he gently nudged me (actually, it felt more like my old paratrooper days as he kicked my butt out the jump door of the plane)! I called Vanessa and she said “Let’s go for it!!” No guts, no glory, right? So we launched the beta, shot the videos, and…it was awesome!

But, man, it was hectic!!! The beta lasted all of May, and all the while we were prepping our home and the World Shedquarters for sale. Our home went up for sale, sold…done!

Trouble was, now we had to find a place to live.

There were 4 key simplicity points that led to that great sale experience, our ability to to juggle a “crazy busy” schedule and still stay sane. And candidly, you could glean something from each one of these points even if you’re not simplifying to sell your home, but just looking for a fresh start or some positive change in your life.

So here goes!

Key Point #1: Make sure your desires are in line with your life plan, your goals are in line with your desires, and your actions are in line with your goals.

Way back in Episode 32, we talked about how the choices we make impact everything in our lives.

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’ve heard about the start of our journey and you were with us through the sale of our land out in the Texas Hill Country, scrapping the idea of the big house in the middle of nowhere, etc. If you’re a new listener you can check out our About Us video and you’ll hear all about our decision to pursue a path toward more simplicity in our lives.

So since then, we’ve taken consistent action. To a large extent, we shaped our own little world and how we live our lives in it. The world loves a self-made man or woman, but I love the saying from Earl Nightingale that “We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.”

You know we’ve been on this journey for a couple years now, and we’ve been taking all the steps necessary to shape our world. And you can shape yours, too! You may have a lifestyle you want to live someday and by staying true to that you can achieve it. Make sure you’re living your Now in a way that supports your tomorrow.

So again, key point #1…make sure your actions are in line with your goals. Stay focused. You can do this…but you have to be consistent. It’s the little things we do every day that keep us consistent and on path toward our goals.

Alright…if you’re simplifying to sell your home, take heed. Key Point #2 is: Planning is a must!

We followed our own advice from Episode 42, The Upside of Downsizing. We also took steps to make the 1800sf  home we had, live like it was much larger.

Long before we planned to move, we made improvements to the house using what we call organization-based design. It’s our perspective of how we design simplicity and organization into our spaces. Our remodeling projects in the kitchen and bathrooms had a great return. And the World Shedquarters was apparently a hit, too! Improvements like cubbies, built in storage, the Elfa shelving system in the pantry, the new kitchen cabinets with slide outs, etc, all tied in to our organization-based design concept. And trust me…people know organized and simple when they see. They’re drawn to it. Nobody “wants” to live a cluttered life. So, show people a little calm and they’re drawn right in.

On the tech side, we used Trello as a planning tool to manage, share, and track our To Dos. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. We had a “Get House Ready for Sale” board that had lists for Inside, Outside, and Done. As we finished tasks, we’d move the from the Inside or Outside board, over to the Done board. I like it because it’s very visual, as opposed to standard “list” based. I’ve been using it since. You can find out more at Trello.com. Steve Dotto has some great videos on Trello over at DottoTech.com. I’ll put a link in the shownotes.

So again, Key Point #2 is to make your plan. This will go a long way in helping to ensure you stay on track with Key Point 1, too, making sure your actions are in line with your goals.

OK…Key Point #3 is: Understand the value of margin.

Remember our definition of margin is “Uncommitted time and space in your life.” In this case, I’m referring to the ‘unused space’ portion of our definition. In the real estate world, nothing (meaning empty space and square footage) is worth a whole lot more than your “stuff” that takes up that space!

There were so many things we could have kept “just in case” but as we were going through this I kept reminding myself that “just in case” things do nothing but get in the way. When you really need something, you can find, rent, or borrow it. As a worst case scenario, yes…you may have to buy it again. So forget about the just in case stuff. It’s just getting in your way. If you need something, you’re smart and can find it when you need it. Trust yourself and your resourcefulness.

Tying in with that…our Edit & Forget It Challenge in 2013 and 2014 was key! It set the stage for truly decluttering our home and our day to day lifestyle. That said, we still got rid of well over 3000 more things in 2015 as we were simplifying to sell your home just before the move! We intend to live even more “light and lean” in our year in the apartment and in our new home in East Aurora.

We’ve just really embraced the idea of incorporating margin in our home and appreciating the openness and empty spaces in it. As we’ve decluttered our home over the past couple of years or so, we’ve really come to love the increased peacefulness that having less stuff has given us.

