Edit Your Life

I slipped the first of three CDs into my dash and waited for enlightenment to strike.

I hadn't ever listened to a book on tape before, but my expectations were high.

The silence of my car's cabin was broken by a monotonic introduction. I was suddenly thrust into the tight confines of an airplane seat cleared for takeoff on a lengthy international flight. The narrator's voice channeled the enthusiasm of a flight attendant lifelessly reciting an airplane's safety instructions.

Exercise some patience, I urged myself. 

His delivery labored on. Belabored by his "motivational" storytelling, I turned off the CD. Now that's self-help.

I had fully expected Leo Babauta, blogger, former newspaper editor and author of this book, to have read from his own work, but I guess that would be asking for too much. Everything is outsourced nowadays.

I stuck to it, started the CD once more and got used to the man's voice when I finally reached a point where I lent it my full attention. 

"Edit your life," the reader read, "eliminate all but the essentials."

I thought of my desk at work and my desk at home.

I thought of my rising pile of paperwork and the setting sun.

Then, I thought of the scene in Up in the Air (2009) in which George Clooney rhetorically asked, "How much does your life weigh?"

Sitting in my seat with the seatbelt fastened and folding tray in its upright position, I renewed my vow to adopt a Less is More mantra; something hard to do in an increasingly More is More environment.

I've since shortened my To Do lists, tended to the matters that matter most, and with renewed vigor focused on quality, not quantity.