Wherever you are in the world right now, take a minute to pause whatever you are doing and just be.

Deep breath.

Appreciate whatever beauty is in front of your eyes. A brick building, a worn wooden table, a maple tree in your backyard, your coworker’s smile, the steam from your morning coffee.

Now focus your attention on these words. Simplicity is a gift and virtue, if only we remain conscious enough to not let it slip away. Allow me to unpack the art of living a simple life.

Are you frustrated or tired?

It happens. The wonder of life is the full range of…

Well, it’s official. For the past several months (and technically since the beginning of 2021) everyone and their mother has been talking about cryptocurrencies, altcoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, ledgers, wallets, HODLing, Doge, breakouts, rising wedges, and going to the moon. If that all sounds like Chinese to you, welcome. You’ve come to the right place.

Huh?

If you have no idea what cryptocurrencies are, here’s the high-level explanation. If you already have some idea of what Bitcoin is, or you’re like an expert or something, go ahead and skip down to the next section.

Let’s take a step back and think…

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. — 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

A most frustrating realization is that we rarely can stay in an effortless and satisfying state of thanksgiving. And by ‘we’, I mean basically everyone. Sure, every once in a while, maybe you’re overtaken by spontaneous thankfulness, either as a result of a dangerous circumstance (“thank God, I literally almost crashed into that car”) or perhaps more seldomly, as a result of something good that happens to you (“I landed my dream job woohoo! Thank you, Lord!”).

…

Yeah, I’ll say it. I quit my job a couple of months ago to focus exclusively on writing. It was a bold move, and as with most anything in life, there were twists and turns and basically, I had an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I’m not writing full-time anymore, but I’m still writing. For better or for worse, these words soldier on.

This strange turn of events brings with it new perspectives that I will attempt to elaborate on.

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain

Ugh, I know. A Dark Knight reference. I love it too. The point is, there’s a specific timeline to writing…

The Simplicity Journals

Excerpt from a book I am currently writing called Living, Simplified: Obsess Less & Do More. This chapter is entitled Simple at Home (Or How to Live a Simple Lifestyle).

Ahhh… home. The place you go to recover and relax. Your own little plot of land to shape into your heart’s desire, with colors and decor and furniture. What a wonderful thing. At least that’s what it should be in theory.

Of course, no place on earth will be absolutely perfect. That’s the nature of the world we live in. There will always be some minor (or major) gripe that…

Let’s face it — burnout in this day and age is nothing new. Maybe you’ve even gone through it multiple times, and you’ve changed jobs or even careers because of it.

I’ve even just recently quit my job because it was getting to be too much. My time was up. And, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing full-time.

The more time goes on however, I start viewing this period of my life as more of a sabbatical period rather than a self-employed period. It feels like something ‘in-between’. …

Habits… Good or bad, we all have them. It seems that the study of habits has taken off over the past 20 years or so. There’s of course the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey of Self-Help fame. This seemed to have been the genesis of a much deeper study into the amazing power of our habits.

There are now many other books about the subject, like Atomic Habits by James Clear and Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg, to name a few.

There’s one book I read last year though that I keep coming back to in…

Losing your peace of mind. Becoming bothered by something or someone, and all of a sudden that bother burrows into your brain like an unwelcome parasite that you like to entertain. It drives you for a while. You might even enjoy it. It takes your mind off of harder, more worthy things. It drives you until you achieve resolution or revenge or repayment. But here’s the catch: it’s never worth it.

It happens to all of us.

Heck, it happens to me. Recently, I fell head over heels for a girl. I had all those fuzzy feelings in my chest…