Living a simple life can sound boring. To be honest, it does sound boring. Something without any ups and downs. Something without any excitement or adventure.
But it’s not entirely true. Because the law of nature doesn’t agree with it. Everything on this Earth or in this Universe goes through ups and downs. There’s no certainty in anything. You can’t be sure of anything.
And this is the same case for life, even if it gets simple.
There are many ups and downs when we try to follow the patterns of the simple life. Like restraining ourselves from many great resources. Choosing a path where nobody wants to walk. Accepting criticism from friends or the community. And lots of lots of sacrifices. However, despite these hard slopes, it comes with many benefits that can help us live an extraordinary life without being dependent on fake or unreal luxuries.
And in this article, we’re going to find out what are those benefits of living simply and how we can learn them without any extra effort.
But before we start our journey on this topic, you should read this simple life quote by Angel Chernoff —
“If the grass looks greener on the other side… Stop staring. Stop comparing. And stop complaining. Start watering the grass you’re standing on.”
The benefits of living a simple life
Healthy Pocket
When we practice a life of simplicity, we rely on fewer things. Or we can say that we make use of things that are essential in our day to day life. We spend less money on luxuries or fashionable things. Things that have no real use. Like expensive clothes, watches, sunglasses, a purse, and a lot of useless stuff. Doing so, we save a lot like a money-saving expert. Hence you’d never run out of money whenever an important work or task needs to be done, which requires investment. You’d never run out of money when a medical procedure needs to be taken.
When you start living a simple life, you’d never run out of money for whatever the cause is. You’d never say, “I have no money.” No need to do any part-time job and ask people how to make more money.
Good Health
Have you ever wondered what makes the healthiest person in the world healthiest? Did you notice how your neighbour is in good health? Or have you ever asked yourself how to be healthy?
If yes, then I’ll tell you how.
Search Charles Eugster, you’d find that he’s the 96 or so years old living fittest person on the earth. Now, what’s interesting here is that he eats in variety. Not sticking with something same, each day.
You’d say eating in variety isn’t a part of living simply. Nope, you’re wrong here. Because even you’re eating in variety, but you’re taking in necessary nutrition. But when we try to live a life outside simplicity, we try to copy others. We try to eat what others eat. And people eat what tastes, smells, and sounds better. In truth, it doesn’t have any good nutrition in it. Eating that kind of food affects people’s health in a much, much lousy way.
Even though Charles eats food of variety but he’s sticking to the ordinary nutrition that is by default the most essential.
Purposeful Life
You have a dream just like anyone else. Something to do with love but unable to work for it. Why? Guess what, you’re living a life that doesn’t allow you to indulge in something you love. That life you’re living right now is keeping you busy with many other things. Things that people or society wants you to do. Things extraordinary life requires, and you have to provide at many costs, including the thing you want to do and love.
But when you start living a simple life, you begin living life on purpose.
How?
Because when we don’t chase after the extraordinary or high profile life, we save ourselves from most of the things that are taking our time for no reason. By living simply, we clear our plate and what remains there is our purpose alone. We can see it through without any garbage or unnecessary things. You would never ask the question of what I should do.
Time Management Learning
Just like living a simple life clarifies our vision or path for something greater good, it also helps us use our time on something meaningful. We don’t chase after marshmallows; instead, we work for essential things in life.
Things that matter to us that are betterment for ourselves & others too.
We learn what to prioritize & what to ignore. We learn time management strategies that become part of the habit and later a part of our nature—some kind of ritual that we would like to enjoy. 🙆🏻
Ability to Achieve Great in Life
With money, health, purpose, and time, a person can achieve anything they want to. With these 4 essential elements of life, a person naturally becomes someone who wants to do something better for its life.
And living a simple life can make you that kind of person. You’d have a purpose to work for with time to invest in it. Money to grow that purpose further and good health to keep you sustaining that purpose no matter what.
So, if you want to live a simple life, then continue this article further to learn how you can do it.
How to Start Living a Simple Life
Before we start the topics on how to start living a simple, there’s a simple rule of living simply. If you can’t follow that rule, then you can’t live simply. And that is — Don’t compare yourself to others and don’t do the things that they are doing. It’s the one basic rule to rule them all. It’s the foundation of being simple.
