“I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.” – Michael Jordan

Effort: A conscious exertion of power, a serious attempt.

I have witnessed this with the soccer team I coached this year.  We have one player who gave his best effort every time he was out on the soccer field. However, because he gave such effort, he was quickly tired.  There were also have players that give maybe 50% effort, but could stay in the game the whole time.  Which one is the better player for my team?  Without a doubt, it’s the player that gives his best effort, even if he requires frequent breaks.

When this young man is out on the field, I know that he will play his position with everything he has to give.  I can count on him to defend our goal with all his heart when he’s on defense, and to fight for scoring a goal with all that is within him when he’s on offense.  Ironically, the two games we lost this fall were the only games in which he didn’t play.  And the other kids on the team all know that he is a player they can count on. They know that when he is in the game, we’ve always got a shot at success. And yet, he is one of the few players who ask to come out of the game.  He needs out so that he can catch his breath.  Full out effort, interspersed with frequent breaks – this is what success is to him.

How does this apply to our lives?  How often do we give less than our best effort?  How often do we do that, just so we can stay “in the game”?  Or so that we can “get by” at our work, or with our family, or the volunteer activities we do, or anything else in our lives?

And, if we’re doing that, then are we really doing the best that we can? No.  I argue that we do our best work when we give all we’ve got – when we give whatever 100% is for us.  Even if that means taking a break every once in a while.

Where are you most likely to give your “best” effort?  In the things you love to do.  So, I encourage you to find those things that mean the most to you, that really make you “come alive”.  These are the things that you will really want to give your best effort.  These are the things that you’ll want to see succeed.  And these are the things that you will go all out for – even if it means frequent breaks.  And the possibilities are enormous for much success – because you’ll be doing something that you love, and giving it everything you’ve got.

What’s holding you back from giving your best effort?

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In my first post of this series, I talked about what a hidden addiction is. Freeing ourselves from these addictions can bring a great deal of happiness, independence, and power to our lives. Defining a hidden addiction is the first step. The second step is identifying our own hidden addictions.

This sounds easier than it is. You may be able to identify one or two off the top of your head, but to get a full list of all your hidden addictions is quite difficult. That is why they are called “hidden addictions”. Hidden things are hard to find! And in addition to that, even if they are in plain view, they might not be perceived as a negative thing right away.

Keep Track of Your Addictions

To aid you in your search for your hidden addictions, I suggest you make a list. Getting your thoughts down on paper will help you make sense of it all and see it all together. Plus, if your memory is a little off (like mine) then this is a must.

Start off your list by writing down the negative things in your life that you do all the time. Just note the obvious ones. There should be at least a few for everyone.

To find even more possible negative habits, it will take some time. For the next few days, keep your list nearby. Observe your life as close as you can. Ask yourself these questions throughout the day:

What activities take up most of my time during the day?

How much do I sleep?

How much do I exercise?

How much TV do I watch?

How much time do I spend on the internet?

What are my eating habits?

What are my reactions to things that don’t go the way I want them to?

Am I happy throughout most of my day?

That list of questions should get you started. Then, if possible, ask your close friends and family about some bad habits that you might have. This will take a lot of honesty on their part, so be sure to let them know that you want an honest answer and that you won’t get upset with them. The eyes of others can catch things that we would never think of. Some of the things they say will be hard to hear and might make you angry or sad, but do your best to not react negatively. They are just trying to help you identify your hidden addictions so that you can overcome them.

I am curious to see what your hidden addictions are. In honor of the “three things” weekly post at On Simplicity, please list three of your hidden addictions. Let me get things started:

1. Internet – Blogging, searching, reading, watching, chatting, stumbling… there just aren’t enough hours in a day!
2. Sensitivity – In certain situations this is an asset, but not most of the time for me. I tend to break down at the slightest criticism which sends me into a state of low self-confidence. Keeping my spirits high and the blame off of myself is a very difficult thing for me.
3. Food – I eat when I am hungry. I eat when I am full. I eat when I am happy. I eat when I am sad. I eat when I am busy. I eat when I am bored. No matter what activity I am doing, my mind seems to always wander back to food.

Be sure to come back soon and check out part 3 of the hidden addiction series. In that post I will talk about strategies we can use to overcome our addictions. I will be asking for your ideas as well!

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Balance is an essential component of happiness. When all aspects of your life are in harmony, it puts your mind, body, and spirit on an equal level. The definition of balance will be completely different from person to person. It is up to you to find the balance that is right for you. However, living simple will always help you create balance in your life.

Many of us have lives that are like a person attempting to walk a tight rope for the first time. We buckle. We wobble. We try to stay on by flailing our arms. But eventually, no matter how hard we try, we fall off the edge.

Some of us will give up. Some of us will get back on the tight rope and try again. Some of us will find a whole new way to balance. Those of us who find a new way to balance our like people riding bicycles. The balance is tricky at first, but once you get some speed and gain momentum, it is completely natural to stay in balance. Living a simple life is like riding that bicycle. It does not guarantee that we won’t ever fall off, but it greatly increases our chances of staying in balance.

