it feels kind of like a radical idea to suggest that the way to a happier more fulfilling life is actually doing less And after many years of buying into this myth that we should be able to have it all I realized that I was actually missing out on a lot of the real magic of life This morning I sat outside on my front steps and I ate my breakfast at a leisurely pace and I looked around and I appreciated the first daffodil that was blooming and the way that the crocuses were getting ready to open for the day and it felt relaxing and exactly the opposite of how I used to begin my days I thought I was starting my days well back then I'd have written out my list of priorities the night before You know I'd charge into the next morning with full of positivity about how productive I was going to be And I did get a lot done What I later realized was that it was what I wasn't getting done that was actually more important And to have time for what mattered most to me I really needed to find a way to do less And this required me to shift my perspectives about how I spend my time And to be honest at first this this wasn't easy for me I was so well conditioned in my daily push for productivity But what did help me was to focus on the real benefits of doing less And so I thought I'd share with you here today some of the top benefits I found And if you too are on a quest to find more time for what matters most to you you may want to write these down somewhere and and put them somewhere where you'll be able to see them often and remind you of the benefits of doing less So this video is going to be a part of a new series that I decided to create on slow living strategies And if you missed my first one you may want to check it out as as well In that video I walk you through an exercise that really helps you to make sure that you are spending time on what matters most to you So I I think that's actually a good place to start today too One perspective that I've realized in this journey is that when you do less you do do what matters most because you have to choose And choosing means you're no longer just going through the motions in life I realized that when my schedule was too full at the start of the day that I really didn't have time to think about what I wanted to do or how I was going to do it I just needed to focus on getting it all done When you leave more space in your schedule then you can be more intentional with what you decide to do and when you decide to do it you start doing what you feel is the most important thing for you to do because you're no longer trying to squeeze it all in And then when you do this you begin to live your life in a way I feel like that's best for you And paradoxically it ends up being more impactful for others as well Anyway I've been doing a lot more choosing what makes me happy these days And the hard part was learning that I could choose and that I really didn't have to do it all Over time I found that while I was leaving some things behind I was doing things at a deeper richer and in a more fulfilling way When you do less you can enjoy what you're doing more fully because it's easier to be fully present Where this has impacted me the most in my life is with respect to my relationships I'm now more able to relax and listen better And while sometimes I still feel that urge to quickly finish up a conversation so that I can go accomplish something when I do notice myself feeling that way I try to remind myself that I actually am accomplishing one of the most important things right now Spending time with people I care about really listening to them When I relax when I'm listening I notice that I do become more curious about what they're saying and what they're doing what's happening in their lives and what's important to them And then I learn things that I probably wouldn't have otherwise learned because I'm asking more questions I'm taking the time to ask them questions about their life And it feels good It feels really good to be present with other people And I suppose this is just I don't know the way that we're wired as humans If you do less it also gives you more time to think It seems like my best ideas come when I'm just sitting quietly I'm relaxing and allowing myself space to do nothing I'll start to think about what I have coming up this week and what the best ways to accomplish what I want to get done are or I'll start thinking about certain things that I'm finding challenging and how I can do them with a little bit more ease So like one example of this for me recently was I was thinking about what I could do to motivate myself for a better workout in the morning I tend to be a little bit lazy when I work out on my own A lot of you probably heard that if you set your clothes out the night before that that really helps And I haven't done that But what I did realize as I started thinking about it was what I decide to wear when I get up in the morning really makes a big difference for me if I have on my some sweats like I have on right now which I can work out in these It works great for like a yoga routine but not so much for a a strong strength training workout So I realized that I need to get dressed into something that will motivate me to feel strong so that I will do a better job with the weight training and the cardio if I want to do that as well And that's just something that I realized by sitting and thinking about it If I don't give myself time to reflect on how to make things better I just do things the way that I've always done them For the most part I've thought of so many ways to make my work more efficient and I've come up with so many more creative ideas when I just slow down and allow myself time to think And for this reason when you do less you also get better at the things that you do regularly And it's because you have this time to think about how to really finetune what you're doing When you try to do everything it feels like there's no time for fine-tuning or for learning how to do something better I know I still have a lot to learn in creating YouTube videos but I have learned so much more ever since I stopped trying to show up on every social media platform which was just overwhelming I started finding time to listen and watch other people other creators videos about their process of filming and editing and and I learned a lot I've also found that I'm more focused when I'm not worrying about everything else that needs to get done If I am constantly preoccupied with completing everything that I put on my to-do list then my attention always seems to be focused more on the future and what I need to do next rather than the task at hand And when I do this I notice that I have a tendency to rush through things I used to do this a lot on the weekends when I was trying to catch up with for like what I didn't get done during the week Typically I'd be a bit grumpy and I would generally be rushing through it And while I can't say that I no longer work on the weekends now I do so a whole lot less than I used to To let work wait until Monday For me I need to remind myself that there will always be more work to get done And at the same time if I don't take time to do the things that I enjoy and and that I love doing I just won't find time for them I mean weeks turn into months which turn into years and I've been there and I've done that I spent way too many years prioritizing work And you know what Work didn't fall apart when I stopped making it my pri top priority all the time which kind of surprised me Uh I honestly couldn't tell that work suffered at all I think this was because I had to really start focusing on what truly needs to get done Usually the rest can wait And as a result of of this like this weekend I had such a good time baking bread I transplanted the little seedlings that I had started some time ago The kitchen and my garden So they're they're my happy place And years ago I I wouldn't have let myself do these things if I hadn't accomplished the work that I had scheduled for myself for the week and and even if I did then I probably would have been feeling guilty I know that I'm enjoying life so much more now So here's a quick recap of the perspectives that we've talked about here today that have really helped me slow down and enjoy life more I'd love to know in the comments if any of these strike accord with you or if if you have other perspectives that you have found that have helped you find a more relaxed pace in your own life