Life Hacks: Top 21 ways to simplify your life

Here are 21 ways to help simplify your life. Brought you you by Zen Habits.

Some are really slick.

I like #14: 30-day rule, where anything you want goes on a 30-day list, along with the date, and if you still want it 30 days later, then go ahead and get it. I can see where it would seriously help cut down on impulse buying.

We have gotten too cluttered, so #16 is also a great rule: 1 in, 2 out. If you bring something in, 2 things have to go. I’m getting a camera, so my son and his wife have to go. ;^D

Another one I am able to do, but my wife is not, is #9: Go paperless. I can’t go completely paperless, but a lot of my work is such that paper is not a requirement. My wife does accounting, so paper is her life. Of course we both have credit cards bills, utility statements, etc., so we both have some basic administrative files, so we are stuck with some paper. However, I will see what we can do to cut down on the paper we are forced to handle and file.

And one of the best is #7: Start your day with peace. Back in medieval times the monks would arise early and have morning prayer – maybe they still do. A few moments of meditation, prayer, a short devotion, could go a long way to bringing some sanity and peace into our lives, and thence into the lives of those we come into contact with throughout the day.

Life, or something like it

I saw this graffiti on life and thought it was pretty funny.

Then I thought about it and thought it was sad. How hollow. But, regrettably, all too often how true. What are you doing to be different? To make a difference?

Unknown web sites

Well, obviously someone knows about them or we wouldn’t be able to share them with you.

Maybe this should be little known websites with some big potential, but that is a bit on the wordy side – not a good sound bite.

But instead of working through a list of ways to say it better (and flowers won’t help here), here is PC Magazine’s Top 100 Undiscovered Websites.

A few of the ones that caught my eye include:

• Coding Horror on coding horror stories
• Web Designer Wall on trends and tutorials
• Phone Arena on phone technical info, review, opinions (which I need because I’m in the market for a new phone)
• Gazelle where you can buy and sell electronic gadgets (help defray the cost of being an early adopter, or get a good deal on a slightly use almost breaking edge piece of technology)

And the list could go on and on for, well, 100 sites! The variety is really quite broad.

Politics, Religion and Happiness

Commentary and exposition on Mark Twain’s thoughts on politics, religion and our rationalization of happiness.

Mark Twain is always good, and in these quotes are very thought provoking.

Interview with Ayn Rand

In 1964 Playboy interviewed Ayn Rand about the books she wrote, in particular Atlas Shrugged. In it she explains her concept of morality and how the Objectivist looks at morality, and all aspects of life.

Certainly it is something to look at and think about, regardless of one’s religious affiliation, as it is a part of the life philosophy of many people.

7 Habits of a Winner

The quote at the beginning of the article is interesting, and I’ll repeat it here just because:

Success in life is determined by your ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill

Well, he certainly had a number of failures in his life, so he should be qualified to make that statement, though his page on the quotationspage.com has it stated slightly differently.

Be that as it may, the advice on the 7 Habits of a Winner page is good. It shares a number of euphemisms and old saws, but they don’t diminish the quality of the advice. And once you are practicing these, they will become a habit, and the rest will follow.

The last item, to keep learning, is one of my favorites. And the quote I best like for this was written by Louis L’Amour in The Lonesome Gods: “He who ceases to learn is already a half-dead man.” Those who are learning still retain that spark of curiosity, an interest, are looking beyond themselves at the larger picture and how they fit into it. Those who cease to learn have lost that spark, that curiosity, and have given up trying to improve themselves, given up on life, and are now simply waiting to die.

Bucket List

We’ve all seen the movie and know the whats and whys of The Bucket List. But, have you thought about your own Bucket List?

What should be on it?

How can you do it with career and kids?

How can you do it with limited resources?

How can you start if you don’t even have a list?

Fortunately, this article on 50 things to do before you die can help you with your own personal Bucket List. Not that you’d include all 50 items, but it’s a start.

