Live Simply, Live Consciously, Live Deliberately

My motto in life is the title of this entry--I coined that phrase a while back--it defines my life, my beliefs and goals--This entry is about what it means to me--I am hoping to more seriously begin living my life by these 3 principals in 2011--

When I woke this morning and began my daily task, I began thinking on simplicity and what it really means to "Live Simply"--When you look back over time, when folks really did live a simple life they had only what they needed to survive--simple food, simple clothing and simple homes--anything other than the bare necessisties were considered luxuries--now-a-days what were luxuries for them are considered 'needed items' to us and some are--times have changed and so has technology so many items are now 'needed' items--I have simplified my life so much over the past 7 years and I wouldn't change a thing--I still have a ways to go in my own personal journey of where I would like to be in the next year--There are many more ways in which I wish to simplify my life--

Letting go or getting rid of 'stuff' isn't all there is to simplifying ones life--sometimes it's letting go of a way of thinking, a habit, a grudge,and beginning new ways of thinking and habits--It's accepting who you are and where you are in your own life--When we accept who we are, and where we are and have a vision of where we are going the rest is simple--Just keep your eye on the goal--When you are looking to your own goal, you will not have time to look around and be all depressed and downtrodden--You will be consciously and deliberately working towards the goal set before you--

When we "live consciously" we make a concerted effort everyday to know our goals and work to achieve them--That don't mean we are out building a fence everyday or planning everyday, it means we are consciously doing things for our families and ourselves to make our lives simpler, cleaner, healthier more sustainable--If you have a compost bin and you add to it daily you are consciously changing some part of the environment in which you live to make like better in some small way---We become aware of this, I feel we become happier, healthier people--When you become aware of your own journey in life, and accept it I feel you have a great inner peace--
When we "live deliberately' we are very aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it--we weigh the pros and cons of our actions--When trying to attain our goals we must work deliberatly, steady and carefully--thinking through our next step--You carefully weigh each decision and how it will effect the next step in your journey--We must do this with not only adding critters to our farms, but with our purchases as well--We will become keenly aware of how each thing we do effects the next thing and the next thing--so on and so forth

For instance you wanna begin pantry stocking--Some would rush out and buy all kinds grains, freeze dried foods, canned foods etc..just because they read somewhere they should--Then to find out you cannot or will not use it--This is irresponsible and not a good financial decision--You should first sit down and think about your families likes, dislikes, financial situation, storage situation, what it is you are stocking up for,how long you want that food to last--You know you want food that will help you survive and sustain you in a crisis--Thats "simple", so now you need to make a "conscious" effort to plan it all out according to your families needs, wants, likes and dislikes--and lastly you "deliberately" make the plan happen--Maybe not over night, but over time--you make steady strides--You know the goal, you know the reason and you have a plan to get there--
Each of us is on a personal journey--mine will not be yours, yours will not be mine--But each of us can begin looking at our lives and decide that in 2011 we are going to "Live Simply", "Live Consciously", and "Live Deliberately"--I wonder if every person or even half of the people on earth truly lived by these 3 principals what a differet world we would all live in--One more thing to ponder--LOL

Blessings to you and yours in 2011
::Until Next Time::
The Deliberate Homesteader