So again…Key Point #3 is to understand the value of margin. Free space. Both the Census Bureau and the National Assoc’n of Home builders list the number one reason for moving, as the pursuit of a better home. And one thing that consistently ranks at the top of desires for home attributes, is space. Living space and storage space. Show them the margin, they’ll show you the money. Or, give yourself some margin and gain a little more peace.

And finally…Key Point #4 for us was: Get past the mentality that you’re selling YOUR house. It’s far more about the buyers buying THEIR future home!

They need to see themselves there…the possibilities, the opportunities, and the wonderful memories they’ll make there. It’s not about you. If they walk into a messy, poorly maintained, or cluttered home, it becomes about you and how you live, and not about them. It needs to be about them!

So again…key point #4 is you’re not selling your house, they’re buying their home. It’s kind of like gift giving… If I’m looking to give you a gift, I look for a gift that you’ll want and appreciate, not necessarily one that I want to give. Same goes for selling your house.

So if you’re simplifying to sell your home, here’s a quick recap:

Key Point 1: Make sure your actions are in line with your goals

So…there is no way we could have gotten more than our asking price, had such a great sale experience, and wrapped things up so quickly if we hadn’t simplified our lives and our home.

Vanessa was able to keep an influx of clients happy, and we were able to prep, list, and sell the house, move, and develop and launch a 3-week, multimedia and coaching product all over the course of 6 weeks! (More on Vanessa’s product in later shows).

And boy…were we ready for our road trip!!!

So, are you planning on simplifying to sell your home or do you want to make a positive change in your life? Do you think some of the key points we mentioned could help? If so, we’d love to hear about it and what tools or strategies you’re using that are helping you. Leave us a comment below!

Special thanks to Jodialgara, Suea626 , Whitephone, and Ja-Ro-El-Sha for your reviews on iTunes!

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit MarkMoz12

Back in Episode 65, we talked about Strategic Simple Living and shared a few great tools you can use to plan your simple living strategy. Specifically, we used the 4 Direction Ideation Tool of Looking Outward/Inward/Backward/Forward as lenses for developing your strategy. We shared how we used this tool when downsizing for trying to find the perfect area for us to live.

But when we came to a decision point, we used a different framework for evaluating our final choice…and actually choosing where we’re moving to. So, armed with all we learned from the 4 Direction Ideation Tool process, we did our final analysis through the lenses of the 4 major areas of our life: Home, Work, Community, and Self.  And yep, we’re moving! We don’t have a hard and fast timeline yet, but we actually put our money where our collective mouth is and bought a lot to build on! Read More…

So there are 4 critical areas you need to consider when downsizing, moving, simplifying, or making any other major change in life if you want to achieve and maintain some kind of congruence. They are Home, Work, Community, and Self.

I borrowed and tweaked some definitions for these from a course I took through Wharton taught by Stew Friedman. But the true key is that you need to define these areas for yourself. What works for you might be completely different from what works for us and that’s fine. Again, the goal is to achieve some congruity between these areas and create what Dr Friedman calls “4 Way Wins.” A 4 Way Win is an activity that has a positive impact on each of the four major areas of your life. Again, those are Home, Work, Community, and Self.

Continuing on with our example of looking for the ideal place for us to live, you can listen in to the episode and hear how we looked at those 4 critical life areas and how they impacted our downsizing efforts and our simplicity journey.

So the big announcement for us is that we’re moving to East Aurora, New York. Yeah…we know…we’re the family that is actually moving TO the Buffalo, NY area! But we know exactly what we’re getting into! I’m from Buffalo and it’ll be great to get back there after 31 years away, and living all over the world. And the little village of East Aurora embodies so much of what we’re looking for in a small town community. If you listen back to Episode 65 you’ll be amazed at what we said we were looking for, and what East Aurora has to offer. All except “mild winters,” that is!

“Anyhoos” (as Vanessa would say), here’s a quick video of some of the history of East Aurora and it’s influence on simplicity. You’ll see right off why we’re attracted to it!

So we’ve mentioned these four major life areas. Let’s address these one at a time. If you listen in to the show, you’ll see how we used each of these to evaluate where we’re going to call home.

