Upgrade to simple

What if you could slow down time for whenever you need to pause?

How different is it to watch the sunset on the beach in slow-motion?

In less than 2 minutes of slo-mo video, how much calmer, how much more mindful do you become as you observe?

How much does the slow-down invite reflection?

Upgrade vs. Improvement

It took me about that time to realize that we are bombarded with not just updates, but even more so with upgrades. These come as solid promises of improvement. Upgrading is a thing. Whether it’s cars, phones, laptops or insurance plans, upgrading usually costs you a bit more money for a promise of increased speed, comfort, class, functionality. Sometimes, these upgrades are practical. They change how we do business. They accelerate how we communicate with others, produce results, or get information. Upgrades seem to make the use of computers, phones, or memberships, and our perception of how safe or comfortable we are, better in general.

But upgrades are not always improvements, or necessary. You are upgrading your phones, computers, memberships for which purpose exactly? Get more done? Have more free time so you can do what you really want to do? Or is the ultimate goal to be an early adopter of always the newest thing, because it’s the sexy thing to do?

If upgrading makes you sleep better, smile more, and be kind and generous, go ahead. But if you feel pressured and don’t quite see how all this upgrading makes any more sense than making up your face to look like a fishing lure, slow down.

Free Will is a Beautiful Thing

You have permission to be in defiance of the upgrade craze. You are allowed to choose what upgrade means to you. You have the right to decide that simplifying life, using and re-purposing things, concepts, ideas, processes, is the only upgrade worth your while. For now. You have the right to explore, test-drive, and discard if this belief doesn’t work for you. But I do encourage you to try it. Try upgrading to a simpler life.

Do you really need all this stuff? Or do you need more space?

Do you really need to do all this? Or do you need more time?

What do you really need? And what do you really, really want?

When you decide to upgrade to simple, you embrace the beauty of what is already there. Your consumer footprint is light and small. There is some wisdom in the old adage If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

You leave no trace, except that smile on your face.