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Here are 16 things to get rid of to simplify life and trust me your future self will thank you for getting rid of these.
We add up stuff to our lives all the time. What we don’t realize is that a lot of them are unintentional and we don’t really need them.
Whether it is a physical product you buy or someone else’s opinion that isn’t adding any value to your life. Still we are holding on to them as either we don’t know how to get rid of them or we just don’t feeling ready for that.
If you can relate to this, you are not alone. It is in our nature to collect things to feel safe and secure.
When we go with the flow and do not pay much attention to the clutter, they add up & make us messy and even sick in the long term.
If you can relate, this list is for you. Keep reading.
Why Do We Need To Simplify Our Life?
As I said above, it’s in our nature to keep collecting things even the ones that we don’t need as a lot of times we are unintentional about them. Getting rid of those unnecessary things will help you feel lighter, happier and more focused. It won’t be easy but well worth it.
- Related- Slow Living Tips- 10 Ways To Embrace Slow Living.
- How To Simplify Life And Be Happy In 7 Steps.
16 Things to get rid of to simplify life
1) Worrying too much
Do you always think about what if something bad happens, what would you do? Thoughts like these disrupt your mind and make it harder especially when you go to sleep at night.
When you are in your 20s it is pretty common to be juggling many things at once. At this point you don’t feel quite sure as to what you want to do in life.
One day you want to go back to school and get a degree but the very next, you want to do what you want and save enough to travel.
While this is pretty normal among people in their 20s, this constant worrying can sometimes lead to an anxious mind and comparison as you see most of your friends to do well in their life. They seem to have it figured out.
I learned an important lesson to not compare myself to others. If you find it hard, here’s how to stop comparing yourself to other people. This is a good read.
2) Staying where you are not appreciated
You don’t always willingly choose to stay in such places but sometimes not only do we have to stay to survive, we also hope that one day they will start appreciating your presence if you try harder. Which leads to disappointment when the outcome does not meet your expectations even after putting in a lot of effort.
Over time, it lowers your self esteem and makes you stop believing you are worthy of healthy relationships that treat you with love and respect.
Not surprising that people who grow up in a toxic environment often struggle to make friends and get into a healthy relationship later in life unless they work on themselves which also takes time and a lot of patience.
3) Over Explaining Yourself
When we are talking to someone, we don’t want to leave them with a confused mind or we don’t want them to misunderstand us and that’s why sometimes we explain ourselves more than what is needed.
4) Trying to control everything
There are many things that are completely in your control but so many others are not. The most common thing we all try to control is other people’s behavior, we want them to change even if deep inside your heart knows that it is not possible. We still try.
Another example: Don’t we always try to control our mind? Some studies also show that we approximately get around 60,000 thoughts in a day and controling every single one of them is not possible. Those thoughts are highly influenced by your environment, self-talk, and the experiences. And while you can control some of these factors, we can not control everything.
But believe me, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
If you struggle with negative self talk, affirmations can help you reframe those thoughts.
- Start here- 100 positive affirmations to reframe your thoughts.
- 51 affirmations for self love and healing.
- Lucky girl affirmation to stop feeling like you’re unlucky.
Tip- You can select the affirmations from the posts above and write them down on a sticky note and place those notes where you can see them often.
5) Waking up late (or better put at random hours)
Before you start getting your life together, you want to make sure you are starting your morning right as it has the power to make or break your day.
If you sleep late, you will most likely wake up late as well. So the first step towards making your morning refreshing, you want to have a look back at how you spend your night.
Additionally, you can find how to create a mindful morning routine. And if you are not a morning person, here’s how to become one.
6) Taking Everything Personally
To simplify your mind and your life, you must not care what people say or think about you. This one is definitely easier said than done, I understand.
But if you start questioning your worth as soon as you hear someone talking bad about you, I have got this article for you. It’s a great read.
7) Not believing in yourself enough
I was scrolling through treads the other day and saw a quote that said “there are people who are doing much better than you because they are not smart enough to doubt themselves” and this one got stuck in my head.
Not because I think they aren’t smart enough for doing better things but because they didn’t let their limiting beliefs and insecurities hold them back. They did not care about what people might think of them and that is why they were able to get out of their own way and make great things happen.