The first area is Home. The home, or family, can include the people (or animals) you live with, your family of origin (parents, siblings, and others), or your family of creation (spouse, partner, significant other, children, and others). We include our physical home too. For us, we want that to be an outgrowth of our relationship with those close to us, and serve as a setting for interaction with them.

The second area is Work. Now, this could be different for everyone. For most people, this is your job… what you do for a living or, if you’re between jobs, what you’re aiming to do next. If you’re in school, then consider school as part of your work domain. You can include here the wide array of things you do as part of your career.

Then we have Community. Community can mean friends, neighbors, social groups, religious institutions, charitable activities, political committees, membership in nonprofit organizations, or anything that bears on your impact on the world beyond your work and your family.

Finally, we have Self. Self includes your physical and emotional health, intellectual and personal growth, leisure, and spirituality.

So that’s it! The four life areas we considered and analyzed as we downsize our life. Starting off with a strategic focus using the 4 Direction Ideation Tool was a great start, but honing in using the major life areas of Home, Work, Community, and Self really helped us to decide where we want to live.

Again, whether you’re downsizing or not, take some time to examine your life using Home, Work, Community, and Self as lenses. You might just be surprised how many “4 way wins” you’re able to achieve and help bring some real congruence to your life!

So, what decisions could you make to achieve more 4 Way Wins? Are you considering downsizing or a big move in your future? If so, we’d love to hear about it and what tools you’re using to make your decisions. Leave us a comment below!

Special thanks to Jodialgara, Klund08, SimplyClearly-Laura Spawn and SherryLCarver.com for you reviews on iTunes, and to Henriikka in France and Katie in Okinawa for your comments on SimpleLifeTogether.com!

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit Timothy Valentine

When it comes to simple living, we can all use a few more tips to help us along. We’re going to share 3 more simple living habits you can start using right now for a better today and tomorrow.

One of our most popular shows was Episode 55, 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity. We passed along what we feel are the top 7 habits you can develop to bring some serious simplicity into your life. That show was shared thousands of times…over 2300 times on our Pinterest page alone! Well, today we’re going to share 3 more. So let’s jump right in!  Read More…

Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

Habit 1: When searching for a solution, start with yourself first. Chances are, just like Dorothy with the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, you had the power all along.

Tap into resources you already have. Shop in your own closet, pantry, etc…

When you work to solve your own problems, you are exercising your innovation muscles!

Too often we ask someone else for an answer. At least Google it before you ask.

By looking outside yourself, automatically you established a need…a need that didn’t exist. That makes you a consumer instead of a producer and plays right into the hands of the marketing messages we’re subjected to 3-5000 times a day.

Habit 2: Often, establishing a simplicity habit involves establishing a framework that helps you deal with things in a predictable manner. Try experimenting with different frameworks to see what works for you! Here are 3 we use:

The W-I-N Framework: One I’ve been using more and more lately is the WIN framework. WIN stands for “What’s Important Now” and Vanessa first heard about it in Greg McKeown’s excellent book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

The Eisenhauer Matrix Framework: You’ve probably seen this one before, but just imagine a simple foursquare matrix. The vertical axis plots importance and the horizontal axis plots urgency. So if you picture the four squares, the top/left square is Box 1, Urgent & Important box. The top right is Box 2, Less Urgent & Important. Box 3 on the bottom/left is Less Important & Urgent. And finally, Box 4, Less Important & Less urgent, is on the bottom/right. The folks over at Eisenhauer.me did a great little video:

Isn’t that the truth! “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

The S.I.M.P.L.E. Method of Organizing Framework: Another framework is Vanessa’s S.I.M.P.L.E. Method© of organizing which she breaks down in great detail in her book Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms Here’s an outline:

Strategize:

Identify:

Make Piles:

Pare Down and Edit:

Let’s Organize:

Evaluate and Maintain:

You can find the whole SIMPLE process in Vanessa’s book on Amazon. Seriously, it’s less than a decent cup of coffee and you should treat yourself.

Habit 3: Lead Others To Simple Living By Leading Yourself:  The number 1 question or pain point we get from people is “How do I get (someone they care about) to embrace simplicity? They’re into simplicity and someone close to them isn’t. It may be a spouse, a parent, your kids, a friend…whoever.  Well, the real bottom line is this: you just need to lead by example. Sure, you can establish some controls with kids, but for the most part just setting the example will go a long way to influence others to adopt positive change.

