Simple Is Ample (Living Your Life With Dr Abdulfattah Adeyemi)
Living a simple life can be quite difficult. Yet simplicity is the remedy to many of our personal and collective maladies: perpetually bruised ego, excessive bureaucracy that creates pointless bottleneck, needless protocols that impede meaningful progress, unnecessary sense of entitlements that benefits no one, and a culture of frivolous pursuit of more of everything: more food, more entertainments, more money, more power, more gadgets, more and more at all costs.
These attitudes have bogged us down, overwhelmed us, and constrained our growths. We thus get infected by mental lethargy and a constant feeling of failure.
A simple life could mean choosing things that truly make life easier. But when we surround ourselves with many things that are not needed, or are no longer used, we sign on for a complicated existence. Is today’s world of luxury and convenience not supposed to make life easier for us? At times, having the world at our fingertips may make things more complicated. Whereas, a simple life might make us live happier, healthier, more relaxed and less troubled, more in touch and less touchy, more interested and more interesting.
In other words, we should look for ways to cut down on time and money that we waste on unnecessary things, because time and money are of the most valuable resources we have. When we choose to live life in a simpler way, we gain more time and we save more money. We can then begin to give more generously, because we now have so many resources that can help others.
Creating a life of simplicity requires hard work and a clear focus. It is neither easy nor automatic. It can be slow and sometimes painful. But we need to change. Something must change. What was useful yesterday may have lost its value today. We should have the courage to let go of our excesses, and try new things: new perspectives, new ways of thinking, new priorities, and new choices.
Embracing simplicity sheds away the inessentials in our lives, so we begin to see and appreciate who and what is really important in our homes, in our thoughts, in our schedules. Attaining what we want should not distract our attention from obtaining what we need. Thus, we can make room for the life we need to live: a simple life of purpose.
When we live simply, we are inspired by what is relevant, and we are contented with what is adequate. Our physical environment would be clutter-free, responsibilities would be less arduous, and our spiritual journeys would be less onerous. Then, our existence would be graced with things that are beautiful and truly useful.
