...Lou Macabasco | 5 comments | Productivity | Tags: Productivity, stress, success, work-life Ads by Google Free CRM Management Today it's possible with SohoOS. Manage Your Business for Free. www.sohoos.com Simplicity is often perceived as boring, unattractive and unremarkable. Majority of people want something striking and complicated. But as Leonardo da Vinci has said, Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Different to the common belief, simplicity is not boring, unattractive or unremarkable. In fact, simplicity represents elegance and complexity. The Misconception of Being Productive The common error of people who aim to succeed at something is the tendency to make the process complicated, such as over analysis and accepting responsibility beyond one’s capacity. Take for an instance when an individual or company spends too much time planning and perfecting a product. By the time the product is completed and released in the market, competitors have already dominated it. Another example is when an individual accepts a lot of responsibility that is beyond their capacity. They think that having many work responsibilities and working long hours are marks of a productive and fulfilled life. However, being productive neither needs too much analysis nor working long hours. If only we knew how to keep things simple. The Benefits Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand instead...
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...STUDY 6 SIMPLICITY A Bible Study Outline on The Discipline of Simplicity March 2014 INTRODUCTION The central point in the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first. The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all. Freedom from anxiety is one of the inward evidences of seeking first the kingdom of God. It involves a life of joyful unconcern for possessions. It is an inward spirit of trust. What we have we receive as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety. To receive what we have as a gift from God is the first inner attitude of simplicity. We work but we know that it is not our work that gives us what we have. To know that it is God’s business, and not ours, to care for what we have is the second inner attitude of simplicity. Simplicity means the freedom to trust God for these (and all) things. To share what we have with others marks the third inner attitude of simplicity. When we are seeking first the kingdom of God, these three attitudes will characterize our lives. Taken together they define what Jesus means by “do not be anxious.” They comprise the inner reality of Christian simplicity. Scripture reference: Matt 6:25-33. Part 1: 1. What is the perception of Christians towards the discipline of Simplicity in general? 2. As Bible-believing Christians, what makes us anxious about what we shall eat...
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...Adventure… Leaving… New life… The life of a transcendentalist is a person who believes in living close to nature with the belief of finding truth and inspiration from it. In the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a young man named Chris McCandless sets out on a journey in the wilderness, leaving society behind. Like a transcendentalist named Henry David Thoreau, he began “essential living”. Chris McCandless is considered a transcendentalist because he lives a simple life, and choses to abandon society and live out in the wilderness. A simple life is what transcendentalists believe in. In the book Walden, Thoreau mentions, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” This hints at the idea of a simple life where everything is organized and reduced....
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...Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission, and Service Nancy R. McCulloch Grand Canyon University: MIN -350 May 20, 2012 Please note all changes below. Spiritual Formation through the Outward Disciplines of Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service (In his book, “The Celebration of Disciplines,” (1998), Richard. J. Foster (1998) explains that we have grown to think of sin as an individual’s act of disobedience to God. He believes that the purpose of the disciplines is to achieve communion with God as a means of rooting out enslaving habits of the heart and of behavior. By following the disciplines, described in his book theyone will be helped in achieving inner righteousness. This point was stressed by Paul who promised that “the free gift of righteousness (shall) reign in life through one man Jesus Christ” (Rom4:17, version). This paper discusses and analyzes those chapters of Foster’s book concerningview on the Outward Disciplines. SIMPLICITYSimplicity (The discipline of simplicity is “an inward reality that results in an outward life-style” – and both of these aspects of simplicity are essential (Foster,year, p.79). The Bible offers numerous examples of simplicity. The most famous of these is the parable of the lilies of the field (Is.40:6). Foster (year) uses simplicity as a reference to our unity with God. He appears to view simplicity as somehow in opposition to an affluent life-style. I find...
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...Simplicity is usually used as a term for a lifestyle that has gone in and out of fashion. But, simplicity is beyond a fad or a trend; it is a way of life – a philosophy and a way of looking at things that doesn’t follow trends of economic cycles. Designing simplicity requires probing the core of complexity; doing away with the superfluous and the inefficient; clarifying, organizing, optimizing; and pruning the subject to its purest form to function effortlessly and beautifully while drawing forth meaning, metaphor and character. Simplicity is one of the characters needed by a great leader. Effective leaders are the ones who, when faced with complexity, turn to simplicity. They are the ones who “lift the fog,” who clearly point out a destination and help us focus on the path to getting there. They clear away the clutter. One of the great examples of a leader with simplicity is Mahatma Gandhi, who used simple language and lived a simple life. Yet he was able to concert energies of an entire nation towards achieving Indian Independence. Leaders frame complex strategies, use heavy weight terminologies to describe their plans, set up complex processes and use a lot of jargons when communicating for a change. They spend heavily on getting those strategies across the board and aligning people to it. Yet, strategies fail because people fail to connect. Leaders always have a choice to simplify or complexify. In the 20th Century, when Gandhi and the nation fought for independence...
