focus on what matters Archives

An Updated Case for A Rightsized Life

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized, Sustainable, Thankful

A couple of weeks ago Thom and I drove to our house in Southern California that we had called “home” for sixteen years. Even though we called that property home, we actually lived in Tucson, AZ for the last three winters while renting that “former home” temporarily. Then after that we only ended up staying there for a few days on and off the rest of the year. However, after straddling both homes for three years, we decided it was time to make the decision to pick one over the other. And in spite of the fact that the one in So Cal was over twice as big (plus a two-car garage) as the one in Tucson, we chose to permanently make our tiny home in Tucson our residence for the foreseeable future.

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How Right-Sized Living Works For Me

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized, Sustainable

This week I’m happy to introduce you to Leanne Le Cras as my guest blogger while I am traveling. Leanne is one of the bloggers I’ve met online who lives “down under” in Austrailia and I’ve been reading her blog Cresting The Hill for many years now. Leanne consistently writes great blog posts about staying happy and content while going through midlife. But I could tell that a big reason she was so happy is because she and her husband have rightsized their lives. Thank you, Leanne, for filling in for me and sharing some of your SMART and rightsized thoughts with all of us.

Kathy writes a lot about Re-Sizing your life and it resonates strongly with me because that’s how my husband and I have always lived. To begin with, it was from necessity. Then, as we became more stable financially it became a lifestyle choice. We choose every day to live as good stewards of all that we have been given, and I thought I’d share how that has looked over the years.

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10 Reasons Why Rightsizing Is The Perfect Path To A Happy Retirement

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized, Sustainable

A big topic in my age group is retirement. About half of my friends are looking forward to it while the other half are already there. As for Thom and I, we see ourselves standing with a foot on both sides. We aren’t retired, but neither are we chained to our work. What makes us different from others hoping to retire soon is that we’ve embraced what I call rightsizing. Rightsizing is a process that any of us can do to come into greater alignment with our most cherished values and goals. On a practical level, rightsizing points to actions we can make at any age that will help before, and especially after, a person retires.

In case you are wondering, I am not a financial advisor. Most retirement “planning” comes from people who would like to manage your finances. That approach tends to put the focus on how much money you make, how much money saved, and how much you need in the future to maintain your current lifestyle. Rightsizing, on the other end, downplays money and instead puts the focus on what is most rewarding in your life.
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Nine Simple & SMART Ways To Say No

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized, SMART Book Reviews

Using humor is always one way to say “no!”

When I sat down today to make up my to-do list it occurred to me that this was going to be a very busy week. And to make matters worse, I had no one to blame except myself. For much of my life I’ve had trouble saying no to people, especially when it comes in areas I think are important. But as I’ve mentioned before, I recently read Essentialism—The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Not only does the book focus on eliminating everything that is unessential in our lives so we can focus on what really matters, McKeown suggests that learning to say “No” is a critical and courageous step required to do just that. So for those of us on the path to simplifying our lives or those of us who want to live by design rather than default, it is very SMART to learn ways to say No from here on out. [Read more…]