find your anti-values
The usual prescription for simplifying your life is to articulate what you actually care about, or your values. That is still good advice, but there is more than one way to approach this exercise. Scott H. Young proposes articulating what you don’t care about. He writes, “Figuring out what does not matter to you can help you focus on what does.” Sometimes picking your passions or priorities out of thin air can be a daunting task. However, most people can easily come up with a list of things they don’t care about.
I thought this was very good advice so I decided to try it out. My “do-not-care-about” list looks something like this:
- Fashion: Other than looking respectable, I do not care about wearing the latest fashions or owning the most expensive clothes.
- Celebrity gossip: I do not care, at all, about what celebrities are up to. I don’t care about who is dating who or who did what to who.
- Acquiring trivial material things: I used to collect all sorts of things I didn’t really care about. Now, I try to minimize the amount of stuff that I bring into my life.
- Following national politics at a very in-depth level: I only care about being knowledgeable about national politics. I do not worry about getting very in-depth or detailed in my coverage of this aspect of current events. I do not spend hours watching news on T.V. or reading articles about politics. Being informed about the major events and players is enough for me.
- Staying up to date with the latest television, video games, or movies: I enjoy all of these things, but I don’t care about being on top of the latest releases. I figure that I’ll eventually watch or play the things that I’m interested in…eventually.
Simplifying your life requires that you focus on the activities and goals that you care most about. If you are having trouble figuring out what those might be, try writing down what is not important.
Photo by Howe Clothing
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