• Burning Man
• Taj Mahal (I’m surprised that’s not on there)
• Visit every continent
• Travel an entire river by canoe/kayak or other type of boat – from source to ocean.

OK, only one of those was on the list of 50 in the article, so I’ve given you a bonus of 3 extra items for free!

You’re welcome!

The 300

I watched The 300 last night. Impressive!

Stylistically it maintained the look and feel of the original comic book – er, graphic novel – with the high contrast, moody dark feel, and extreme closeups.

But a couple things particularly caught my attention, bringing fresh emphasis to several scriptures.

The first was when Leonidas and Demophilos met on the way to Thermopylae. Demophilos was surprised that Leonidas brought only 300 out of the thousands of Spartan warriors, while he had brought 700 Thespians. In response, Leonidas asked several of the Thespians what their occupations were: potter, sculptor and blacksmith were the responses. The same question of the Spartans elicited only a single response: war; whereupon Leonidas said that he brought more soldiers than Demophilos. Such single-minded focus on war allowed them to be ready for Thermopylae; without it they would not have been able to mount such a tremendous stand against the overwhelming Persian forces. However, it must be noted that the Thespians, even though they were not firstly warriors, did make the same sacrifice at Thermopylae as the Spartans.

My second was their training. We’ve seen the behind-the-scenes film about the training of the actors who played the Spartans, and how rigorously they worked, how long they worked, honing their bodies to have the marvelous physiques displayed in the movie, and the smooth grace and elegance of their battle choreography. And that would have been nothing compared to the years of training the Spartans devoted themselves to in order to be such outstanding warriors.

The verses that came to mind related to the above elements are 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, about the Greek tradition of training intensity for sporting events; and Ephesians 6:10-17, on the spiritual battle and the spiritual equivalents to the armor used by soldiers at that time.

My final thought on spiritual parallels is their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the rest of Sparta, and all of Greece, following their king into a battle from which they all knew there was only one outcome. That this sacrifice would buy their neighbors and countrymen the time to make their own decisions about what needed to be done against the enemy.

Are we Spartans? Are we Thespians? Are we undecided?

Saul and David

An incredible amount of the Bible is about Saul and David, the first two Kings of Israel. From the viewpoint of the historical record – understanding the beginnings of the kingdom of Israel – it makes a lot of sense, much as we Americans write so much about George Washington or make movies/miniseries about John Adams.

But the Bible is primarily a view of life and history from a spiritual perspective. How does the massive amount of writing about Saul and David help us understand spirituality and our own spiritual life? Let’s compare and contrast the two to see what they have in common and how they differ, and then see what kinds of conclusions we can draw.

Looking at their biographies, they are very similar.

• Both have similar origins: their families were herders: Saul’s family had herds, while David’s family had sheep.
• Both were anointed by Samuel to be king, and both were out with the herds when Samuel came by to anoint them.
• Both became king about about 30 years of age.
• Both were king until about the age of 70.
• Both plotted murder: Saul tried to kill David; David had Uriah killed in battle.
• Both were moody: Saul had dark moods come over him which was helped only by David’s music; David would get depressed while hiding from Saul, during which he wrote some of his Psalms.
• Both did things the Lord specifically told them not to do: Saul did not destroy Amalek completely, keeping some of the best as an offering to the Lord (weasel excuse); David took a census of Israel.
• Both, at the end of their lives, were on the run from some sort of attack: Saul fell on his own sword to avoid capture in battle with the Philistines; David was running from his son Absalom.

While this isn’t a thorough psychological profile, I think that there is enough here to see that these two had similar backgrounds, had similar experiences, and faced similar types of decisions. There is certainly enough here to allow us to safely compare the two.

So how do we look at their differences? How do we evaluate their responses to the Prophet Samuel? How do we decide what this means spiritually? And finally, how can we apply what we find to our own life?

