Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Every year I put all of our family goals from the previous years in a big Time Capsule box (aka an old Nike Shoe box).  The kids love marveling over their vastly improved handwriting as well as their comical, but sincere goals from years past. 

My handwriting hasn't changed much, but the length of my list of goals certainly has.  I have a natural tendency to pursue it all, and expend a ton of energy in a million different things.  Most of these pursuits are worthwhile, important and meaningful to me in some way or another.  Some are just for fun or wild ambition.  But, the list is always so long that it is impossible for anyone (and for dang sure impossible for me) to successfully accomplish it all.

Unfortunately, so much of my limited time and (ever increasingly) limited energy is split in so many different directions that it leads to a general lack of satisfaction.  And though my self-worth tends to be dependent upon the number of things I can cross off my to-do list during the day, I can often look back at days, weeks and even years and wonder if I have accomplished much of anything that is of value to the world, my family or even to myself.

A new beginning in 2018 (New Beginnings, Oh How I Love Thee), and the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less are inspiring me to find one thing to focus on, and give it everything.  That is why I decided to take my love of photography, a hobby that was starting to take over all of my "free" time, and put more energy and focus on that and see where this one thing takes me!

The "disciplined pursuit of less" actually does require a lot of discipline.  I am still working on it (okay, it is January 8th, cut me some slack!) but I am really hoping that next year when I open our Nike Shoe Box Time Capsule, I will be proud of the one goal I have set, given all my heart and energy to and successfully pursued. 

**For my favorite planner (as seen in the picture above...it is so cute, and has pockets, and gets great reviews!), I got it on Amazon (of course): Marrakesh Weekly Planner.**