I can’t even guess how many times I have heard the phrase in the title above.  We all seem to say that we just don’t have enough time to get it all done. We wish life would slow down! But in reality you have the same amount of time in your day that your great great great great grandparents had. The twenty-four hour day is the same, it hasn’t been shortened during your lifetime.

Yeah there are differences in how you spend your day compared to those heirs so many years ago.

• It took them several hours to prepare for the evening meal; it takes you 20 to 30 minutes to do the same now.
• I took them a full day to do their laundry; it take again 20 to 30 minutes of your accumulated time during a week.
• Shopping was, due to spoilage, a daily event; you can do your once every couple of weeks if you want.
• Ironing and mending clothes took a day a week to keep up with; today we have mostly no-iron clothes and just throw things out when they are damaged.
• 60 and 80 hour work weeks were common for our ancestors; now we complain if we have to work over 40.

Let’s face it, your grandparents lives were more filled with mandated activities than your life is. So how come so many people think things are moving too fast?

I think today that if life is moving too fast for you it is because of the choices you make, not the mandatory stuff you need to do.

• We fill our children’s lives with organized activities and then find it necessary to spend hours a day carting them from one event to another. In past times kids played with other kids in the neighborhood as their major activity.
• I am very aware with the “Do more with less” mantra of today’s employers. But I also used to see some of my fellow employees actually doing less with more.
• I know for many of us it is a necessity for both parents to be working but is it really?  We need to ask ourselves what would we have to give up to allow one parent to stay home and take care of the house and kids?

When we get the idea that our lives are too filled with activities then we need to stop and think about why that is, and then do something about it. One final thought on this topic is that simplifying your life is not a matter of changing locations but instead a matter of mindset. It is a basic change in the way of life.

I want to close this post with some words from one of my favorite recording artists and that is Simon and Garfunkel of the 1960s-70s.  All we really need to do is just feel groovy….

“The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy. Hello lamppost,
What cha knowing?
I’ve come to watch your flowers growing.
Ain’t cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in’ doo-doo,
Feelin’ groovy. Got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.