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...idea of wanting more in life, and simplicity. Both men’s life choices are examples of Transcendentalism. One of the first examples of transcendentalism is when Chris embraces to not stay on a beaten path. For example, Chris sends Ron a letter telling him to have radical change in his life, to do things that he has never done. McCandless says, “ I think that you should make radical changes in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things in which you may previously have thought of doing”…(Krakauer 56). McCandless wants Ron to experience the life of nomads, Chris’s belief to not stay on a set path, to do his own thing. Thoreau says, “It is remarkable how easily and sensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for yourself …” (Walden). This quote relates to McCandless’s belief to not stay on a set path, to live the extreme, and to not remain doing the same thing for a lifetime. Not having a...
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...of life and death is the central theme of Margaret Edson’s play “Wit”; whereas the main character’s (Vivian Bearing) finding of her misconception of witty language’s significance is used by the author for representation of Vivian’s change due to her disease. In particular, Ms. Bearing’s advocacy for the need of wit in language loses its importance under the influence of her experiences in the hospital. Vivian’s concept of witty language undergoes fundamental changes during her hospital stay, which results in her understanding of the role played by simplicity in the expression of real life human experience. Being a professor of English, Vivian Bearing is passionate about the subject of her life, that is, language. Her primary idea of language has cardinally changed under the influence of her experiences in the hospital, where she appeared in the result of her diagnosis of Stage IV ovarian cancer. Vivian in fact adored language in its complicacy, whereas poetry of John Donne was used by the woman as a source of the author’s wit that provided her with great examples for her students’ learning of sophisticated English. In particular, Donne’s sonnet “Death Be Not Proud” was her favorite one, as it was a manifestation of “…wit at work: not so much resolving the issues of life and God as revelling in their complexity” (Edson 39). However, Vivian reshaped her opinion of language’s beauty as triggered by its wit after her own life’s complication by the need to choose between life and...
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...Through a comparative analysis of Edson’s W;t and Donne’s Holy sonnets, the metaphysical questions of life are illuminated, with the paradigms associated with the Jacobean period, as expressed in the sonnets, effectively appropriated to address a 20th century audience in W;t. These explicit and implicit links allow for an intensified understanding of the acceptance of death and the human quest to come to terms with salvation/redemption, further conveying the relationship between text and context. Thus the reciprocal values of these texts’ transcend their contextual limitations. Their meaning immortalised, they remain forever relevant to the human attempt to derive meaning. Through a comparative study of the texts, the eternal paradox of the complex journey (and process of suffering) required to realise the importance of accepting embracing values of faith, simplicity and, human mortality, in the process of achieving redemption (and forming a new identity )has been exemplified. “And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die”. This use of personification encapsulates the beginning of a journey both Vivian and Donne undertake upon reaching a state of “salvation anxiety”. Immersed in the death of his four still born children, and the plague ridden society that was in the process of forming the first cracks in what would be a paradigm shift away from blind faith, Donne initially struggled to accept his mortality, using “verbal swordplay” as a means in which to “run and hide”...
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...For years people have strived to live a life of simplicity. Today, that simple living is called minimalism and it has become a true way of life. Henry David Thoreau was one of the first people to bestow in a simple life and produced a true American literature classic from the lifestyle. Walden gives us detailed insight on Thoreau’s beliefs and what it was like for him to live in the woods. Thoreau had many reasons for wanting to go and live in the woods. One of the reasons was to live a simple life, Thoreau wanted to create a lifestyle without all the luxuries everyone else lived with. Thoreau thought that one could live a perfectly well-rounded life with just a few things. He said “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail” (Thoreau 65). Through this quote he talks about how he believes that he can live a grand life with the least amount of necessities, and he did. At Walden Pond, he built himself a small cabin, grew his own food, and earned his money by his own manual labor. While living in the woods, Thoreau was able to truly understand how little a person needs to live a simple, free, and...
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...Celebration of Discipline Book Review Introduction The Celebration of Discipline[1] by Richard Foster is similar to Spiritual Life: The Foundation for Preaching and Teaching[2] and The Spirit of the Discipline[3] but provides considerably more biblical support for the practice of spiritual disciplines. All three books, however, cite their practice as the solution for carnality and spiritual ineffectiveness of the church. All claim that spiritual disciplines are the means to bring God’s grace to bear on hearts that have become blind and dull of hearing. An implicit message of these books is that the practice of spiritual disciplines has been a hidden truth since Reformation days and that by going back to medieval days and exploring mysticism to find answers has merit. As pointed out in a previous critique of Westerhoff’s book,[4] mysticism, subjectivity, intuition and imaginative reflection weave their way through the descriptions of spiritual disciplines and this is also true, to some extent, in The Celebration of Discipline and The Spirit of the Disciplines. The apparent differences in style and emphasis appear to stem from each author’s religious orientation (i.e., Westerhoff functions as a priest in the Episcopalian Church and is oriented to Roman Catholic mysticism, Foster is a Quaker grounded in the mysticism and intuitive approach of the Friends and Willard is an evangelical Baptist who embraces the spiritual formation movement). They all seem draw heavily from...
