Simplicity to succeed in 2021

Simplicity in daily life to succeed in 2021 isn’t easy to achieve. Simplicity is my motto for 2021 and goes along with renouncing, abandoning, letting go. Over the past year, we renounced on one of the basic. rights already: our freedom to move. And there’s so much more we can clear from live, just keeping the essence, the most valuable part, or the pure objective need.

Avoiding burden, questionings, headaches, to live with more lightness and happiness, particularly in 2021.

Somehow our brain isn’t trained for going straight to the easiest solution, on the contrary, it will guide us to complexity and difficulty, and we seem to like it.

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”  – Steve Jobs

Practice makes perfect, they say. Let’s break down the Simplicity challenge into 7 portions and see how we can take action.

Unclutter Things

Tidying up the working and living space helps to find clarity. Throw away every object you haven’t touched for two years (including cloths!), except some souvenirs relating to positive emotions which count for you.

Before every purchase of a new object asking oneself if it truly brings an improvement to your life. Purifying your surroundings gives an immediate feeling of lightness, simplicity in daily life.

I’m drowning in accumulated paper mountains, will flush them away!
Yes, I might buy a mic to improve the sound quality, the online yoga classes are on the rise in 2021. As for the drone, I’m tempted, not sure it brings simplicity…

Unclutter thoughts

Find calm and moments for yourself. Meditation helps for calming our monkey brain, rebooting it. A walk in the nature without talking or any other disturbance is a good alternative.

A Full Moon Ritual can help to get rid of thought patterns, purge old energies.

There’s a feeling of guilt towards friends I can’t help, and overlapping projects I have to strip down and clear from my mind.

All photos in this article are taken in and around Artis Tirma on Fuerteventura, Spain

Write and make a schedule

Writing down things simplifies life a lot! One of the reasons why I write this article is finding clarity for my way to simplicity in daily life.

By writing your thoughts, ideas and plans, you materialize your thoughts, line them out and give them shape. Talking to a friend can help as well. Right after the talk, don’t forget to write down the essential points, to free your brain.

I wrote a list of things I want to achieve in 2021. And made a strategy how to achieve them. Also, I wrote a schedule guiding me through my week, which days I practice yoga, write blog posts, work on translations (French, German), plan new courses and yoga holidays, am active on social media etc. And now I’m writing here…

Follow your intuition

Every day we take decisions. From the cup of coffee or tea to more impacting reorientations in job, relationship, personal development, sport, travel…

We tend to overthink, ponder the pros and cons, discuss with experienced persons, friends, life or business coaches, google. By doing so we adapt our actions to the surrounding conditions. We interlock ourselves in a complex system.

This is fine if you are happy in your current situation, if you feel in harmony with your given framing and want to continue following the outlined track.

And what if you made your own way listening your heart and gut feeling? And the environment has to adapt to it? It will somehow adapt to you, there’s no doubt. What’s the worse case? You have to renounce on certain persons, maybe on money. What’s the gain? Life gets simpler – not easier! – your goals clearer, in the morning you’re happy to get up for a new day following your heart.

My intuition tells me to share these thoughts with you, even though my blog is about yoga. No rational explanation for this. Just following an impulse.

Live in the present

In 2021 more than ever, living the present moment is crucial for mental health. The past doesn’t exist any more, lessons are learned, so useless to spend time in the past, except if it makes you happy. As for the future, it is unpredictable.

Here again Meditation can help, as well as mindful walks in nature and being aware of the beauty surrounding us.

A business needs a plan, short and long term. The landing pages are set up to take my guests on yoga holidays to Slovenia in May, to Madeira island in June, to Thailand in October. The current energy and thoughts however go to new yoga classes, walks in nature and writing.

Surround yourself with like-minded people

It’s again about uncluttering… cut with people who take you more energy than they give you. The ones carrying permanently problems with them. Go towards people with a positive approach to life and a level of energy similar to yours. The ones that welcome you with a smile (or a glass of wine), and you’re both happy to share moments.

A positive attitude makes life much simpler than engaging into arguing, defending one’s point of view, being on the outlook of lies, mistakes and hidden agendas.

E-mail, WhatsApp, chats on Instagram and Facebook are in 2021 my hotlines to relations I value.

Be kind with yourself and others

Don’t strive for perfection, don’t over-demand to yourself. Doing the best you can is good enough.

Laugh a lot, go for at least 30 minutes daily walks or other exercises, reduce news listening/watching times to max. 30 minutes daily (except if it is your job), love yourself and give your love to people around you.

I rented a bike instead of a car on Fuerteventura… I see much less, of course, but I’m closer to people I meet on the way and my legs and heart love it!

Conclusion

Simplicity is an attitude in daily life, underlying to every decision and action we take. When you are in the supermarket, scheduling your next holiday or reorienting your career, a mantra might help like ‘Less is more’ or ‘Keep it simple’.

However, we can put the first 3 points on our agenda to actively work on them at the start of this new year and condition our brain for 2021:

Unclutter Things – Unclutter Thoughts – Write a lot.

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