A submission about a simple life should be simple, here are a series of quotes from Seneca, who will illustrate the point for us: “A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which is only something we wear like clothes”- Seneca (Letter XLVII) “It is a great man that can treat his earthenware as if it were silver, and a man who treats his silver as if it were earthenware is no less great” - seneca (Letter V) “Philosophy calls for simple living, not for doing penance, and the simple way of life need not be a crude one” - Seneca (Letter V) In my opinion, living a simple life is the easiest way to achieve happiness. Presence and gratitude are key pillars to live this way. Part of living a simple life is to take care of what is truly yours: Your mind, and your body. Living simply does not mean to vegetate, to be unkempt, to devoid yourself of responsibility. Your responsibilities are what make your simple life meaningful. Every step you take should be fulfilling a responsibility, and thus, every step is responsible for your simple life. Every step is responsible for your meaning because every step is essential and therefore meaningful. Take pride in your mental health, your physical health, your hygiene, your cleanliness, your appearance, your home. “Anyone entering our homes should admire us, and not our furnishings” (Seneca - Letter V). “Praise in him what can neither be given nor snatched away, what is peculiarly a man’s (…). It is his Spirit. Man’s ideal state is realised when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he was born. And what is that reason that demands of him? Something very easy - That he live in accordance with his own nature.”- Seneca (Letter XLI) “For those who follow nature, everything is easy and straightforward, whereas for those who fight against her life is just rowing against the stream.” - Seneca (Letter CXXII)

As the year draws to a close, I’m hearing more and more goal setting and discussion of objectives to hit for the end of next year. As I reflect on my own year, I can’t even remember where I put the piece of paper I wrote my goals down on is, let alone remember the goals I had arbitrarily set myself at the start of the year. As a brief detour: I think the way you live your life day in, day out, the choices you make, and the things you accept or reject show what your goals really are. Yes, a younger me would say he wants a six-pack for summer every January, but his actions didn’t evidence that this was a goal. An outsider couldn’t have guessed a six-pack was on the agenda as I dug into my second cookie dough Ben and Jerry’s of the day. If you are going to set goals, I think an important frame to hold in your mind is that of “life is inputs and outputs.” It’s very easy to state the output that we desire, but rarely do we think about the tangible inputs that will ultimately achieve it. A goal is just an output. So what inputs need to go in to achieve it? Each hour of your day, you are inputting into something. For many of us its hours put into school or work, but what’s our desired output here? Even worse, we sink time into scrolling on reels and consuming content, these are all inputs but to what end? Perhaps you’re at peace with the time you sink into content consumption and you see it as some productive use of time to some worthwhile end, then again, probably not. Thinking ahead to what we want to achieve in the next year is perhaps a valuable endeavour. However, seeing the finish line is one thing, knowing what to train to reach it is another, and actually doing the work is the most important step of all. Most of us reverse engineer the input-output equation: We see some great goal at the end. However, I think if we adopt an input-oriented approach: What am I doing day in day out? Where does this ultimately lead me? Do I want the outcome I am presently working towards? How can I alter my day to day actions to achieve what I supposedly want?