“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

I think it’s something that’s conditioned in us from an early age, by friends, television, and the general culture: we always seem to want more.

More money, more gadgets, better furniture, a better house, a better car, more clothes, more shoes, more success.

And what happens when we get more? We aren’t satisfied, because there are new ads for new iPods, for new laptops, for new iPhones, for new cars, for new clothes. We have to have those. It’s impossible to satisfy that hunger for more, because our culture is not satisfied with what we have, but is geared to wanting more. It’s consumerism, and it’s the official religion of the industrialized world.

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” – Hans Hofmann

The first step in simplifying, and living with less, is to identify the essential – that which you want to keep in your life. Then eliminate as much of the non- essential as possible.

I go into much more detail on this process in The Power of Less (please buy it to read more on all these topics – see ThePowerofLess.com), but basically you want to create a Short List of 4-5 things in your life that you value most – people you love or things you’re passionate about, things you want in your life. These are your essentials.

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

The recent economic recession has a lot of people worried, about their jobs, their businesses, their homes and their bills. When your income is dropping or in jeopardy and you still have a mountain of bills to pay, things can get pretty scary.

However, tough economic times do not have to be a time of struggles! If you look for the opportunity in the middle of difficulty, as Mr. Einstein suggested, then tough economic times become an opportunity to transform your life.

Dr. Rechtschaffen’s book Timeshifting grew out of the workshops he leads on the creative use of time. Unlike time-management courses which teach people how to work efficiently at an ever-accelerating pace, Rechtschaffen’s basic premise is that it is crucial to learn how to “timeshift,” to move smoothly from fast to medium to slow and back again. Each speed has its proper place, he believes, but the rhythms of industrialized societies, including the United States, encourage us to live in “fast forward” virtually all the time. He asserts that we pay a heavy price for doing so.