Not long ago, we posted an interview with Sam Spurlin from thesimplerlife.net about his new book, Living the Simpler Life: 8 Essentials to Practice Everyday. Since then he has had some other great interviews, as well, at Grokkery, and just last week at RowdyKittens. We promised you that we would review the book soon, and here it is! We’re each going to share our thoughts, in a simplifi.de Siskel &  Ebert sort of way!

Barbara…

I always look forward to reading something that will help me on my journey to simplify. My hope is it will either give me a gentle nudge to do something I know I should be doing,(but haven’t) or give me a new idea I hadn’t thought of before. Sam Spurlin’s new eBook, Living the Simpler Life, gave me both.

I appreciated the reminder on how to cultivate “mindfulness.” In one of his tips, he challenges the reader of the value of focusing on one thing at a time rather than multi-tasking. Since I frequently switch between a management consulting and coaching business, a singer-songwriter career and posting on www.simplifi.de, I often feel “scattered.” I had realized I needed to chunk my time into single-focus blocks, and when I read Sam’s book, it just confirmed that this is something I needed to start today!

Sam has pulled together tons of tips and resource links so the book is filled with some very practical information that will benefit the reader. On the other hand, it contains so much information in so many areas that it can feel a little overwhelming to distill it down to manageable chunks that I could incorporate into my daily life. For me, this will be a book I will use as a reference guide and digest in bite-sized pieces as needed.

Luke…

Most of my growing up years, I had two siblings: my sister Andrea who is 5 years younger than I am, and KJ, who is 10 years younger than me. Now don’t misunderstand me, I love my brother dearly, but there were lots of times when we fought like cats and dogs (we’re better now). But while we had our moments, I always got along with Andrea well… there’s just something about being closer to the same age that makes things easier – we have more in common.

Interestingly enough, the same thing is true for blogging, as well. The time frames are a little different, and it’s certainly not that that I don’t get along with “older” blogs, it’s just a feeling of camaraderie with bloggers who started their website around the same time as you. And that’s the case with fellow simplicity blogger, Sam Spurlin. He started in October of last year and our first posts on simplifi.de were in December.

So it was with great anticipation that I read Sam’s new book, Living the Simpler Life: 8 Essentials to Practice Everyday. It’s a very practical book, filled with tips and thoughts for dealing mostly with the harder side of simplicity… the inside.

Like Sam said in his interview with us, he tried to go beyond the “low-hanging fruit” of decluttering in Living the Simpler Life. I appreciated that about the book; you could live in Thoreau’s cabin, but if you thoughts and inner person aren’t under control, then you are NOT living the simpler life.

The chapter that challenged me the most in Living the Simpler Life was Essential 3: The Willingness to Say No. It’s something that I know, but it’s easy to forget to put into practice on a regular basis. This sentence is the one that really caught my attention at the end of the chapter: “You owe it to yourself not to be swamped beneath a bevy of low-impact commitments when your big chance arrives.” I wonder how many times big chances have come and gone because I was toiling away on stuff that didn’t really matter. This chapter poked and prodded me in just the right places, so that I would be more aware before I accept new responsibilities.

So that’s how it helped me. No matter what stage of the simplicity journey you’re on, I’m sure there are things in it that will help you too. If you’re typically not a book reader, but you like to read blogs, then this is a good eBook for you to consider, because it reads more like an extra long series of blog posts.

So my final analysis: it’s a good overview of the critical components of simplicity, and a great first foray into the eBook world for Sam and thesimplerlife.net,

If you were to ask the average person what the simple life looks like,  one of the common images you would probably hear described is, “Curling up with a good book.” There’s a good reason for that!  Reading is a time when we stop all of our frenetic activities, sit down and just allow ourselves to absorb.

A few weeks ago, Barbara and I  found out March was reading month and started to talk about the books that had influenced us the most.    It was exciting to learn about good books we had not been aware of before and we thought “Hey, our blog readers might be interested in these as well!” Now, we obviously know that’s it’s April, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t read, or that we can’t celebrate the books that have made a big difference in our lives! So here’s our list including a specific category for (what else?!) books that started us on our journey to simplify.

Please don’t forget to comment at the bottom, and let us know what books have really made an impact on you! We’re always on the lookout for great books and we know all the other readers are too! So without further ado…

Read the rest of this entry »

You have to simplify in order to survive. You’ll burn out if you don’t take a step back. – Everett Bogue

All of us have something that we’re passionate about. Just think: if time and money didn’t stand in the way and you could do one thing, what would it be? That’s a pretty good clue as to where your real passion lies.

And here’s the amazing thing about living in this time of history: with hard work, dedication, and perseverance, you can make a living doing what you’re passionate about. Imagine your life in that “sweet spot”, where making a living and doing what you love intersect… it’s a beautiful, simple place, isn’t it?

But to get there, according to Everett Bogue’s new eBook, you’re going to have to create a movement.

Here’s a dictionary definition of movement: “A group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas.” That’s what you need if you’re going to make it online, and that’s what this little eBook is all about. It will help you (a) to see the importance of creating a movement and (b) give you the basic foundation to lead one of your own.

It’s a quick, 20 page read – every page is its own little chapter. Everett is a great writer and a leader of his own minimalism movement, and both show up in this book. No visual or vocabulary clutter. Clear, concise words, just enough to get the point across, and no more. He writes from experience, not theory. And you can’t beat the price!

It shouldn’t take you more than a half hour to read this book, and it’s time well invested. If you are interested in making a difference and/or making a living online, go get your free copy ASAP!

Stop trying to impress others with your stuff and start trying to impress them with your life.” – Simplify, p. 57

I love simplicity. And I love reading what other people are saying about it, which is why I have 36 different blogs related to simplicity/minimalism in Google Reader. When you’re following that many blogs on the same general subject, it doesn’t take long before the cream of the crop rises to the top.

One of the blogs that quickly rose to top of my list is becomingminimalist.com. The author, Joshua Becker, writes consistent, helpful articles, and I always enjoy their “reader’s stories” posts. If you haven’t subscribed to their blog, you should do it today! When I saw that becomingminimalist was going to release a e-Book, I couldn’t wait to get a copy and review it. So here we go… Read the rest of this entry »