My best friend of 38 years always said to me less is more. When I was 30 something I gave her one of the eye rolling looks and replied, “yeah, right!” By 50 something I thought she was on to something and now I have taken that philosophy as if I invented it myself. How wise she has always been and how much wiser I am becoming.

Around my living space – if I have to dust it I don’t have it. Why waste any of those precious minutes dusting when I can be out making a difference in the world, reading a good book, enjoying a piece of chocolate, meeting someone new who just might be my next best friend.

Sarah Susanka, the architect who has written many books on the subject of living and thriving in not so big spaces, takes the same concepts to our own internal personal space in her book, The Not So Big Life – Making Room For What Really Matters. Less can be more if you allow it. We have a calendar filled to overflowing with obligation after obligation after this, that and the other thing to do to keep running so we don’t have to stop and really look or think about our lives. Time does not have to be your enemy. You can choose to do what you want to do. You can make time for yourself–for what really matters. I haven’t finished reading the book but the title sets me on fire–all of me–not just my hair which is the part of me that is typically on fire.
When I’ve finished reading this amazing book, I’ll blog with you some more. Perhaps some of you will decide to read it as well and we can begin a dialogue.

Back to the present. So, I ask you. What really matters to you? Really matters? As we start this newest year, let’s not make any resolutions at all. Let’s not set any high minded, action packed, time filling goals. We could think about what we intend to do over the next several months. To me an intention is milder, nicer and kinder than a resolution. The word resolution provokes a twist of angst inside of me. And most years I have journals filled with the best of intentions and by March, or May or July, I have totally forgotten them.

It’s never too late to start your list of what really matters and see where it might lead. And maybe the only intention is to stay in the “what really matters” zone. This list will come from a deeper part of you…a part of you that really matters.