Tax day! For most people, a stressful time. For me, just a beautiful day that was 75 degrees and a delightful experience. I simplified my life much in the same way I simplified my taxes.
First the life: In the 80s I worked in the big bad corporate arena. I was part of the road rage, part of the always running late, never enough time to enjoy the moment crowd. Then two things happened: first, I began to get ill, minor incidents at first, headaches, backaches, sleepless nights and all of the typical repercussions of not taking care of myself.
Second, I was downsized, however unexpectedly, it was in hindsight, the only way I could jump off the disastrous roller coaster ride that I was on.
It took me awhile, but I finally found my path when I began to work with entrepreneurs in 1991. I became more of who I was meant to be and thus shed the years of bad habits. I laughed out loud for the first time in more years than I could remember. I stopped to have lunch with friends, because I could. I noticed the new flowers in the spring, the turning of the golden hills in the summer, the delightful crispness of the air in the fall and marveled at a stream of water frozen mid air in the winter. I had returned to the land of the living. No longer simply existing from one day to the next. What a marvelous transformation.
I work at home all but nine days out of the month. I never leave the house before seven am other than rare occasions. I’m almost always back home by three pm. And as for that road rage, it’s just a distant bad memory.
Simplification . . . that is the name of the game.
And as for the taxes, this is the greatest tip you’ll receive year to date: I was at a T Harv Ecker event in April 2005 in Los Angeles. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this but the idea crept into my consciousness because of something T Harv said.
When I got home I immediately began to enter my receipts into an excel spread sheet. Nothing unusual right, but this spread sheet was an extension of the excel phone log I looked at every day. So at the end of the month, my total income and expenses were tallied automatically. At the end of the year, worksheet 13 exhibited all the details for the year, itemized and ready for my CPA! Hooray! Tax day: January 1st, next . . . move on to something I want to do! That is four and a half months, or eight if your like most people, of not having to think about taxes!
Simplify your life and minimize your stress!