9 Ways Mentally Strong People simplify Their lives

Despite what we’re led to believe, life is pretty simple. We’re born, we live out our lives in this mysterious world we call home, and we die. Despite this simple cycle, life seems to sometimes make things complicated.

Like the changing tides, and changing seasons, things change too quickly for our comfort, too suddenly, and with no warning. Just as we’re starting to understand about life as a teenager, we’re forced to move out of our homes to find a career. We’re thrown into relationships with little to no experience. We jump into jobs we hope we don’t fail. The stress of keeping up with the changing times, moods, and tides of life can be nerve wrecking.

Today, life has become more about having and doing it all. You must have this type of car if you want the ladies, you need this type of house if you want the perfect family, and you need this much income to be happy.

Life becomes difficult when you’re narrowing down your passionate goals while also labeling what actually matter. Things get confusing and you end up questioning what you really want. People then end up destroying their most personal relationships to start a business or for petty reasons they can’t explain.

But mentally strong people hold themselves to a higher standard than that. Mentally strong people know the positive outcomes of a healthy relationship, but do not assume that’s all they need to have a happy life.

One of the most important habits to learn is how to make life simpler than you’re led to believe. It’s being content with yourself and not making things complicated. Because with complications come stress, which leads to anger or depression. These 9 ways are done by mentally strong people who simplified their lives to make it easier to go their own way.

See what you like and bring it into your own life. Maybe you only need one technique from this list, or perhaps you need them all. The 9 ways mentally strong people simplify their lives are:

1. Evaluate their Commitments

Face everything you have going on. Even the things you are trying to run away from, or ignore. The faster you acknowledge there is a problem the faster a proper solution can be found. Examine all financial, family, career, and personal commitments.

John Lee Dumas, of the podcast “Entrepreneur on Fire,” says,

“Without focus, we find it difficult to take a step forward, and being able to start and complete an accomplishment — whether it be a huge project or a simple task — is integral to our success.”

Make a list of each task you need to complete. Everything from work to home, to children’s activities, hobbies, and side businesses you’re thinking of working on. Look at each list for every area of your life. Focus on one at a time.

Ask yourself which of these are the essential ones to tackle first on the list. Next ask yourself which ones are the tasks that you really value. After that ask yourself which one are the tasks you would enjoy doing the most.

Rate them on level of importance and demand. Drop the items that are not essential or valuable. And keep an item or two that are both valuable and enjoyable. Aim to narrow each list down as much as possible.

Aim to focus on 2 or 3 essentials things at a time before moving on to the next set. More things get done with a focused mind than with a cluttered one. So free up some of the commitments to the essentials.

2. Audit Their Time

Do you ever find yourself waking up having a plan on all the productive things you will accomplish in one day, only to fall into bed wandering where all the time went? Think about what you spend your time doing.

If necessary, and it is recommended, create an excel chart with all the hours in a day for a week. And if you’d like a pre-made time audit template, here’s a Time Audit Sheet you can use. Go about your day normally, but track what you do hourly. Doing this for a week or two will help you see where all your time goes.

Patrick Ambron of BrandYourself says that planning

“forces me to think through my day, my week, my year, and my long-term plan before beginning to execute.”

This is where values, commitments, and goals come into play. Is your time usage in line with your priorities? If not consider what needs to be eliminated to make room for what does fall in line with your priorities.

The great thing about tracking the hours in the day is being able to visually see where the time goes, and being able to monitor it and redesign the day as you see fit. Your time is precious and it’s something you have some control over. So evaluate and execute wisely and often.

3. Create a to do list every night

Getting out of bed in the morning can be a difficult accomplishment for most people. Without self-made motivation and a desire to get out of bed, you’ll be tempted to stay underneath your sheets until you get bored of sleeping.

Thus, the night before you go to bed, create a to do list of what you need to complete in the morning. It can be as simple as making a cup of coffee for yourself. It can be cleaning out your inbox. It can be taking a walk around the neighborhood. Whatever it is, make it motivating enough to snap you out of your sleep state in the morning. For more tips on how to be an early riser, here are 17 best methods to become an early riser.

Work and home life can be endless. So create a simple to do list every night before bed and evaluate for the essentials. Trying to tackle everything will drain you, so focus on the essentials and take a deep breath.

Let go of the rest. Once you eliminate the bigger issues, you’ll find it much easier taking care of the small burdens in your life. Mentally strong people cannot see themselves fixing a healthy meal if they’re constantly procrastinating on bigger problems.

4. Simplify their chores

Ponder all the things that need to get done in your home and get rid of anything you don’t need anymore. Clutter will only fill your head with useless facts and distractions. Set yourself free by cleaning out your closet, your living room, and your garage. You’ll find it difficult escaping your hoarding habits, but the aftermath is outstanding.

