"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a person does not keep pace with their companions, perhaps it is because they hear a different drummer. Let them step to the music which they hear, however measured or far away." Henry David Thoreau

I made my writing debut in the Healthy Thoughts newspaper in 1998 with an article I co- wrote with my friend Tom Triatik titled "Voluntary Simplicity." In the article we were announcing the start of a Simplicity Circle that we were starting in January of 1999. The first meeting of that group was in the basement of Earthheart Deli/Café—we were taken aback by the level of the response to the group---23 people attended that first meeting!


Even though the group hasn’t met for a few years -we simplified our lives so much we didn’t need to meet anymore! I still get calls asking about the group. I wish I could say that the art of simplifying ones life to what is most nourishing and important has been mastered by most people, but the reality is it seems to be even more challenging to do than ever. We all need to develop skills to handle all of the information, requests of our time, opportunities that come our way. It is so easy to get side-tracked and lose our focus as to what is truly important and a priority in our life. This idea hit home for me recently when a business coach that I work with gave me the feedback "Your getting scattered, you’re losing your focus." That statement was so helpful to me, it jarred me out of a pattern of getting so captivated and interested in all of the different opportunities that come my way that I was getting off track with my original intentions. It also reminded me of a recent trip to Home Depot with my Mom to pick up stuff to re-do my bathroom. Instead of staying focused on what we needed to get for the bathroom we began looking at all the things we could do to renovate my kitchen and other areas of my home. A trip that should have taken about an hour, turned into a four hour excursion. Does this sound familiar to you?

For many people this scenario at Home Depot can be an analogy for getting off track in one’s life in larger ways. Examples like: "I was clear and focused on going to school for art and than my husband wanted to move to another area and they didn’t have the kind of school I was looking for, so I just got a job and forgot about art school." Or "I have always wanted to have my own business, but I am so busy doing my work projects and pleasing my employer that I just don’t have any extra time." Or "I have always wanted to travel but my husband hates it, he likes golfing instead, so I have tried to like golfing and forget about travel because he wants us to be together."

All the possibilities of our modern day life can be exciting, but also can pull us off track from what we truly want in our deepest self. All of the information, activities, projects of all kinds, other people’s requests can shift us in one moment into a different direction that may not be in alignment with where we truly want to go. Why is it challenging to stay focused on our deepest self and our true path? It’s important to understand the underlying reasons why staying focused can be so challenging. By gaining a deeper understanding about your own inner dynamics, you are better able to make conscious choices about what you want to do and make changes. The following are reasons for lack of focus that I have discovered over the years in working with clients around this issue of focus and simplicity. After each reason I have included solutions:

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