Doing less and living more more

One day, Henry Thoreau told his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson that the key to the good life was to “simplify, simplify, simplify.” Emerson replied that “just using one word might have sufficed.” These intellectual giants know something that we do not.

Gadgets and technology have given us all these years; you would have thought these toys and things would have simplified our lives. But one thing strikes out ever so clearly. The more technology I have, the fewer hours I sleep. The more I can accomplish, the more I want to do it… right now… in real time! Sometimes we must be reminded that in many situations, less is more.

The Ilocana (the endearing term I have assigned for my wife Lilia), and I have been productive plotting out our daily schedules like a military strategist preparing for war games. But we have discovered that all the hustling and bustling have left out the fun of doing the very things we used to love doing. We are making more but enjoying it less, and that’s never a good thing! We were delighted to find an article from an unknown source sharing the same sentiment.

The article, credited to anonymity, talked about our need to be clear about our values. We readjusted and recalibrated and are now enjoying life a lot more.

We love doing stuff, learning, building, and starting things, and we love things that challenge or enrich our lives. We get excited with every new idea that comes along, either in technology or business. We may have accused the millennials of practicing FOMO (fear of missing out). Yet we are essentially practitioners of the same. Gaming and Tiktok are now mainstream. Now it’s crypto, NFTs, Web 3, and Metaverse.

But a critical thought is that our values are not around excitement or even primarily around money or success. Our values mainly deal with relationships, quality time, peace of mind, physical health, and personal integrity. However, our culture and society do not emphasize these.

Culture and society applaud (and be impressed by) displays of wealth or power or popularity. These, in and by themselves, are not evil. These can be used to serve the greater good. But to focus on these things alone carry a cost. Emerson observed, “sometimes money costs too much.”

In our mad rush to jump on new fads or opportunities, we get caught up in things that may not work out for the best for us. Michael Angier calls this: “the thick of thin things.”

Much of our failures are not obvious. We may do well in terms of profits and fame. It’s exhilarating to see things come together. We receive applause from friends and business associates. We even get to be interviewed in talk shows telling our rags-to-riches story; all of these are fun, good, and seductive. In our mad quest for these pleasures, we may have been canceling private time and postponing essential priorities. Those who know me and have attended my training programs or speaking engagements see that I bring Ilocana to almost every meeting. These were activities we both valued.

Today, we are cutting back on activities and are talking about our values daily. We talk about what we love, what we cherish, and what we stand for. It’s not that we have forgotten these things, but we realize it is our responsibility to align ourselves with our values, and to do it on purpose, every day.

We have re-committed to investing time, money, and energy in the things that mean the most to us. We have re-committed to planning our lives, living our values, and making the most of our talents, relationships, and opportunities.

Living a life of fullness is no accident. But you have to be conscious, committed, and intentional.

George Bernard Shaw “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick “Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.”

Ayn Rand “Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”

In our early lives, the Ilocana and I hustled and worked all the time, but we had one thing in common: our deep love for Christ and our hunger to know Him more, which held us together. Today we are living more and doing less and doing things that matter.

Read the book of Ecclesiastes, and you can identify with Solomon. “Everything is meaningless and chasing after the wind” up till the last chapter would you see his advice. Love God, for this is our purpose in life. And when we do… all things simplify and become dim in the Light and Glory of His Face.

(Francis Kong’s podcast “Inspiring Excellence” is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or other podcast streaming platforms.)