Finding balance in your life can be a difficult thing. It most certainly will not happen overnight. There will be many hours of contemplation, reflection, imagination, frustration, and inspiration involved in the process. And even if you do find balance in your life, that balance may morph and change as your life changes. Things that are important to you now may mean nothing to you five years from now. Achieving balance in your life will be an ever changing experience.

Complications in your life make finding balance a much more difficult task. That is why I suggest living a simple life to help you create balance in your life. The less things you have to deal with in life, the better. Balancing five stones on top of each other is much easier than balancing thirty stones. The more we can focus on individual aspects of our lives, the better. When we spread ourselves too thin, our balance is bound to be thrown off.

Ways To Create Balance By Living Simple

• Forget multi-tasking, single-task instead – By putting your full focus and energy on one specific task at a time, your best work is achieved. Put quality before quantity. Always strive for excellence in all that you do. Do few things, but do them well.
• Spend more time with friends and family – Never forget your loved ones. They are the ones that will catch you when you are about to fall. They are the ones who will guide you when you are lost. They are the ones that will support you when you are feeling weak. Cherish them and provide the same support for them. Always let the people who are important in your life know how much they mean to you. It can never be said too much.
• Eat healthy – In the words of Count Rugen from The Princess Bride: “If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.” Implementing a simple, healthy diet into your life will not only make you feel better and more balanced, but it will also be cheaper. Eating fast food or prepackaged food not only costs more, but has less nutritional value. Don’t forget to enjoy and savor what you eat.
• Exercise regularly – The quote above can be applied to this one as well. Exercise is needed to balance out the time that you are inactive. Combine this with a healthy diet and your body will be balanced physically.
• Spend less than what you make – This simple principle is easy to understand, but can be difficult to live by. If you are in mounds of debt, that is obviously going to disrupt the balance in your life. By spending less than what you make, you can slowly get out of debt and stay out of debt.
• Integrate your passions with your career – Having a job that you are passionate is so important in achieving balance. A good chunk of everyone’s life will be spent at work. If there is no meaning or passion behind your job, it will have a negative affect on you. Following your passion in your career might not yield you as much money, but it will bring you much more happiness and balance. The benefit of living a simple life is that you don’t need that much money to sustain yourself anyway, so money should not be a problem.
• Rid yourself of material possessions – Having too much stuff can make you feel trapped or weighed down. Give away or sell the things that you never use anymore. When you go shopping, ask yourself: “Do I really need this?”
• Write in a journal or blog – If you are anything like me, then you have ideas and thoughts swirling throughout your brain all day. I forget things and lose track of things so easily. Writing your thoughts and ideas down helps you remember them and make sense out of them. It helps you see the big picture in your life. It can provide insight as to what areas of your life need work and what areas are going smoothly.
• Learn from others – Observe your friends and family. Which ones are successful, happy, and seem to live a quality life? What is differentiates their lives from yours? What habits do they have? Don’t be afraid to talk to them and ask them questions about how they live their life. Finding balance should never have to be a lonely task.

There are many other ways to bring balance to your life by living simple. What are some ways that living simple has increased balance in your life? What is your definition of balance? Let us know in the comments section.

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Addictions. Big bad habits. Small bad habits. Vices. Everyone has them! The big ones can have a horrible effect on your life. Things like gambling, alcohol, drugs, porn, and illegal activity can all lead you down a bad road. Ridding your life of these addictions should be high on your priority list.

However, there is another kind of addiction that is much more common and can be just as dangerous. I call them “hidden addictions“. These are the small bad habits that you never seem to notice. They silently invade your life and before you know it, you have an entire colony of hidden addictions infesting your life! They are difficult to spot and even more difficult to quit. Having one or two hidden addictions in your life might be ok, but it becomes a real problem when there are a lot of them.

You see, there is one positive thing about the major addictions I mentioned in the first paragraph: They are easy to identify. Yea, some people will be in denial of their addiction for a long time, but eventually they will realize they have a negative addiction. And if they don’t, I am sure that their friends or family will express their concern. Breaking those addictions is incredibly difficult… but at least they can identify it.

On the other hand, hidden addictions can go unnoticed for your entire life, slowly eating away at you.  Here are some examples of hidden addictions:

• Coffee (or other caffeinated drinks)
• Sugar
• Fast Food
• Blaming Others
• Blaming Yourself
• Jealousy
• Laziness
• Overeating
• Spending
• Shopping
• Video Games and Computer Games
• Television
• Internet
• Cracking Knuckles
• Smoking
• Bad Posture
• Worrying Too Much
  
• Oversleeping
• Allocation of Time (Too much work and not enough time with family)
• Lack of Exercise
• Anger
• Depression
• Settling (Not challenging yourself)
• Being a Pushover
• Lack of Balance

Do any of these sound familiar? This list is the tip of the iceberg. Hidden addictions will be different for everyone and can take on a multitude of forms.

