The K.I.S.S Rule
Growing up, when I overcomplicated things, my dad repeated the KISS Rule. Keep it Simple Simple. I was never sure why the extra ‘simple’ was added on. I guess K.I.S alone isn’t as catchy.
I wanted to write a post on simplifying because it has been a constant theme over the past couple of years. It started when I began travelling, but really sunk in as I started cleaning the clutter of my mind. With meditation the cleansing began, both internally and externally. The stuff around me, especially my possessions seemed unnecessary. I spent a lot of time hitting extremes and one of those extremes was my lack of desire for ‘things’.
The extremes stemmed from my experiences seeing places change so drastically in short periods of time. I am continuously amazed by largeness of it all, the large cars, the huge amounts of land available in certain places while others live clumped together on polluted land and little fresh air to breath.
It has forced me to look at the way I, and those around me consume. These experiences also forced me to see money differently. Money, I realized, is a form of energy and there seems to be a lot of negative energy attached to it. I began realizing how much power this energy has…the power it has to tear people apart from one another. The more we think about it, it can get us ‘things’, but these things are often transient. They can leave our lives in a second. It is a powerful energy, and it has enough force to consume us. It also has an incredibly positive power and we can do so much good with it.
At the end of the day, I often found myself asking what ‘money’ is anyway. It has taken thousands of forms through the millennia and with the turn of the century, we saw new types of money taking shape through digital currency.
Although money plays a big role in all cultures, I found a certain energy attached to money in the United States. While I was traveling this past month I found certain environments placed an emphasis play and living a stress free, simple life while others revolved around work and less play. The difference was visible and I could see a fine difference between one and the other. These distinct differences once again forced me to reevaluate my relationship with it.
The past couple of years has allowed me to take a step back and reevaluate how much time and energy I put into spending and earning it. Until quite recently, I’ve been faced with challenges and decisions that put my beliefs to test. It has allowed me to see my conviction and how much truth there actually is to what I think I believe.
How does money play a role in your life? Does it help you live the life you want to live? Is money in balance with all of the other aspects of your life? If not, why not and how do you believe you can change that?
At the moment, money and all of the things I own go hand in hand. I’m packing up three quarters of my clothes and possessions and shipping them off.
If you’re re-evaluating how you spend your money and looking at all the ‘stuff’ you’ve accumulated, I’ve heard The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a good read. After a friend recommended it, I’ve read some articles on it and as I continue to let go, it is next on my reading list. I’ve noticed the more I let go on the outside, the more mental space I create for new things to enter.
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