3 Simple Ways To Live An Uncomplicated Life FinerMinds

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3 Simple Ways To Live An

Uncomplicated Life
03 Jul 2015

http://www.finerminds.com/happiness/3-simple-ways-to-live-an-uncom...

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by Su Mason Chen

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Are you often overwhelmed by so many different choices and things

to do that you end up not doing anything at all?
Look around you, there are countless articles, books and opinions on living simply
in order to create more time for other parts of life and this often involves nding
the time to read these publications in the rst place.

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Just take a look at this title: The Joy of Simple Living, Over 1,500 Simple Ways to
Make Your Life Easy and Content At Home and At Work.

You, Deborah Fairfull and 350,969

others others like this.

1,500 ways! Thats not simple is it? I mean 10 ways is simple but 1,500? Now, that is
too complicated for me.
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I am not saying that its a bad book, I havent read it; possibly because thinking
about 1,500 ways of simplifying my life simply overwhelms me.
There are also many other publications that talks about how getting rid of stu
will enrich your life in so many ways which sometimes oversimplies (if I dare say
so) the complicated minds of people who lead very cluttered lives.

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Living simply to me is not a matter of living a minimalistic, clutter-free life or even

just having a mind free of cluttered thoughts, whatever that means.
I think that living simply means simplifying the way you approach things in life and
looking at things that you do in a non-complicated way.

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21/07/2015 22:39

3 Simple Ways To Live An Uncomplicated Life FinerMinds

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Every action that we take is preceded by a decision that we make which is

preceded by the choices that we have.

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What if you simply limit your choices so that each decision process is signicantly
shortened and easier?
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So my theory on simple living is this: Limit your options.

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Why would something this short be the key? Well, limiting your options provides
you with the following:

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feel less overwhelmed because you do not have as many

options to choose from.
Imagine if you went to Dropbox today and they give you no less than 20 dierent
plans with dierent pricing because they gured that everyone has dierent
needs and these plans will surely satisfy one of these needs.
Will you bother with comparing 20 dierent plans then purchase one or will you
go check out another cloud storage facility provider with 3 simple plans to t
either your personal use or an enterprise plan for small businesses or big
businesses?

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Limited options will allow you to make better decisions throughout

the day.
Two words: decision fatigue.
A social psychologist called Roy F. Baumeister conducted some experiments
involving undergraduates which demonstrated that self-control or the act of
making better decisions involves a limited store of mental energy.
In these experiments, the students found themselves less able to resist other
temptations when they have had to ght o the allure of freshly baked chocolate
chip cookies and when they forced themselves to not shed a tear during a
tearjerker movie, they surrendered pretty quickly in tasks afterward that involved
any form of self-discipline such as a geometry puzzle.
In essence, they make not so optimal decisions to give up or give in when they are
forced to make too many other decisions.

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Having less options keeps you objective.

Its simple: by having less options to choose from, you will not be overwhelmed by
so many temptations that you lose track of making the right decision.
I mean, think about a buet or a menu with three dishes to choose from if you
were on a diet, will you be able to choose the healthiest dish out of three dishes
easily? Of course you would.
Less to weigh up, less to overwhelm you.

Heres how you can limit your options and simplify your decision-making process
Now that you know the benets of limiting your options here are 3 simple
approaches you can take when thinking about any decisions you have to make:

1. Simplify the options in your daily life

Think about the daily things you do like dressing, eating, commuting. How can you
simplify these routines?
The simplest way when it comes to dressing, for example, is planning what you
want to wear over the course of the week or even having clothes that you will
match in a xed way so that you dont have to think about what goes with what.
Think Steve Jobs (jeans and turtleneck), Mark Zuckerberg (grey t-shirt) or even the
Queen (her ensemble always consists of a dress and a complementary brooch).

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Or how about the meals you eat, would it help you and your waistline to have
meals planned for the week so you dont need to carry out the routine of, Oh, I
dont know what to eat so Ill just order a take out.

2. Identify the factors most important to you

This applies to many big decisions and small ones too. Say for example you have
two similar job oers one is located near your home and the other requires an
hour and a half commute one-way, and there is a slight pay dierence. Which
would you choose?
For me, commute is a major bug bear of mine so if the dierence in pay is only
slight and oers me a similar opportunity I will take the job closer to me. No
sweat.
In many major life decisions, we already know what we must absolutely have and
what is negotiable so once you identify them, you can easily remove those options
without, leaving you free to make your decision.

3. Imagination can play a part

I have a secret to decisive food ordering: I would actually imagine what my food
tastes like at that moment and decide whether that is the taste I want.
Or I would sometimes imagine how my belly feels after eating a certain dish, the
imaginary feeling of the discomfort of belly-bloat and lethargy for the rest of the
day is often enough for me not to order a big bowl of pasta for lunch.
You can also do this with many other decisions, say for example you want to
choose between a career of freelancing or fulltime employment. Some people
enjoy the idea of freelancing because of the freedom, but bear in mind you will
need to drum up your own business so what if you can imagine the feeling of
the stress or the excitement of drumming up your own business?
If it is stress you feel, then perhaps the freelancing route may not be the step for
you.
Think about opposing scenarios in dierent situations and imagine what they
might feel like, you might just surprise yourself.

Yes it is true that we have many decisions to make but often we choose to inundate
ourselves with so many choices that we choose nothing at all.
As Confucius said:

Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.

We tend to give up on making any decisions for ourselves because we
overcomplicate the choices we have, the decisions we need to make and this very
often leads to an unfullled life.
What if simplifying the decisions you need to make is the rst step to creating the
life you want?
Take the rst step to creating the life you want by simply following a plan.

Do you have any advice on how you simplify your decision-making

process? Let us know right here!
Su Mason Chen
Su is the founder of Life Provocateur and she is passionate
about helping people take the rst steps to taking charge of
their lives and help them nd passion, purpose and meaning in
their lives. Liked this article? You can sign up to receive free
updates whenever new articles are posted.

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Jenny Franklin
I am so Buggered by this. I want to live Simply; what I call 'Cowboy Style', but I
always seem to get stymied. If not by one thing, by a million others. I am sure I do I
to myself, but I can't help but to suspect other 'invisible' forces.
This is AWESOME!!! The timing is perfect, and a very good meditation for me to
work on. Review... Simplify the Options, Identify the Factors, and Imagine the BEST
Outcome.
Thank you very much.
Like Reply 14 July 2015 18:04
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