DO LESS - more thoughts on streamlining
Magpie Girl’s Top Ten Things I Need Less Of
10. television (thank god for season finales!)
9. purchasing opportunities (more loot = more maintenance)
8. “edu-tainment” (educational activities are still activities)
7. calories
6. emails (but how to keep them from coming so often?)
5. books (and the guilt over having bought them and not read them)
4. home improvement projects (martha stewart be damned!)
3. self imposed obligations
2. creative ideas (derails finishing)
1. regrets (i’m midlife crisis-ing! more on that later…)
Quick! Open the comments windows and write yours down. Your intuition will make sure the right ones get on there…
Entries
May 24th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
in no particular order:
1. therapy (sometimes all i want to hear is my own voice in my head, not a paid professional’s)
2. mindless web surfing (it’s a great avoidance tactic)
3. fatty foods (and the accompanying calories, of course)
4. self-doubt (but how?)
5. idle worry (idle. useless. not healthy.)
6. late nights and late mornings (even though my biorhythm runs that way)
7. disagreements and misunderstandings (they’re starting to hurt too much)
8. things breaking around the house (lights, air conditioner, fridge)
9. living in the past or the future (i need to learn to be present)
10. procrastination (again with the avoidance tactics)
May 24th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
i need less (or fewer):
children in my house
friends who would like to watch their children in my house
stuff in my house
perfectionism
interruptions
projects (why can’t one magnificent thing turn up at a time?)
reasons to leave my house
carpool responsibilities
ideas (experiencing some flooding right now)
criticism
requests for attention
opportunities to volunteer, be a good mother, blah blah blah
May 26th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
can you really ever have too many books? (and if you can and wanna send some my way to lighten your shelves and further burden mine, let me know! *grin* i’m sure you have some amazing stuff)
May 27th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I should probably clarify that #2 on my list definitely does not apply to *this* website and the other quality blogs I visit! I call this *mindful* surfing. There’s a big difference. :)
May 28th, 2007 at 2:27 am
(this list is as it came to me, randomly)
sleeplessness
crazy work
laundry
kids resistant to helping out
migraines
disagreements
perfectionism
“winging it”
anger
overwhelmed feelings
May 30th, 2007 at 5:53 am
I need less:
-chocolate
-facebook
-safety
-fear
-perfectionism
-half-hearted promises (I make but never get around to keeping..”we WILL go for coffee! soon!)
-emotional attachment to book characters
-shoulds
-junk mail
-carcinogens
May 31st, 2007 at 10:33 am
Oooo..don’t those half-hearted promises just drain you dry? Those really give me a lot of brain noise that I really don’t need. That’s one of things I struggle with the most because I want to build community with all the wonderful people I meet, but the reality is I can maintain a much smaller circle than I think I can!
magpie rachelle
June 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
less comparing
less behaving
less doing
less to-do-lists
less reading because i “should”
less obsessing over what others think of me
more walks
more breathing
more creating because i want to.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I need less…
anxiety
judgement
fear
extra stuff that doesn’t have a home
Patron Tequila
worry
fear
creative ideas that I’m too afraid to start
comparisons of myself to other people
I need more…
love for myself
love for myself
love for myself
April 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
[...] Soul asks “What are you ready to give up.” Her post inspired me to make my list awhile back (several, actually) and can testify that it was literally life changing. Be bold! Ask yourself, "What [...]