Continuing with Step 3 of my Simply Rich Living series, I chose to write out and share five habits I practice ritually, because people in my life – including organizing clients – are always asking me how I’m able to live as minimalist on my beloved sailboat.
Step 1: De-clutter.
Step 2: Identify and Acknowledge what´s not working for you.
Step 3: Repeat.
Step 4: Non-Do.
Step 5: Meditate.
Step 3 is simple but not easy. It’s to Repeat Steps 1 and 2, indefinitely. I sense there’s this belief that De-cluttering (Step 1) is a major one-time event, where one hauls out of all her superflous junk, and then ta-da! you’re set for life. LOL. It doesn’t work like that. De-cluttering is a life practice. It’s like a good habit, only I think the word habit doesn’t completely encompass the practice, because it doesn’t involve adding on, but rather habitualizing release and letting-go in itself.
Over the last century we’ve mastered how to acquire. We’re constantly shopping – buying food, household items, clothes, gifts, that thing to fix the thing. Repeat. We repeat this over and over and over, which can be a fun and wonderful part of life. But somewhere along the way we lost some wisdom in how to do the opposite, to maintain a harmonious relationship with the flow of things in and out of our house and life. Step 3 of my Simply Rich Living is in essence to also do the opposite of acquiring, consciously. Because I do this, I maintain the mental and physical clarity to see what’s not working or what I don’t like in my life, and the space and willpower to fix it (Step 2). I hereby give yourself permission to just throw away the broken thingy! And repeat. It’s a more powerful and sacred act than it may get credit for.
Every time I clear clutter, and even living in a tiny home I acquire quite a bit of stuff, I give myself the gift of a little more time and energy to connect with my best self. So I invite you to play with viewing Step 1 and 2 as a practice to repeat, repeat, repeat. You can’t do it wrong, you can only learn from whatever happens. The more I execute these three powerful tools, the easier it is for me to make conscious, clear, deliberate choices in my day to day life – which leads to living the life I want.