You see life from a simpler perspective and making heavy choices gets much easier in the future. Being a hoarder of useless junk can be just as tiring as a overworked job. So focus on the essential again and decide what to do with the rest. Maps out different chores for every day, eliminate certain tasks that are not essential, ask for help, or hire help if needed.

Often times people hold onto objects they don’t need anymore, thus creating clutter in their life. Free up your space by getting rid of the stuff you don’t need anymore. Get boxes for your junk, donate any clothing you don’t wear anymore, and clean out your refrigerator. And for more tips on the best way to declutter your life, here’s 7 Great Methods to declutter your life.

5. Embrace Saying No

Mentally strong people are never afraid to say, “No,” when necessary. Do not carelessly give your time to anyone who asks for it because your time is the most valuable resource you own.

Stephen Covey, writer of, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” said,

” You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.”

Spend your time doing things you find important. Instead of attending some work colleague birthday party because of social obligations, maybe you’d like to spend the day reading or going to the movies. Maybe someone is asking you for a favor you’re not comfortable with. Instead of complying with it and holding a silent resentment towards that person, tell them you can’t do it and go about your way.

Saying no to one thing is saying yes to something else. This is the core of living a simpler life. It’s cleansing out the unnecessary experiences and the things you don’t value for the things you do.

6. Limit Their Social Media

The steady flow of communication is distracting and can steal a huge chunk of your day when careless about it. You see people on their cell phones while in public or at home mindlessly browsing away on life. Do not allow yourself to mindlessly entrap yourself in social media such as Facebook or Twitter.

Instead, set time frames for when you can indulge in those pleasures. Check your email during certain times of the day, for a certain amount of minutes. Limit social media so it doesn’t take over your life. Use the time you would have spent on social media reading a book, speaking to people, or taking a breather on life.

The normal thought we give ourselves whenever we indulge in to those guilty pleasures is that it’s necessary. We have to see what Charlie posted on Facebook or what Eric did last night on Instagram to stay up to date. But the next mistake we make is wasting over half an hour when we should have done something more important.

When you focus on a task, avoid looking at your phone every few seconds. When you are in presence of others avoid using your phone. Give them your full attention as a dog would do for their master. It sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Mentally strong people restrain the urge to hook their eyes to their phone while in the presence of other people. It might be tempting to glance at it during an awkward silence, but break it with a random conversation topic. Examine your surroundings and watch the people nearby.

Eliminating those minor distractions increases your focus and increases the depth of your bonds with other people. If social media is something that is taking over your life, gradually spend less time on it everyday and you’ll realize how easy life is without it.

7. Being Present

Live here and live now. Do every moment like you mean it. Act as if you didn’t seize the opportunity you’ll lose it. When it comes to living your life act like you mean business.

Danielle Fong of LightSail Energy says,

“There are a million things you can do to improve your business.The problem is, if you try to fix or improve them all at once, you end up not making much progress in any of them.”

One of the main reasons people fall under depression is because they’re searching for what’s missing in their life, how their future should be, or what happened in their past. Mentally strong people escape the ego that’s in their head and connect with their environment. They think of ways they can positively affect other people lives.

Ask yourself how you can become more aware of your life, what’s going on around you, to others, and within yourself. Putting more thought, focus, and being more present in your life will create a simplified lifestyle. And if you’re too shy to approach people, here’s an Easy Solution to Overcome Shyness.

Don’t be afraid to live each moment like it’s the last. Be efficient as you can, and write out your goals, and your feelings. Stick up for your values and remember you owe it to yourself to live in the moment.

8. Being Active

Maintaining a proper fitness schedule is a crucial habit to keep in your life. Mentally strong people are aware most of the time they won’t be initially excited to exercise after working or finishing their daily routines. However, they put in the effort to beat those thoughts because they know it’s necessary to keep a healthy lifestyle.

In an interview with AmEx, he said:

“Not only does it give you the physical endurance to work 18 or 20 hours a day and travel around the world, but it helps stimulate your mind and your thinking.”

Without any form of fitness in your life, you become easily fatigue and grumpier due to the level of stress that accumulates. Whether you choose to take a walk outside, perform a set of sit-ups at home, or take a jog, find a way to get your heart beating. Even standing up from your desk for ten minutes every hour will positively benefit you with more energy and less stress.

9. Establish Habits

Keep life simple by continuously doing the same thing from a day to day basis. Mentally strong people establish a simple life by performing the same exercises everyday, the same fashion, and wake up routinely. The less mundane decisions you give yourself, the easier it’ll be to handle major decisions that require critical thinking.

Mentally strong people know that every decisions despite how small drains a little bit of their mental energy that day. Therefore, to avoid being too drained from making major decisions, they simply every small task that’s in their day.

Steve Jobs wore the same type of clothing to simplify his life because he had bigger problems to worry about.