What to Do About Things You Don’t Like

by Raymund Tamayo

Here’s the last of three lists in my Simple White Rabbit Guide to Inner Simplicity: Things I Have Now But Wish I Didn’t.

To review, here’s mine:

Things I Don’t Like and Don’t Want

1.   financial worries

2.   health problems

3.   relationship problems

4.   hanging out with difficult and negative people

5.   working with unprofessional, disorganized, and incompetent people

6.   noise early in the morning

7.   interacting with discourteous drivers on the road

Writer Christy King said in this post that there are two possible solutions. Either we change our circumstances or we change our mindset.

I wrote financial “worries” not “problems” because being a minimalist for 3 years now helped me solve my money problems.

I still do have worries, though, which means solution no. 2 (Change Your Mindset) is applicable.

Same is true for numbers 3 to 7. I can’t change these people. I have no control over their decisions and beliefs.

For numbers 3, 4 and 6, I can’t get them out of my life because they’re family and I love them.

So changing my mindset does it. I wrote an article about that here.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” 

- Reinhold Niebuhr

Health problems is the only item on the list that can be addressed by solution no. 1 (Change Your Circumstance).

I have a higher blood sugar level than normal (not yet diabetic), and it’s up to me whether to improve or not.

My Takeaway

This is my third and last post on the process of discovering inner simplicity. My biggest takeaway is it helped me clarify my values even more.

By listing down the things that make me happy now, things that would make me happier, and things that I have now that doesn’t make me happy, I can be deliberate on which activities do I continue to be involved in, and which ones do I stop.

It’s refreshing to contemplate like this. It’s a life-long process of learning and improvement and more important other than enjoying the journey is what we have become because of it.

Acknowledgment

My heartfelt thanks to Ms. Christy King of The Simple White Rabbit, who offered this guide to inner simplicity.

You can view the original post here: Inner Simplicity: Where to Begin.