Give Thanks and be with Friends and Family

Nov 25, 2013 by Ben

Thanksgiving is already here and as such we should give thanks.

Your Truly Simple Action for this week is truly simple.  Be thankful for all the great things in your life and share them and yourself with your family and friends.

Gather your friends and family around you this week and enjoy each others company.   Make a tasty turkey and something with pumpkin in it and sit down for a nice meal.  Play some games with the family.  Take the kids to the park and play some flag football.  Eat some leftovers and watch a good movie together.

Take the time this hectic week and this long weekend to be thankful for all the great stuff you have going on and share it with the great people in your life.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s: 

• TSA#41 - Carve a Pumpkin
• TSA#42 - Start a New Tradition
• TSA#43 - Buy Handmade
• TSA#44 – Clean up Facebook

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Clean up Facebook

Nov 19, 2013 by Ben

I’ve talked about the idea of filtering out unnecessary information before and have preached it to my friends and families.

Recently one of my friends texted me this:

I deleted everyone but friends and family from Facebook.  Everyone!!  Feels good.

If your Facebook feed is feeling a bit cluttered it might be time to clean it up.  Now you don’t need to go as far as she did by removing everyone but friends and family, but it may be time to filter out some of the noise.

First, clean up your pages you’ve liked.

If you’ve signed up for some random contest or just liked hundreds of pages and websites over the years your feed might be full of stuff you don’t have any interest in seeing any more.  Get rid of anything you don’t care to see anymore.

 

Second, clean up your friends.

You can do this one of two ways.  You can actually remove them as friends and if they are an asshole, then you should.  The alternative is to keep them as  a friend, but you don’t have to see everything they post.  Hide all the posts from friends you don’t want to see anymore.

I am ruthless with this.  Everyone has those certain things that people post that annoy them.  If you post nothing but hey-look-at-me self shots, you’re out.  If you post nothing but whoa-is-me I need attention posts, you are gone.

I want to see my close friends and see the fun and interesting things they have going on in their lives.  I hide all the rest.

YOU are in control of what you see.  Make it worthy of your time and energy.

Your TSA for this week is to clean up your Facebook timeline.  Filter out the noise and make it interesting again and of course like the TrulySimple page for more great stuff like this

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s: 

• TSA#41 - Carve a Pumpkin
• TSA#42 - Start a New Tradition
• TSA#43 - Buy Handmade

read more

Buy Handmade

Nov 13, 2013 by Ben

As I mentioned in my last post about starting new traditions, Christmas season is upon us and that means Christmas shopping.

Stuff is cheap these days.  It seems like for a lot of people if they want something they just go out and buy it.  There is no more waiting for it, or saving up.  We can just go out and get the things we want when we want them because it’s easy.  Now that said the stuff we get may not be all that great.  It’s often made of cheap plastic now and falls apart shortly after getting it, but that’s what we get for the convenience of cheap.

All of that then causes issues when it comes to buying gifts for other people.  Either A, If they wanted it they would have already bought it, or B, its not always satisfying buying cheap plastic thingamabobs just for the sake of buying something for someone.  So this year, buck the trend and go another route.

I’d encourage you to try to build or make something for those that are on your shopping list.  There are any number of resources out there online to help you build almost anything.  Even if you think you are not handy, I’d encourage you to try.  Something you made yourself will carry a huge value that you cannot buy in a store.  But if making things is not your bag, I’d encourage you to buy something homemade.

With wonderful sites like Etsy, you can find amazing hand made items that are head and shoulders above any cheap plastic bit you could find in a big box store.  A friend of mine has a great Etsy store where makes some cool things out of wood and metal.  These are unique pieces that can’t be found at Walmart and each one has a real character to it that you don’t find in mass produced items.  It’s these types of unique items that make great gifts.

So this week, take a look at your shopping list and think about what items you could make or buy handmade for your loved ones.  Also if you can I want to encourage you help out those less fortunate than yourself this year.

Ben…

 

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s: 

• TSA#41 - Carve a Pumpkin
• TSA#42 - Start a New Tradition

read more

Start a New Tradition

Nov 5, 2013 by Ben

Halloween came and went, daylight saving has robbed us of our daylight and the holidays are now upon us.  What the heck happened to October???

The holidays can bring a lot of things with it.  It can bring excitement to see friends and family.  It can signal the end of our well-intentioned diets.  It can be the anticipation of presents from the children or the dread of buying all the presents from the parents.  We all have holiday traditions.  Some we like,  some we hate, but force ourselves to get through.

This year it is time to create a new tradition.   A new simple tradition of helping others.

I started out these Truly Simple Actions each year with helping others and there is no better time than the holidays to start this tradition.

Sadly for many, this time of year can be dreadful.  With an already stretched-tight financial system, many cannot afford the things they need daily, let alone extra presents for their children.

So your Truly Simple Action for this week and new Simple holiday tradition for this year, and hopefully years to come, is to reach it out and lend a hand to those who need a little help.  If you  can afford to adopt a family who is in need then you should.  It’s just that simple.  Spread some holiday cheer this year by helping those less fortunate than yourself.

There is a great charity called Friends and Helpers who run a special Adopt A Family program for the holidays.  100% of the money you donate goes directly to the families in need.  Let me repeat that.  Every single dollar you give, goes straight to the families that need it.  That is huge.

You can adopt a stocking for $25 dollars, or adopt an entire family and really change the lives of some real people who just need a little help this year.

It is important to have some family traditions around the holidays and this year is a great time to start a new one in helping other families out.

Your Truly Simple Action this week is to help out a family that needs a little help this holiday season.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s: 

read more