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...Argue whether or not "Simple living" would be beneficial or, even, possible in modern society In this contemporary society, simple living is an uncommon practice. However, making one’s life simple requires consistency, determination, and demanding practice. Everyone perceives the meaning of simple living differently since it is a deliberate way of living. For example, some people are willing to forgo everyday amenities such as cell phones, televisions, and the internet whereas some others are not, but instead are ready to give up things like expensive cars, jewelries, large homes, and so on. Although, downsizing one’s life requires people to do without certain things, it’s satisfying and rewarding since it helps to reduce expenses and consumption, alleviate stress and hassles in life, and improve the quality of life. Simplifying one’s life makes one refrain from frivolous spending and excessive consumption, which will consequently increase savings so that expenses can be met on time. One would be well-budgeted to meet unforeseen circumstances. Moreover, most people do not know the difference between needs and wants. For instance, a Mercedes Benz, which is a luxury good could be considered a basic necessity in this modern society. Everyone needs the basic necessities, that is, food, water, clothes, and shelter to subsist. However, reducing unnecessary possession and consumption on these necessities would be of a great deal of help. For example, instead of eating outside...
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...and What I Lived For Where I Lived, and What I Lived For is the title of the second chapter in the book Walden on Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. The first part of this chapter explains how he built a hut near the forest of Walden Pond close to Concord, Massachusetts where he could gather his thoughts away from society. Thoreau writes in Walden: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (Thoreau 1028). Thoreau was an educated man who chose to live in poverty to explain to his readers that life can be as simple as nature. According to some critics, life cannot be as simple for various reasons: “This is contrasted to the human society from which he isolated himself, of whose utilitarianism, materialism, and consumerism he was extremely critical” (Environmental). In order to agree with Thoreau, one would need to have the same open mind and the ability to see and think outside the norm of society. Those who disagree with Thoreau do not believe that one can still “live deliberately” (Thoreau 1028). The critics clearly see that living such a simple life as Thoreau writes about is impossible. Life cannot be as simple as nature for many reasons. One reason is the outcome of life is not always simple. Thoreau wrote about the outcome of planting a seed: “Many think seeds improve with age. I have...
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...themselves, simplify their lives, and enjoy nature. These are the major similarities in their philosophies on life. Thoreau and Emerson both believed in self-reliance. Thoreau thought that people should live their life exactly how they want. He did not want people to live the life that their parents wanted them to. Thoreau said, "pursue his own way." He saw that many people just take the easy route and conform to the world. He wanted people to break tradition and do what they loved. Emerson believed that you should trust yourself. He said, "speak what you think now… and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks… though it contradicts everything you said." He was not afraid to contradict himself, because that meant he had learned from his experiences. He wanted people to say what they thought, whether others agreed with them or not. Thoreau and Emerson's belief in self-reliance also trickled into a life of simplicity....
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...reach the ocean, but merely peters out into a vast swamp’’ (McCandless 35). McCandless wants new ideas, places, people, and experiences in his life. He does not want the same life every day. McCandless wants to get out of his confront zone and in the world. This directly relates to the idea of Thoreau. In Walden, Thoreau says, “I did not wish to take the cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world” (Thoreau). What Thoreau is saying in the quote above is he rather go take a grown up trail nobody has been through in a while than a well know hiking trail, he wants to get out into nature and see what life has in store just like McCandless. In the two quotes quoted above both men in each of the quotes they both wanted the same thing to get out into nature and experience the wildest adventures, not...
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...While comparing Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature (1836), there are comparable beliefs regarding simplicity and the capacity of the human mind. Transcendentalism is considered a philosophy of self-reliance and individualism, however transcendentalism was often seen as more than a philosophy; it was treated almost as a religion. Nature was viewed as its church and it idealizes God as its sacred being. Emerson’s and Thoreau’s key theme in their writings was to help one reconnect with nature and gain a simpler understanding of life. For instance, Henry David Thoreau experiments the transcendentalist beliefs about nature by living at Walden Woods in a small cabin on Emerson's property. Here Thoreau discovered the simplicity in nature and the exposure it brings to our mind. Both Emerson and Thoreau believe that nature is what imposes us not to rely on others' ideas but to establish our own. Nature is always changing so we must keep seeking for the meaning of human life. Thoreau wanted to live a simple life, in order to find a deeper meaning of human existence. He writes, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I...
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