So, if you can live by this rule, then you should continue. Greatness is just one step and one commitment ahead. 😎
Say No to Liabilities
Stop spending money on the things you regret later. Instead, start investing money upon which you can feel proud later. This is the code. To live a basic and a life full of money, you have to be very careful about how you spend your money. And it also includes the money credit card provides.
Most life coaches would suggest you to stop using the credit card or don’t apply for it. Even though you get it, you shouldn’t fear destroying it. Well, these tips help us to not get caught in unnecessary buying. Like most people, these days use their credit cards to buy a gadget such as a mobile phone or mostly mobile phone, which later we find it hard to repay. If we don’t have a better job with better pay.
But if you want to survive in the long run, you have to borrow the money. So, use your credit to pay expenses of your profession. Of your business. Because business and profession can repay those expenses.
Most of the I.T companies borrow the money and repay it when they run the business.
So, if you want to use your credit card, then use it for assets, not for liabilities. Because liabilities’ value would go down with time. But assets can save you in the long run.
Take a loan for the business, not for entertainment — The greatest simple life mantra. ✌🏻
Don’t Socialize
Wait, hold on, did I say that? Please let me check.
Yeah, I said that, but I didn’t mean that you should completely don’t mingle with people. You have to, even if we don’t want to, it happens inevitably.
So, what did I mean when I wrote the sub-heading, Don’t Socialize? Well, I meant, socialize with fewer people but good people—those kinds of people who have some sort of vision in their mind and are working for that.
People who like to talk about ideas and development, instead of naysayers who all the time blame the government, their parents, and the society for their present bad situation.
Follow Schedule & Complete All the Cycles
We live in cycles. No matter what we do is part of a cycle. Waking up in the morning and going to bed again in the night is all part of a cycle. And if we don’t complete these cycles, our life becomes a straight line.
The reason we should complete our cycle is that it helps us manage time in a better way. We’d be able to finish or start any task or job in a most suitable way. For instance, you’d like to go on a bicycle ride in the morning. You dress up, take the keys, put the shoes, and helmet on the head. Now, to complete the cycle, what you need to do is that when you get back, you put all the stuff in the right place as they were before, so next time you go out, you don’t have to wander in the house.
If we don’t put the toothbrush in the right place, chaos happens in the next morning. Sometimes upside-down of the entire house.
Therefore, to live life simply, it’s necessary we complete all the cycles. And the best way to do it is, make a schedule and follow it.
Gym Membership After Home Workout
It’s a world-famous thing that people regret most of the time, especially after January. As getting in physical shape is one of the New Year’s resolutions which they can’t complete before everything.
Therefore, if you want to live a simple life that includes better health and muscles, then before hitting the Gym floor, you should start working out in the home garage.
Reason? Read below,
- No investment except time.
- It will set your routine.
- No humiliation. (I look fat, I look thin, what the other guy would think. No, I can’t do this. I’m a loser. And so on.)
- Faster results.
- True motivation.
- And better Gym hitting, because you’ve already brought yourself in good shape with a home workout. So, when you start the Gym, you won’t find any trouble getting there. No procrastination.
Thus, you’d achieve a simple healthy life. 💪
Live Simple Life Online
Life in today’s time, not only restricted to the offline world. And if we want to live a simple life, then our online presence and interaction with the digital world matter a lot.
To say people are introvert, but when it comes to the online world, they are more than extrovert. It’s tough for them to stand in between more than five people in the offline world, but they can post hundreds of thousands of words on forums having millions of users.
A research found out that introverts are more likely to use the internet, they can swipe or scroll for hours without even eating or perhaps eating a lot. They follow numerous people or sources that publish vast amounts of content, which doesn’t let the introverts or extroverts live a simple life online.
So, if you want to live a simple life, then start following the attention diet by Mark Manson.
You should rely on less resources but good in terms of research, content, and delivery. Quality over quantity. Not the one who publishes every 2 hours or 3. Their content should be of more than 10 mins if you’re watching a video.
Most recommended, don’t download the application, instead, use them on your browser, so you have to make an effort to go into their networks. If you’re news savvy, then fix a schedule to read the news daily and not more than 15 or 20 mins. In this way, you’d develop a better attention span and a better simple life on the internet.