8) Having too many goals
While it’s a good thing that you are setting goals to keep yourself on track and organized. But as they say “too much of anything is bad” and it applies well here, too. If you want to simplify your life, start with simplifying your daily goals. Try not to write more than 3 goals for a day.
9) Debt
Another big reason that holds people back from simplifying life. Money plays a significant role in everyone’s life and when your finances are not in order, it affects you mentally. Especially when you are in debt.
I am not against using credit cards, in fact I use them all the time for most of my purchases. But I make sure to spend only money I can pay back on time.
10) Not investing in yourself enough
When was the last time you invested in yourself? If you have to think about it, meaning that you might not be investing in yourself enough.
This is also the most common reason people feel stuck in their lives.
When you see someone thriving in their personal and professional life, people often wonder what makes them different from everyone else. The truth is they are aware of the fact that in order to get ahead in life, one needs to constantly invest in themselves. Here are 5 solid ways to invest in yourself.
Even with the internet that is full of information, we need to find valuable resources to grow ourselves.
11) Not prioritizing your needs enough
Because you are embarrassed. You are embarrassed to talk about them and you are embarrassed to even admit that you have needs in the first place.
This guilt and shame is a trap that is not letting you release your negative emotions. Check out top 10 priorities and how to set them.
12) Unintentional shopping
According to a study done on about 2,000 Americans revealed that an average person spends approx $200+ on unnecessities every single month If you calculate that, it is more than $2,400 per year. Pretty shocking number, isn’t it? Imagine how would you feel to save those money in a year?
Most of us are spending money on things we don’t actually need. So whether you are looking to save some or become more intentional about your purchases, it’s the time to have a look back at your spendings.
13) Saying ‘yes’ to everything
Another pretty darn hard thing to say goodbye to is saying yes to every single thing. Especially if you are from a culture and family where you’re taught from the very early childhood that it’s bad manners to say no to elders and you should always respect them.(why not teach us how to respectfully say no?).
You are always confused in your mind, asking why you have to do certain things even if you don’t want to do them.
14) Juggling many tasks at once
While it may sound cool that you are doing multiple things at the same time and increasing productivity.
But is it really benefiting you?
Let’s assume you’re playing a game where you have to keep many balls in the air at once. You’ve got a red ball for work, a blue one for interacting with friends, a green one for hobbies, and so on.
Now, if you try to juggle too many balls at once, what might happen? Yep, you might drop some or even all of them. Just like dropping balls when you juggle, you might make mistakes when you’re trying to do too much. You might forget important details or mix things up.
15) Forced relationships and friendships
A lot of us have experienced something like this more than once in our lifetime. How many times have you tried to save a relationship or a friendship so you can make that work? I’m sure a lot of us have. More than once.
I’d written a post a while back on 24 life lessons I learned in 24 years in which I mentioned how some people just enter in your life to teach you some lessons. Once they are taught, they leave even if we are not ready to say goodbye. Unfortunately, it’s sad but true.
16) Cluttered digital devices
Even if you consider yourself a pretty organized person, when it comes to your digital devices, you might not be intentional. Especially if your inbox is full of promotional emails, and you are following a bunch of accounts that are constantly trying to sell you things you don’t need.
If you can relate, it’s a good idea and time to start unfollowing and unsubscribing from them. I guess it should be okay to unfollow people because you are no longer interested in what they have to offer.
It helps them make room for someone who is interested. People often see it as bad but I think it’s a win-win situation for both the parties.
Last but not the least, it’s a good idea to build habits that help you keep your devices uncluttered rather than waiting for them to get messy. We don’t do that with our houses so why with digital devices?
So, that was 16 things to get rid of to simplify life. I am sure you can pick one and start from there.
- Related- Slow Living Tips- 10 Ways To Embrace Slow Living.
- How To Simplify Life And Be Happy In 7 Steps.
I’d love to know what you think of the post, if you have question, need help with anything or just want to say hi, comment below or shoot me an email at stunningnewlifeblog@gmail.com and I will do what I can to make things easy for you because I appreciate you more than you think.
