When we fritter away our one and only life doing things that don’t really matter, we sacrifice the things that do matter, according to Bill Hybels in his book Simplify: Ten Practices to Unclutter Your Soul. Simplified living requires more than just organising your closets or cleaning out your desk drawer. By examining core issues that lure you into frenetic living, and by eradicating the barriers that leave you exhausted and overwhelmed, you can stop doing the stuff that doesn’t matter and build your life on the stuff that does.
The ten practices involve replenishing your energy reserves, prioritising and restricting your schedule, mastering your finances, aligning your job with your passions, forgiving, overcoming fears, deepening relationships, finding a life verse, moving on to new seasons in your life, and finding satisfaction in God’s purpose for your life.
As is the case with any book by Bill Hybels, this book is filled with practical wisdom, mostly garnered from his own extensive ministry experience. Bill has worked harder, seen more success, encountered more problems, found more solutions, and had his life more open to public scrutiny than the vast majority of Christian leaders. This means that he has plenty of entertaining personal anecdotes, but it also means that his advice comes with the genuine conviction of one who has been there before.