Now that we have defined what a hidden addiction is, it is now time to identify what hidden addictions you have. Be sure to check back soon for part 2 of this series for information about identifying your hidden addictions.

Photo By nils.alsleben

Hopefully all of you don’t hate your job as much as I hated mine. I would absolutely dread going to work and just thinking about it would ruin my days off. When my shift would end, I would feel this enormous sense of freedom and would race home to get away from my job.

Is your job working out for you? Do you feel some of the same feelings I am feeling? If you love your job, good for you! Hold on to it, cherish it, and excel at it. If not, go through this list and see if any of the items match up to your current situation. No, not all of these reasons alone are enough to quit your job, but a combination of them can be reason enough to leave. It will be up to you to decide which ones you can live with and which ones you can’t. I know that there is no perfect job out there and that they all can be hard at times. I hope this is a valuable resource!

Signs That You Should Quit Your Job

1. There is no passion – I made this number one for a reason. If you have no passion for your job, then the rest of these signs don’t matter. Finding your passion can be a difficult thing. Sometimes it seems like there isn’t one, sometimes it seems like there are too many. I don’t claim to know a tried and true way to find your passion. But when you do find it, do everything in your power to integrate it with your career. It will no longer be a job to at this point. If you would do your job on your own time, even if you weren’t getting paid for it, that is a good sign that you have a passion for it. Good luck!
2. You don’t get paid enough – If you are just barely scraping by month to month or are getting yourself into a lot of debt, you might not be getting paid enough. Yes, you might be making horrible choices with your money as well, but it could be your payment. Are you living frugally, spending your money very carefully, and still find it hard to get ahead? If that is so then you are not getting paid enough!
3. You are uncomfortable or don’t get along with coworkers – These are the people that you will be spending time with for at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 12 months a year. If you are not getting along with them or don’t feel comfortable around them, then it might be time to move on. However, if everything else is working out, do what you can to fix this one.
4. You dread going to work each day – Like I said before, I would dread going to work each day. I would dread it at the beginning of my weekend! This is not healthy. Over time it will drive you crazy and will most likely just keep getting worse. Don’t submit yourself to something you dread for a living.
5. Your work schedule does not fit into your life – Some people like a hectic schedule that never stays the same. But I don’t! My previous schedule was complete chaos. I never knew what to expect for the week ahead and therefore could not make plans too far in advance. This is also true for the night shift. I did it for 3 months and it really messed with me. If you can handle it, good for you. If not, get out of there or change your schedule!
6. Lack of benefits – Sometimes this one has to be sacrificed. There are many jobs out there that don’t provide benefits. It can help so much when you have a family that needs health insurance though. This one alone might not be reason to leave, but combined with others, maybe.
7. You are embarrassed to tell others what you do – If you find yourself trying to avoid conversation about jobs, salaries, careers and promotions with your friends and family because you are embarrassed about your job, that is not a good sign! Find something that you are proud to share with people. Over the span of a lifetime you will spend an incredible amount of time at your job. Make it something that you are not embarrassed about and something that you wish to share with others.
8. Too long of a commute – This is another one that alone may not be enough to change your job, but with others, it could be. A long commute will drain your time, energy, and money. Is the passion you have for your job worth all of that? If so, great. If not, find something closer.
9. Your strengths are not being utilized – If you seem to be hitting a wall with your progress at your job or just don’t seem to understand it or get better at it, this could be a sign. Some things are difficult to learn, so give it some time before deciding to try something new. If you do change, find something that utilizes the strengths you already have!
10. Your job is not fulfilling – If you come home from work each day and you feel like you have not really helped the world in some way, or that your job is just not fulfilling, take a step back and think about your job. I got to the point with my job where it had no fulfillment. One day I realized that I put boxes on a shelf for a living and decided to get out of there.
11. You have no desire to be the best you can be at your job – One sign that you are not in the right field is lack of effort. Your job should be something that you put all of yourself into. You need to genuinely care about your job and want to succeed. If you can’t get into this mindset with your current job, think about a job that you would care about and put your all into.

I do realize that changing a job that you have been doing for years that has some security is not an easy move for some people. I know that sometimes there are families involved and making a change would put them in a bad situation. I just encourage you to always keep your eyes out for new opportunities.

A job does not have to be an everyday burden. It can help you fulfill your purpose in life if you find the right one. If you do decide to quit your job, do it the right way. Be honest with your boss or manager about why you are leaving and give them two weeks notice. You don’t want to burn any bridges and lose a good reference.

I hope this helped you find some clarity as to whether or not your job is right for you. What are some other signs that you should not be in the job that you are in? What steps have you taken to make the situation better? Post a comment below and let us know.

Photo By richardmasoner