I have never been one to write down goals or set yearly intentions. Not that I don’t set goals or have aspirations… but I’m more of a week-to-week, make a plan but take things as they come type of gal. However, entering a new year and a new season of life soon, I have been thinking a lot about one word that I’d like to be my mantra and guide what’s to come. That word is simplicity.
2020 threw a wrench in many people’s plans and goals. And while 2021 still holds so many “what if’s,” I think most of us can look forward in positive anticipation and hope for what’s to come. “The Best is Yet to Come” springs to mind. For my family and me, we’ll be welcoming baby boy number three and are making plans for bigger and better things. In the middle of all of those bigger and better things, I keep coming back to the word “simplicity.” 2020 seemed to nudge me in that direction: staying home, lots of worry and fear, intimate family time, no real agenda, and lots of love. So many ups and downs, but overall we kept it simple. I want to continue the theme of a simple life in the coming months.
I recently heard the word “monotasking.” As a mom, that sounds ludicrous. There’s hardly ever a time when I’m not multitasking as a wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, and so much more. But I want to focus more on monotasking: fewer interruptions and staying in the present for the single task at hand. I think this practice will help declutter my brain.
Speaking of decluttering, I want more purging and less accumulating. I want more books and less binging. More family pictures on the walls and fewer trinkets from Home Goods. More homemade meals and baking and less Door Dash and Little Debbies. I want to spend 1000 hours outside and less time lazily scrolling social media on the couch (although rest assured that I will most definitely still make time to spend with Hulu while feasting on Thai takeout and a blizzard here and there).
I want to keep it simple. I want to revel in the magic of the everyday seemingly-mundane. I want to continually ask myself, “What are my heart, mind, and soul consuming? What am I growing towards? Is this practice harming or helping me?”. While the world is wild and full of trauma and business, my mantra of simplicity focuses on keeping the faith in simple pleasures and the people around me. If it’s not positively impacting me, I want to eliminate it. Maybe that’s something as simple as an app on my phone, or perhaps it’s more profound as a person or friend.
While I don’t want to go full-on “Little House on the Prairie,” today’s world does make me nostalgic and long for those simpler times. They didn’t constantly check their devices for likes or have feeds flooded with influencer mom accounts to compare themselves to. They didn’t have oodles of toys or scheduled activities to entertain toddlers throughout the day. They didn’t have all the stuff and things. I want a little piece of that today. I want a slice of that primitive lifestyle in 2021 and beyond. As so much complicated life is being thrown in our faces and changes constantly lurk around every corner, let’s make simplicity the new cool in this new year. I must never forget to KISS… Keep it simple, stupid.