The prime example, something virtually everyone knows about whether they are a seriously religious person or not, is probably David and Goliath. But to recap anyway: Goliath, a man about 9 feet tall, had been haranguing the Israelites for about a month, challenging them to send a champion out to fight him in single combat, winner take all. Saul, who stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the kingdom, sat for a month in his tent worrying, while morale in the Israelite camp deteriorated. David shows up, a kid not old enough to join the army, bringing a CARE package from home. Goliath does his song-and-dance, and David is upset that he is mocking Israel and Israel’s God. The scuttlebutt gets back to Saul, who invites David in, and outfits David in his own armor. (How big is David? He is only a kid!) But he doesn’t feel comfortable in it so heads down to the battlefield with just his regular clothes and his sling. While he stops and picks up 5 stones that catch his attention, Goliath, a veritable tank, with another man carrying his shield, starts mocking David. David tells him that since he has mocked God, he, David, is going to feed him to the vultures. And he does, and the Israelites chase the Philistines for miles. And the winner did take all.

OK, so much for the story. What’s the spiritual side here? I think there are several lessons, or at least pieces of lessons, for us to think about.

• Saul, the leader of the army and King of Israel, didn’t have the courage or faith needed to stand up to Goliath. David, who had fought lions and bears while watching the family sheep, had faith that God would protect him as he stood up to defend God’s honor.
• Saul, it seems, didn’t have any basis for depending on God, no personal experience. David, from his time shepherding, did have a solid basis for depending on God.
• Saul, a big man and a warrior, judged others on their size, abilities and experience. David, having dealt with bigger, more able beasts, knew that size wasn’t the only issue

So we have a couple items that seem to have possibilities. Do they continue to pan out over the rest of the two Kings’ lives? Let’s look at a couple more examples, but by no means an exhaustive review.

As mentioned above, both Saul and David were given explicit directions by God through the prophets not to do something.

• Saul was told to save nothing when he and the army went to the town of Amalek; David was told not to take a census of Israel.
• They both disobeyed.
• When Samuel asked Saul why the king of Amalek and cattle had been spared, Saul blamed it on the soldiers, saying that they had kept the best and were bring them to Samuel to be offered as sacrifices. (Yeah, the parent in me believes that one!) David, after taking a census of Israel’s fighting men, is stricken with a guilty conscience and prays for forgiveness.
• Samuel tells Saul that God does not want sacrifices, He wants obedience; he also says that Saul’s kingdom will be taken away and given to someone more worthy. Gad, the prophet at that time in Israel’s history, tells David that God is going to punish him, but is allowing David to select which of three punishments he is to receive.
• Saul’s response is to ask that Samuel sacrifice with them so that he maintains honor in the sight of the people. David’s response is to tell Gad that God knows what is best for Israel, and he will trust God in this decision.

So once again we have Saul trying to do things on his own, while David trusts God.

Throughout the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel the experiences of Saul match up with experiences of David. In case after case Saul continues trying to do things his own way; short circuiting the way God through the prophets had told him to go; refusing to take that last step and trusting God completely. David, on the other hand, would always turn to God, regardless of the circumstances, and trust that God would protect, guide, or otherwise do what was best for David and the Israelites.

In our own lives, are we trusting in God, or trying to turn things to the way we want them to be?

For further reading, the life of Saul can be found in 1 Samuel chapters 8 through 31; the life of David can be found starting with 1 Samuel 16 through to the end of 2 Samuel.

Astrid

Astrid of the Class of 2006.

Astrid of the many friends.

Astrid of the perpetual smile.

Serious determination replaced that smile when she played basketball.

Serious concentration replaced that smile in Geometry.

Shocked sobriety was on the faces of friends and classmates and staff today at SVA as we learned she died on her way to a friend’s place and was hit by a falling tree.

Astrid – the invulnerability of youth is a lie.

Astrid – the promise of the resurrection is a blessed hope in which we rejoice with her friends and family while we weep with them at her absence.

Story and video clip