Simplicity & The Smorgasbord

I was doing yoga in my living room this morning and glanced at 3 of my exercise/fitness books. I immediately thought, "why do I need 3 exercise books". I also keep 10 exercise videos in my Netflix Instant Queue and have a binder with several teared out pages of exercises and tips I found in various magazines.

I've been wrestling recently with the ideas of Simplicity and Smorgasbord. Everyone tells you that you should reduce the amount of stuff (tasks, food, meetings, news, household items, etc) in your life to make it less stressful. I agree with this practice but it's hard to reduce stuff when you are trying to educate yourself or acquire new skills.

I learned a long time ago (and must continue to remind myself) that I am not wired to follow a strict plan or process. I can get from A to B but most of the time I can't do it using someone else's directions.

Being Sane & Satisfied is like being a carpenter. A carpenter has many tools to complete the job. He doesn't just bring a hammer and nails with him because he couldn't possibly build anything without more tools to choose from.

A Self Help Guru asking you to get through life with just one tool, ie. their program, is like a home owner asking a carpenter to fix their house with a hammer. It won't work for the carpenter and it won't work for you.

So, where's the balance?

Finding the balance between Simplicity and Smorgasbord is a daily battle for me. I know I can't do everything but I really, really want to do everything. When I realize I've put too much on my plate and get stressed I tend to spring back to Simplicity and start throwing things away willy-nilly. But I don't think that's the answer either.

Balance for you is going to look different than my balance. But I think finding balance is a skill like any other. You must work with it and experiment with different configurations.

Somehow I think that Simplicity is found within the Smorgasbord.