So there you have it! Three more simple living habits you can use to make your life a little easier. As we enter the Holiday season of 2014 we’re faced with lots of simplicity challenges. Be good to yourself in all the right ways. That includes forgiveness if you get off path a bit.

And the new year brings lots of opportunities for new beginnings, too. If you need some extra motivation, scroll through the older episodes of the back catalog and re-listen to some of those shows.

You can find links to all our shows on one page by going to SimpleLifeTogether.com/showlist. But here are 5 that can really help you jumpstart your New Year: Episodes 51, 52, 55, 63, and 65.

So, what new simplicity habits are you willing to try? Are you ready to start tapping into your own innovation and resources? Which of the 3 frameworks we shared might work for you? And finally, what area of your life can you start simplifying that sets the example for others? We’d love to know and I’m sure others would too! Let us know what you think in the comments below. 

Why not start out the new year with a challenge? If you have questions or just want to learn more about Project 333 or Courtney Carver’s Dress With Less microcourse. You can learn more about that at SimpleLifeTogether.com/dress.

Finally, sign up for the Edit & Forget It Challenge! If you’re already on our Edit & Forget It Challenge email list, that’s great. If not, you can sign up here.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Okay, folks. We had intended this episode to be more of a “finality”. It was supposed to be more of a “farewell” episode and post. But the truth is, we’re having trouble with this because Simple Life Together is such a big part of our life. If it sounds like we’re waffling a bit, that’s because…well, we are!

So I guess you could say that we’re simplifying Simple Life Together. We should just jump right into the dirty work and break it all down for you…  Read More…

Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

On the last episode and up until we went to SimpleREV in Minneapolis we intended for this episode to be our last for quite a while. Here’s why:

Although we love sharing and teaching others, over time, the success of our podcast led to the feeling of obligation of having to produce awesome content ALL the time. And let’s face it…our lives just aren’t THAT interesting that we have some type of major topic to talk about for 40 minutes each week. Still, we started realizing that the show was shifting from documenting our journey to “having” to produce good educational content each and every week, then every two weeks. Some of which took a lot of time to either research or compile coherent thoughts.

And we started to feel the pressures of the podcast from:

We get along really well and, for the most part, what you hear on the show is what you get with us. But every once in a while, working together on the show stretched things a little bit. Not too often, but definitely more so when we started feeling like we HAD to do a show as opposed to the times when we just couldn’t wait to share something. Hopefully, those tougher times were transparent on your end and you weren’t any the wiser. They weren’t often, but hey, we’re human, you know?

But that’s not all…we’ve also reached a part of journey where it made sense for us to pause the podcast a bit and shift from regularly scheduled content to “targets of opportunity-type” content…at least for now.

The cool thing is that we’ve reached an important waypoint on this part of our journey, and now it’s time for us to refocus and work toward that end. But just like in any journey, when it comes to careers there are breaks along the way…if you’re lucky that is.

Back in our military days…during patrolling, we would occasionally take breaks on our mission called “SLLS Halts” (pronounced ‘sils’) that’s an acronym for Stop, Look, Listen, and Smell. Those halts would let you take things in and sense what was going on at that point in the operation. A time to just focus. I think we need to do that with life, too, and I feel like this SLLS halt I’ve taken has really refocused me on what I love and what I excel at. And that’s being in a leadership position with a team.

So this is what we’ve decided: Keeping in mind our original goal of the podcast and in light of our new focus in life….it’s not the end the end of Simple Life Together! As we have things to share, we will. That’s what we started out to do and that’s what we want to continue to do. Just not on a regular scheduled basis. So we’re simplifying a bit. But the sharing will continue. And I think it will be a better quality because it’s not rushed, forced, or done out of a sense of obligation…but from a point of sharing and community.

Many many thanks to you! We can’t thank the community enough for your constant support of SLT and hope you continue to support us when we do decide to pop in from time to time!

We are blown away at the community on Edit & Forget It Facebook Page and plan on keeping it going and participating as long as the group is active. We’ll pop in from time to time, but the really cool thing is that it’s really at a point where it’s a bunch of great folks that have a ton of advice and support to offer.

So does simplifying the show sound okay to you? A little less of us…a little less predictability…but still here to share our journey? We’d love to know.  Let us know what you think in the comments below. 

