Over the holidays, I re-read an old favorite from my undergraduate research days at Hamilton College. Written in while Shi was an Associate Professor at Davidson College, The Simple Life traces the rich cultural heritage of the movement beginning with the Puritans and Quakers, moving on to the New England Transcendentalists, and ultimately to the modern-day communitarians.
Along the way, Shi paints a vivid picture of a life and a lifestyle that has, over decades, provided practitioners with physical, emotional, and spiritual sustenance. At heart I am a shameless idealist and there is perhaps nothing more idealistic to me than simple living. For me, my running, particularly over the last year and a half, has provided a foundation upon which to base my quest.
And, as such, for the first time, I feel myself trending toward a simple life that may be sustainable. Running has always been a place where I can strip life down to its essence. Regret has no redeeming qualities. It only serves to make us feel bad. It rarely inspires change or fixes anything.
I made amends, learn a lesson, or take action in a different way and then … I let it go. I disconnect to fully connect. I love the internet. I love my work on the internet. I could stay on the internet all the time. But when I do, my relationships suffer and I miss opportunities to meet new people, and to connect with the people who mean the very most to me.
When I disconnect, I also get great ideas for work and life that would have escaped me if I had stayed plugged in. I assume that people mean well unless they give me a good reason to think otherwise. The only way to learn to trust people is to trust people. If we can all start with the assumption that people are good and mean well, we can do better work together, develop stronger relationships, and become genuinely interested in lifting each other up. I keep my business in a constant state of evolution.
I am open to new ideas, directions, and projects and am always looking at how to better serve people I work with. Make rules, create margins and set limits. I aim to disconnect a few times each day and for at least 24 hours a week.
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