And one more thing, turn-off all the notifications, whether on the phone or on the computer. It’s hard, I know, but good things are hard.
No Masterpiece
When humans first invented the wheel, the very first invention, they never tried to make it perfect. They just built it to help them travel with ease. But today, in this modern world where we see people achieve extraordinary heights, we try to do the same.
We chase after perfection to build a thing just like they did. And in this chase, we completely ignore the necessity of trying, failing, and learning. These were the essential aspects for those extraordinary people to do something sensational.
In the below video, an archer-James Jean- is shooting arrows on different things in the most challenging way. And none of the arrows missed the target.
YouTube is filled with videos just like the above, and when we watch these kinds of videos, one thing that came out from our mouth is that, “How can he/she do it?”
The reason he did so in the video was that he practiced so much. Only he knows how many times or hours he has given for a single shoot. And most importantly for the shoot of the ring.
We humans have evolved so much that we can’t even see the ordinary and the essential thing behind a masterpiece. Everywhere we see a masterpiece, nothing ordinary, so we just can’t accept if something less than an out-of-the-box comes in front of us. It has become our second nature.
But to live a life down to earth, we have to ignore the extraordinary and try to focus on the ordinary. Once ordinary comes into its final state, then we have to make an effort to improve it. And not in a day, preferably day by day or in years. Then and only then, we’d be able to create a masterpiece.
One of the best examples of not focusing on creating a masterpiece is the social network site Facebook,
Likewise, you can’t build a muscular body in a day; you have to work out each day. You can’t learn the computer programming language in a day, you have to learn it each day. And if you can’t read this blog post in a day, then bookmark it to read it each day a little.
Dress Like a School Student
Look at the below picture to understand this point clearly. 🔍
Did you get the point that I was trying to explain? I believe you have.
Nope, don’t dress like them if you’re not in the school anymore. But the point is you should have a dress code. Something simple but sophisticated. By showing above pictures of the greatest personalities of all the time, I tried to explain that those are extraordinary people but still wearing something that is not so fashionable. Or perhaps it’s the best fashion of all.
Yes, you can dress like a student, but why?
The reason is that you’d save Time by having the same dress code for every single day, and it’s the most significant asset than any other you might have. No confusion in the morning, and you can invest your morning energy in better things.
And there are a lot of perks you’d experience when you start to dress simple. A person looks more professional and serious about his/her responsibilities than someone in Gucci’s Ready to Wear.
Don’t Overload
Our ancestors hunting habits never let us settle with less. No matter whatever comes in our way, we so-called humans try to fill our bags full. For instance, you could imagine yourself filling your cart with products on sale in a grocery or digital store.
You could imagine yourself at a function, wedding or a birthday party, where you stock your plate with plenty of food which later you’d find confusing — what to eat & what to not. The products in the cart put you in the dilemma of what to buy & what to not.
However, suppose you have started with less in the first place, having space in the cart & plate. In that case, you could easily decide the question of what, because having fewer options always delivers us something better, and we do not waste our time in deciding.
So, next time you buy or eat something, start with less. And see how better things you’d buy and keep your plate clean like as it was before starting the programme of the feast.
And Finally, Keep Walking & Maintain the Luxury of the Simple Life
Whether you want to live an extraordinary life or a simple one, you’d get the luxury from it, only if you remain in motion. Never stop, no matter what. Whether storm or heavy rainfall, you have to find the way and climb the wall just like a small ant.
Only and only then, you’d be able to achieve the heights of life and its simplicity.
So, no matter where you are, what type colour you have and what situation you are facing, keep walking. Simple, straight, and always in the direction of your… whatever it is.
Most Importantly, How to Follow This List?
As I said before, don’t overload. So, if you want to practice to live a simple life, and with the help of this listicle, then only pick one from the list. Don’t run behind everything. Once you master that thing, then simply pick another.
Even if you want to try something outside this list, try less but better. Something upon which you feel proud and can work without any excuse.
I hope you’d like this article and using its information, you’ll bring change in yourself and others as well. If you think it can help people, then please share it as much as you can. Or, if you want to read more articles like this one, you’re free to subscribe to our newsletter.
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Thank you
Nathawat Brothers
Putting thoughts for everyone.
Featured image from freepik.