Simplicity

It's been a while since I've written. I've been living a paradox in some ways....an intensely busy schedule, working with clients through a chaotic campaign and election time and keeping up with the business part of coaching as well. At the same time I'm writing a piece to publish on simplicity... Simplifying.

Writing about it is not simple! Every time I thought I had it just right another facet of the term or concept would come to mind which would completely throw me off. Then I started to laugh because as I was writing about this topic, my life continually got more complicated.

Busy times. Wonderful times.

All these incredible opportunities were thrown at my feet, further complicating an already overflowing schedule. I'd sometimes begin with four or five laser quick one-on-one sessions with clients before actually starting my day. Everyone wanting a moment....five minutes....a morning, afternoon...day. Dynamics change on a dime as news of a probable new governing party seem to be coming a reality. I`d find myself in an elevator for long periods of time, for when I'd get to my floor, a client would see me, get on and ask for a minute. Those 'minute or two's' turned into half an hour, 45 minutes...gives a whole new meaning to the term 'portable office'!

Contingencies, strategy....ideas flying and paradigms shifting on a moment to moment basis have been the recent norm, yet still the business of finding the time to keep a business going and creating a future right now has not been simple.

Writing deadlines, think tank meetings, shadowing, all fit like pieces of a puzzle into a day already stretched to the limit. And yet for all the craziness, there's a calm inside me like the eye in the middle of a storm that surrounds me as I watch what unfolds. How many people get to observe history in the making?

If could somehow teach that to clients, colleagues and students alike, how far ahead would they be in taking back control of their lives?

Another thing that came to mind was that simplifying my life doesn't necessarily have to do with doing less. It has to do with what I'm doing with more....how I use my time most wisely without losing sight of what matters most in my life.....the people in it.

As the days get crazier I become more focused. It's not a simple thing to describe, but for me, has become a simple thing to live.

I'd love to know what simplifying your life would mean to you...how you'd define it, live it, and what it would mean to your quality of life.

Where would you begin?

Best...
Donna Karlin

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