The thing about living a simple life, a life filled with intentional living, is that everything I do becomes
obviously helpful or detrimental to my life's trajectory.
When I was running the rat race, doing more than I should, having more than I needed, overextending, and saying yes when I should've said no, I would watch hours of my life taken away. Never to return. Yet, I didn't think it was harming me. I'd have time for myself later, right?
How wrong that thinking was. Of course, it was hurting me. I could never get that time back. Time spent working a job I didn't like, doing work for clients instead of work I could've been doing for myself, was irretrievably gone.
What if I lived this way for the next twenty years? Where would it get me? Exactly where other people wanted me, but not where I wanted to be. How would I write that book if I was writing for other people? How would I become healthy if I never took the time to get to the gym? When would I get to live the slow life I adored if I was choosing to live the fast-paced one?
I wanted to be free to do what I loved, free to live a life suited to me, and free to live a life unencumbered by the things society says we need to have (like a constantly updated wardrobe).
These stolen moments - like working a second or third job that I really didn't like - weren't blatantly bad. But, when I realized I could've spent those moments doing something else more suited to what I loved, I knew things had to change.
When I got back on track (letting go of not just one but two jobs that were leaching my life from me) I had to work hard at getting back all the time I missed. Sure, I'd never get those actual moments back, but if I made good use of the time I did have, it might almost make up for it.
I could do this by doing what I wanted to do (write a book, create my dream garden, or become healthier than ever before) and by doing it in small doses.
Small doses of anything lead to something big; a goal accomplished, a lifestyle attained, a slow living life free of the restraints the world says we "need" to have.
This also works in reverse. Bad habits in small doses lead up to something big; something profoundly difficult to climb over once the monster (of poor choices) finally emerges. Think: Bad habits are the mad scientist and Frankenstein is the result of bad habits! We are the mad scientists in desperate need of recalibration.
Here are a few ways to take daily actions in small doses that lead to huge accomplishments that are good.
- Write a hundred words a day. - Is there a book inside you waiting to be written? Does that seem insurmountable with your schedule? Then make it simple. Write a 100 words a day. In a year, you have a small book. If you want a 60,000-word book, make it 200 words a day. As a writer, I can tell you that's a very small amount of words. 100 words a day is a few paragraphs. In a year, you can have that book you've always wanted.
- Clean out a part of your home in only 10 minutes a day. - If you're looking to become a minimalist, going through an entire home is an overwhelming task. Instead, take it in small doses. Ten minutes a day. Take a drawer or one small cupboard. Clean out, throw away, or donate what isn't used. Just ten minutes of cleaning through your items a day makes for an entirely cleaned-out house at the end of one year. This is doable when it's divided into segments.
- Get healthier by adding exercise in fifteen minutes a day. - It's not much, but if you think you need more than fifteen minutes a day to get healthier, you'd be wrong. Just fifteen minutes a day of movement can do wonders for your heart health, and improve your mood, and brain function. Take a short walk, take a bike ride, maybe take a slow jog, or stretch for fifteen minutes. Small doses of exercise lead to big health improvements. You don't need to run a marathon or take an hour-long spin class to be considered healthy. You just have to be dedicated to doing something for a short amount of time to see results.
- Read for fifteen minutes a day. - Do you love to read but always feel you "don't have time to finish a book?" Then sit down for a short fifteen minutes and read. You may not be reading a book a week, but you can definitely read a book a month. By the end of the year, you'll have read 12 books! Did you know that only 5% of Americans finish one book a year? Reading does wonders for the brain. Reading has also proven to relax and destress us. Who doesn't need that?
There are hundreds of other examples I could list. But, the gist is small doses. It isn't about large amounts of time that's important. Most people can't spend three hours a day writing or three hours at the gym. The important part of small doses living is that you're actually doing something about what you want to better yourself in very manageable, very simple amounts.
Slow living, slow fashion, and minimal living - with 100% authenticity - are the biggest goals of my life. But, I've taken steps to accomplish these tasks in very small doses.
I no longer write for others, I write for myself. I no longer have a fast fashion closet, I have the slow fashion wardrobe I've wanted for the last decade and a half
while selling vintage clothes. I love what I do and do what I love. I have the garden, read the books, take care of my body, and eat well. It's the path I want to take and it's also a path I created by choosing better and choosing small.
Remember, doing something in small doses is 100% better than doing large doses of nothing.
