My latest book, Journeys in Simplicity, is out now.
As readers of this site will know, I believe we can all benefit from making life simpler. But we must find our own fit. This latest book contains a collection of my own reflections on simplicity and minimalism, and how both can help us live well.
Some of these essays have appeared elsewhere and are reworked, and updated, here. Having new life breathed into them. Others are brand new and unpublished until now. All have a thread connecting them that means they have earned their spot in this collection.
Download your copy now and read the whole thing, or whet your appetite with the intro (below).
Note: Kindle books can also be read without a Kindle device using the Free Kindle Reader App for your Web Browser, PC or smartphone.
Any, and all, sharing and support of the book is much appreciated. Reviews also help others find my work, so please take the time to leave one if you do read this book (or any of my others).
Sample Chapter (Intro)
We live in complex times.
Many of us are in a near permanent state of busy. The white space in our days has been squeezed out and become a distant memory.
Messages to consume surround us. Selling us more. Telling us our lives will never be complete without it.
Our lives are full and getting fuller. But this type of full isn’t necessarily the good kind, it’s not enriching our souls. It’s not making life better. Instead, the type of full we are experiencing manifests in bloated needs and cluttered houses. Expanding debt. Overdue payments on things we can’t afford, and don’t really need.
Strange times to be sure.
The good news, we can take another path. We can take control back. We can use time honoured tools and habits to make this life a simple life. We can reconnect with what it is to live a leaner, but emotionally richer, life.
What This Book Is About
For the last decade, I’ve been on my own simplicity journey.
At the start of this journey, I realised I was accumulating more in my life. More things that didn’t really matter to me deep down, or speak to me on a spiritual level. More commitments I wasn’t passionate about keeping. More stuff I received no clear value from. More clutter. More friction. This was all leaving me feeling flat and unfulfilled. Something felt like it was off, but I wasn’t entirely sure what that something was.
A period of reflection followed. Importantly, I then started to take some action based on what I uncovered. Part of that action involved finding a whole community of people who had very different back stories but who had all reached a similar crossroads in their lives. They had realised that more of everything wasn’t working for them. They were seeking something more meaningful. They were seeking something simpler.
What I found was that all around us, people are simplifying and minimising to improve the quality of their lives, by reconnecting with the power of enough. While this may seem counterintuitive in a mass-consuming culture, there’s also little doubt that, at a certain point, enough should be enough.
As I experimented further, an interesting thing started to happen. The more I seemed to give up, the more I got back. Clarity took the place of confusion. Focus replaced distraction. Busy was overcome by white space. Complexity gave way to simplicity.
My journey has led to much writing on the subject at my blog and through some of my other books. I’ve embraced and experimented further with aspects of minimalism, 80/20 and other simplicity tools along the way. Sharing my thoughts and experiences with others.
I believe we can all benefit from making life a little simpler. But we must find our own fit. This book contains a collection of some of my own reflections on simplicity and minimalism, and how both can help us live well.
Some of these essays have appeared elsewhere and are reworked, and updated, here. Others are brand new for this book. All have a thread connecting them that means they have earned their spot in this collection.
In keeping with the theme, I’ve stripped things down to the core.
Like most of my books, this is a concise read. The filler has been removed so you can get straight to the source. Most of the essays can also be enjoyed independently of each other, so you can read the book in an order that suits you best. As much as possible, I have tried to ensure the content is evergreen and will not age with time.
My hope is you will come back to this book and the essays included will continue to provide some value and ideas for you.
Most importantly, I hope this book inspires you in some small way to live your own version of a simple life. A life full of the things and people that matter most, whatever that may mean for you.
What you will find, I’m sure, is a simple life is a good life.
Simplicity can be an antidote to the modern feelings of busyness and overwhelm so many of us feel. We can pare down, reduce distractions and focus on the essential. We can simplify.