If you have questions or just want to learn more about Project 333 or Courtney Carver’s Dress With Less microcourse. You can learn more about that at SimpleLifeTogether.com/dress.

Finally, sign up for the Edit & Forget It Challenge! If you’re already on our Edit & Forget It Challenge email list, that’s great. If not, you can sign up here.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit: Modified Photo From Ken Conley

Vanessa was getting ready to throw away a magazine (because of course, she practices the “one in one out rule“) and the headline on the cover was: The Balanced Life! She told me that she paused for a moment and thought, “Do I have balance?” We hear so much about it, but how do we define work life balance?

What does it really mean? Can we really achieve a balanced life? And so we got to talking about balance for a while, and thought we’d explore that a little more…. (Read more…)

Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

It seems like the whole “balance thing” has become a buzz word. We hear about balance all the time in magazines, on television, supposed experts, life coaches, etc. Terms like work life balance, balanced diet, and even balanced budget are pretty pervasive.  But what does balance really mean in your life? We think “balanced” is different for everyone and there’s no one prescribed balanced lifestyle that works for everyone. Nor is there one way to define work life balance in a way that’s universal. So, we took a look at it from our own experience.

For us, work life balance includes myriad topics we’ve discussed on previous shows, such as:

As we talked about what this balance meant to us, there were some pretty specific things that were NOT included in our definition of work life balance, too. Here are some:

So what gets in our way of achieving a good balance? For us, historically it’s been things like:

Speaking of technology, that deserves a deeper look. What’s the problem with technology? It’s invading every realm of our personal space, that’s what! It’s even encroaching on the most intimate of spaces and events:

When we overindulge in technology, it distracts our attention and focus, and affects our ability to communicate and deal. For the younger generation of teens, it’s even impacted the way they communicate. Many rely on electronic communication versus face to face communication. In some, this has hindered their ability to deal with confrontation. Technology, when abused, hinders our ability to be present…to pause, and be in the moment; to be alone in our thoughts to contemplate.  Ironically most people say they want to “give it up”, but never do.

How We Strive To Create Balance

So here are some ways we try to maintain to ensure we stay true to how we define work life balance. We:

So…in the end, like most things, we define work-life balance on our own. It’s not 50/50…it’s not 80/20. It’s up to You to determine the balance that is right for you, You make a plan to achieve that balance, and hopefully, building on the habits we talked about last week, You develop the keystone habits routines, and rituals that bring about the balance that’s right for you.

So what does a balanced life look like to you? How do you find or work towards that balance in your life? We’d love to know.  Share your successes and struggles in the comments below. 

Thanks to all of you for thinking of us and taking the time to leave a review:

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit Quinn Dombrowski

Never underestimate the power of habit. In mid-April of 2014, I decided that I needed to make some positive changes to my morning ritual. I’ve talked about my morning ritual a few times on the Simple Life Together podcast, and we discussed the power of habit, routines and rituals back in Episode 30 and also in one of our most popular episodes, The 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity in Episode 55. But recently I read a book on habits (well, actually I listened to the audio version) by Charles Duhigg, titled The Power of Habit.

But let me back up just a bit and talk about my positive changes to how I spend my early morning. Following a visit to the doctor and the results of some medical testing, I decided that I need to get more active. Of course, my wife Vanessa had been encouraging me to do this for years…but you know how sometimes when the “advice” comes from a spouse or other close family member you occasionally ignore it? Well, yeah…that. Moving on…

Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

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I had always intended to start walking, but I never seemed to be able to fit it into my day. But as I’ve explained in the past my morning ritual consisted of me waking up about 2 hours earlier than the rest of the family, making a delicious cup of coffee with my Aeropress, and sitting down for some “me” time behind my Macbook Pro. I knew that had to change and I intended to not only establish a new walking habit, but to eventually turn that into a ritual as well.

Vanessa and I have defined “ritual” as a mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. Think of a ritual as the sweet spot; something that probably needs to be done, that you actually enjoy doing. So as I started off to develop my new habit of walking, The Power of Habit was playing in my earbuds on Day One. As I listened and walked, Mr Duhigg explained what he calls his Habit Loop which consists of Cue, Routine, and Reward. He also highlights what he calls “Keystone Habits;” small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that carry over into other aspects of their lives. Duhigg contends that Keystone Habits have a ripple effect into other parts of your life, creating positive change unexpectedly. He used examples of exercise and eating together as a family as Keystone Habits, and I’d use our family time around the fire while camping (that “fire circle” I’ve mentioned before) as a prime example, too. Well, thats exactly what I was hoping to develop with my walk, a firm Keystone Habit. So I started off deliberately to ensure I did all I could do to make this work.

