A Practical Plan for Lean living

From the farside: Who says you can't buy happiness

“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours”- Swedish Proverb

When I was asked what the urban ascetic philosophy was for lifestyle the term “Lean Living” came to mind, this post explains what that is.

Lean living is the philosophy of urban ascetic as it applies to lifestyle. In essence Living more effectively with less.

I’ve been working this out for the last 6 years(sometimes I’m a slow study)  and I have some tips to help you avoid the common pitfalls.

I’m no angel but I am living my life by these guidelines and I’m a lot happier since I started.

I don’t pretend any of this is truly original but I do think it provides a useful summary of practical measures anyone can take if they are interested in streamlining  their life. I hope you find it useful.

Lean Living:

• is not about punishing yourself  it’s about doing more with what you have.
• will make you healthier, happier and will improve your ability to work and play harder
• will improve your cash reserves giving you more resources to pursue what matters
• means living a sustainable happy life based on what you need rather than what you want.

Do’s and dont’s

• Do plan your priorities (what are your three priorities ? number them).
• Do declutter (take time each month to get rid and give away) .
• Do cut down on impulse buys ( delay a day on small non essential purchases or a week on big ticket items)
• Do support and resource your priorites, cut down on the rest (spend on what matters most, save or give away the rest)
• Don’t get  conceited, this is something you are doing for yourself, something to make you happier and more effective (resist the temptation to anoint yourself  for sainthood).

Practical advice for Lean living

1. Eat less: seriously do you have to eat all those biscuits every day? (don’t have more on your plate than you are going to eat)
2. Buy less: you want it but do you need it? (buy less of everything )
3. Want less: Brands, gadgets, games and bling dont need’em dont want’em.(Avoid branded goods unless you know they add real value. Decide what you really want, you will want other stuff less)
4. Exercise more: Plan for a minimum of 15 minutes six days a week (walking is a beginning, alternate one day intensive one day active)

You can work on these things all together from day one but sometimes it’s easier to build up to it; adopting one  extra category or focus each week for four weeks.

You should try to make progress on any or all of them day by day.

Cutting down a little is better than not cutting down at all.

Take baby steps do what you can do. Early success motivates more than early failure. Look to make progress over time, it’s a marathon not a sprint.

The wanting less is in my experience  the hardest bit, if you really want something and you deny yourself you’ve still got a problem, it’s the wanting not the buying you have to work on.

Learn to Fail Successfully

When you fail (and everyone fails) treat it as a small setback not a game changer.

Learn to start again. Try something different if you run into problems, but start again tomorrow.

Developing and keeping your sense of humour is important. Learn to laugh at yourself (seriously this helps a lot).

Give yourself rewards along the way, but don’t reward failure.

If you fail suck it up start again, if after a week your still doing well then maybe a treat is in order.

Remember life is supposed to be fun (if you can manage it )not a constant trial. When you do particularly well, give yourself and your loved one’s a reward.

Dont lie to yourself, if you fail, you fail, think about it, accept it, then move on.

I will write additional explanations and hints on all four of the categories  in future posts.

In the mean time feel free to share your thoughts, questions or stories  in the comments section below.

It’s about the Journey not the destination

The Urban Ascetic journey

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson (best-selling Author and founder of the American Wellness Project)

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”- Arthur Ashe (grand slam winning tennis player)

Click to launch Video!

Christoph Rehage took a walk that Lasted one year and covered 4500k. He produced this amazing time-lapse video to document his journey. His trip was a failure if you consider his original goal was to walk from China to Germany, he didn’t even get close.

He met hundreds of people and changed his view of the world. It was a trip that helped him discover himself and more importantly what really mattered in his life. He stopped when he realised that travelling was preventing him from moving on.

Goals are good but the real trick is to stay alert, make the most of the journey and stop travelling when you realise you’ve arrived, even if where you’ve arrived at isn’t where you thought you were going.

Over the last few years my family have faced some really tough challenges. During this period I re-evaluated my life and spent two years thinking about what I should be doing. This site is one step along that journey.

I don’t know where I will end up with this urban ascetic thing but I am already sure the journey will be worth the effort. I hope it’s a journey we can take together.

To that end if you find anything in any of the articles interesting or if you want to request a post on a particular topic please speak up and write a comment. I can’t promise to respond to every comment but I will definitely read every one and where possible post something relevant.

 

The Road Goes Ever On

Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate

And though I oft have passed them by

A day will come at last when I

Shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

 

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

— J.R.R. Tolkien

Back to Basics 2 – simplicity in design

IN DESIGN: BASIC = CLASSIC

My new remotes - IF ONLY !

When it comes to design this idea of  basic is good counts double.

When you are creating or making something that people are going to use simplicity of design is to be prized.

The amount of crazily over engineered stuff that we see these days is frightening. Feature creep can cause real problems especially if it distracts from core functionality and usability.

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.” – John Gall (American author and retired paediatrician)

In the design stages it is tempting to value features above usability. This is made worse by the fact that the number of features is often used during the sales process to sell a product or service.

In practice people value usability above all but the most essential features. It’s not the number of features that matters it’s the number of features you can use. It’s a question of alignment.

Simplicity and elegance of design help people master enough of a tool to make use of the more advanced features. It’s a sign of design excellence when advanced features are easy to access when you need them but don’t interfere with usability for novice users.

Some good advice from innovation guru Stephen Shapiro:

“Next time you are designing a process, a product, or a service, ask yourself, “What can I remove?” For most consumers, simplicity is more important than comprehensiveness (and complexity).

The concept of “taking away” is also a great time management technique. In addition to your “to do” list, be sure to create a “don’t do” list. Become masterful at killing products, eliminating non-value adding tasks, and removing old/pointless habits.”

So what I am saying here is that less is often more as long as its the right ‘Less’ for the person in question.

Less is more –  The notion that simplicity and clarity lead to good design.

“The art of simplicity is a puzzle of COMPLEXITY.” – Doug Horton (clergyman and academic leader )

One often has to really work through some complex and difficult problems to get to a place where a solution or a design can seem simple.

When it comes to design simple rarely means easy to accomplish.

Often simple means blood sweat and tears but it’s worth it.

Our goal is to eliminate complexity whenever possible while remembering Einstein’s advice.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler”