Simpler Ways
I’m currently sitting on the front patio of a house in Sedona, Arizona looking at an amazing view…
I’m here with two of my friends for a couple of days of business planning, hiking, yoga, and to take in the spiritual energy that vibrates throughout the town—not really a Mastermind retreat, but it’s very similar to what I imagine one would be like.
When we got into town yesterday we drove to get some groceries for the house and I noticed that while there were plenty of restaurants, shops, and things to do, things just seem to be a little simpler here. It’s a hard feeling to explain because it’s not as if Sedona is a ghost town—there are plenty of people out and about, tours being given, and restaurants busy, but at the same time there’s hardly any traffic and things just seem to move at a much easier and slower pace.
It’s refreshing.
As I tend to do when I’m in new places, especially ones as beautiful as Sedona, I began to play out in my mind what it would be like to live here. I thought about the boys’ schooling, how basketball would be different here for Roman, how hot soccer would be for Leo, and whether or not there are enough little kids here for Silas to grow up with. I thought about how I could make trips back to Indy a couple times of a year to see family and clients who prefer meeting in person. I thought about how Ang could make Roman & Leo online only and continue with her store. I thought about all of the active living we could do, meditating outside every morning, and the year-round nice weather (I’ll take the heat over our cold winters and occasionally Sedona will get snow, so we’d still see the white stuff sometimes).
Then I thought about the conveniences we have in Fishers and how I only saw Whole Foods for groceries. There’s no Target or Meijer around town. And then I thought about all of the options we have in Fishers and how there are fewer options in Sedona—I’m sure you can drive a bit to find more options but that takes away from the feeling of simplicity I get here.
Instead of viewing the lack of options as a negative, I thought about it as a positive.
Going back to Whole Foods, although there are snacks our family enjoys that we would not be able to get there, Whole Foods has everything our family would need and more—the food we wouldn’t find there we don’t really need anyway. It would be simpler and potentially healthier just to have one grocery store to go to and whatever they had was what we got. Yes, I know we can do this back home but once you are presented with all of the options and conveniences it’s hard not to make that extra trip to get the box of Cheez-Its.
The grocery store scenario made me think about how much more difficult we make our lives by having too many options—-making life more complex by having more choices.
Would life be easier and would we have more time if we had fewer options—not giving up freedom of choice but just having fewer options to choose from on things that aren’t that impactful to our lives?
I know population issues make one or two grocery stores in a town like Fishers, Indiana impossible. But, what are the unnecessary options that bring added complexity to our lives that we can control? Could you eliminate unnecessary apps, subscriptions, multiple grocery runs, or anything else that is “nice” but not really necessary and if you went without it, you wouldn’t really miss it?
Over the next few days, I’ll be thinking about this and how to make my life back home in Fishers simpler.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