Knowing there are many ways to interrupt developing a new habit, here are a few things I did to help ensure success:

Sure enough, this walking habit has matured from a simple habit, to a routine, and is now a ritual that I enjoy. It has also become what Mr. Duhigg would refer to as a Keystone Habit, as well, spreading other goodness into various areas of my life. I’ve made great strides with my eating habits and other facets of my life by adopting the principles laid out by Mark Sisson in his Primal Blueprint. You can find out lots more about that at his website called Mark’s Daily Apple. He has so much terrific (and free) information there, but I admit I devoured the audio versions of his books The Primal Connection and The Primal Blueprint. To date, following Mark’s program, I’ve lost over 30 pounds, eliminated most of my prescription medicines (and cut the final one to half dosage), transitioned my complete diet to natural food sources, and I feel better than I have in years. Truly an amazing transformation, all stemming from one new habit: my daily walk.

So, if you’ve been waiting for a time to start tapping into the power of habits, maybe now is perfect for you. Be sure to check out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I’m sure we could all use some more Keystone Habits in our lives to help us live more fully, more simply, and more purposefully. Habits don’t start without action, so if you didn’t start yesterday, then today is your next best option.

So what are your Keystone Habits? What habits have you developed in the past that you’re following today to shape your tomorrow? Are they positive habits that support the pillars of your Life Plan? Or are they habits that aren’t really congruent with how you want to live your simple life? We’d love to know. Share your successes and struggles in the comments below. 

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit Audrey Low

We’ve mentioned in previous shows…sometimes simple isn’t easy. Consistent, voluntary simplicity can be even harder. Matter of fact, it can be an awful lot of work to make simple easy, but in the end we’re opting to live simply intentionally…in as many areas of our life as we can. And that’s going to take a little exploration and effort.

After our presentation at the NAPO 2014 Conference in Phoenix, we met a certified professional organizer, Miriam Ortiz y Pino, who turned out to have a little more in common with us than being an organizer like Vanessa.  She’s been practicing voluntary simplicity for a long time now and after talking with her we thought it would  be great to have her on the show to share her thoughts on what voluntary simplicity means to her, and also tap into some of her tips and advice to those who want to simplify their lives too.

Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little “less” in her life. It’s less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!

Buy Supermom vs Supermom

Miriam Ortiz y Pino  is a Certified Professional Organizer, Simplicity Expert & Coach, Entrepreneur, Writer, Blogger and Creator of The Streamlined System. For over 15 years Miriam has worked with entrepreneurs and other busy and creative people to eliminate the distractions, simplify systems and create routines so they can get it all done practically effortlessly.  The More than Organized Blog was recognized as one of the top 5 Simplicity Blogs in the world and she has contributed to several books. You can check out her website,http://www.morethanorganized.net, for free articles, resources, and to sign up for her FREE “One Minute Mail (& email) Solution Kit.

1. Tells us a little more about what you do and how you make lives simpler.

2. Everyone enjoys a little backstory…can you share with us a little bit about your life before becoming a professional organizer (in other words…were you always organized or did you have to learn to become more organized, etc)?

3. Living a life of simplicity is different for everyone, can you share with us what simplicity means to you and how you embrace it in your own life?

4. In your experience, what are the most common areas people request your help for getting organized and adopting simplicity?  Why do you think they struggle?

5. Getting and staying organized and embracing a life of simplicity is more than just buying organizing products, watching “how to” videos, reading books or even hiring a professional organizer.  Can you share with our listeners your advice on what it takes to embrace a simpler and more organized life…and make it stick?

6. You offer more tips and advice on your blog and website. Can you tell us little more about your workshops, products and services? I know we have a lot of DIYers out there…

7. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

8. What is the best way for our listeners to learn more about you?

So, what does voluntary simplicity mean to you? How are you practicing voluntary simplicity in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. We’d love to know!

Be sure to leave a comment below.

You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.

Photo Credit Gisela Giardino