This blog has been down (in more ways than one).

Last week, Life Coaches Blog’s server on Site5 broke down and we became inaccessible for a few days. To their credit, Site5 has apologized and given half a year’s worth of free hosting for all sites that were affected.

While that was going on, I was in Shanghai for a working trip and couldn’t be online to check for updates. Thanks to all my friends who messaged me to ask about what happened to Life Coaches Blog, I appreciate it.

My life’s been shifting the last few months, as I found myself feeling dissatisfied and thoughtful. Questions like; what’s really important to me? with the limited time and energy I have left on this planet, what do I want to commit it to? and ; what would make me happier? ran through my head.

The more I thought about it, the more Life Coaches Blog came up short. I don’t hate it, I don’t want to give it up completely, and I never want to stop growing. But LcB has been growing more irrelevant to me and I can’t deny it.

In the past, I could devote many hours to LcB, but I no longer want to. Instead of rushing to cram everything into my schedule, I want to have time to read, to spend with my loved ones, to recharge. Instead of staying busy all the time, wishing there was more time to do what I wanted, I want to do less things, so I can do the things that really matter to me.

And more importantly, I want to talk less about personal growth, and do more personal growing.

Personal development has become a sort-of pseudo-philosophy for the modern age. While it promises to explain everything in x number of easy steps, not everything can be easily explained, and not a single soul has all the answers.

I can’t tell you for sure why I feel this need to streamline my life, to drop the mundane and some not-so-mundane things to free up my time and energy, why I feel this need to release and let go of more commitments and take on less. I can’t explain it to you, but in my gut I feel it, and I feel it is for the best.

What Would Make You Happier?

This really wouldn’t be a Life Coaches Blog post if there wasn’t some life coaching, would it?

If streamlining your life sounds like something you’d like to do, here are some suggestions that might help you along the way.

1. Clarify Your Values

What’s important to you in your life right now? Your family, your career or your health? Somewhere down the line, there’s going to be conflict, so the clearer you are about your values the easier it’ll be for you to make the judgment call on what to sacrifice.

2. Declutter Your Life

Are there old commitments dragging you down? It can be anything; old clothes, old appointments, that call you should have made ages ago. Close the loop if it’s still relevant, if not decide to let it go once and for all.

3. What Would Make You Happier?

It’s more useful to think of happiness as a continuum you travel along rather than a fixed point to be reached and stopped at. If you’re stuck for choice between hanging on to something and letting it go, ask yourself which choice would make you happier. Don’t confuse this with the question of which would give you more pleasure, but instead which choice would give you more pleasure and meaning now and in the future.

Life Coaches Blog will Go On

Despite what it may sound like, Life Coaches Blog will go on, but at a slower pace from before. From the experience of the last few posts this seems to have the effect of creating more well-thought out articles, as I now only write about what I really, really want to write about.

So it’s a win-win situation, you win because you get to read better articles, and I win because I have time to go live my life

See you soon.

Taking the time to be. Absolutely adorable photo by tanakawho.