The underlying message in Less is More is that we don’t need more to be happy, we can be happier and more content with less. For the past few years all my goals have centred around Less is More principles which have brought me so much peace, joy, contentment and happiness.

Every year I add a few more learnings to my less is more principles. This year I’m adding the benefits of having more trust, more patience and more acceptance as these were my three key learnings this year.

Not in a ‘I’ve learned something new’ way but in a ‘painful, my heart has been ripped from my chest and my soul is exhausted’ sort of way! That’s the thing with learnings, they mostly don’t come wrapped in nice fancy paper – deep learning is usually accompanied by some sort of deep pain.

Here’s why I’m adding trust, patience and acceptance to my less is more principles,

LESS CONTROL, MORE TRUST

We control very little in this life yet can spend much time trying to control things. T

he only thing we really have any control over is ourselves. Everything outside of ourselves – every person and every thing is totally out of our control.

I would take this a little deeper and say some of our own lives are also out of our control – there seems to be an invisible force aligning us with what is meant for us and misaligning us with what isn’t meant for us.

The less we try to control, the more we can trust. Trust can be placed anywhere yet the most important place for your trust is in yourself.

🙏 Trust your intuition.

🙏 Trust your dreams.

🙏 Trust your inner compass.

🙏 Trust the divine timing of your life.

When you trust yourself and all that you are, your life will evolve exactly how it is meant to.

That’s how important and powerful self trust is.

LESS FRUSTRATION, MORE PATIENCE

Frustration is a normal human emotion. As normal as it is, it’s usually more of a signal pointing to deeper, more vulnerable and negative emotions that we are not expressing.

Patience is a valuable skill we can learn to reduce frustration which also reduces all the deeper, more vulnerable and negative emotions hidden behind our frustration.

The more patience we have, the less frustration we feel.

The more patience we have, the more joy we feel.

LESS RESISTANCE, MORE ACCEPTANCE

Resistance causes pain.

The more we resist, the more pain we will experience.

There is no end to the amount of things we can resist in our lives yet with everything we resist, we create more pain.

Acceptance is a much lighter and positive emotion and has a magical way of eliminating pain, replacing it with joy.

Eckhart Tolle says,

‘It may look like as if the situations in our life are creating the suffering but ultimately this is not so – it is our resistance to the situations that causes the suffering’.

I find this quote has deep wisdom to it, practicing less resistance and more acceptance is not easy yet it brings much peace.

During the challenging times of my life I have found that some days the only thing I can do is practice acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean I like what has happened yet it does mean I stop resisting it.

• Resistance brings a never ending cycle of pain.
• Acceptance has a way of easing that pain, the more acceptance the less pain.

Here are more LESS IS MORE principles that I have built up over the past few years,

DO LESS, BE MORE

Sometimes I find life is just one big long to do list – this doesn’t bring me joy it brings me anxiety! Having less on my ‘to do list’ and more on my ‘to be list’ brings me peace, joy, contentment and happiness. I want to continue to DO LESS and enjoy BEING more!

WORK LESS, HAVE MORE TIME

For 25 years I worked in the corporate world which brought me much joy, many beautiful friendships and a certain amount of wealth. I left the corporate world 3+ years ago and my work was replaced with the gift of time. I want to continue to work less and spend my precious time in other areas of my life that are important to me and that bring me immense joy.

LESS EARNING, MORE LEARNING

This will be my 4th year in a row earning less money. This reduction in earnings has given me the gift of time which brings me more joy than any amount of money ever could. Over the past 3+ years I have used this time to learn more – learn more about myself, the world around me, what interests me, what work I want to do in the future, how to create passive income and how to earn more.

I’ll never return to the hours I used to work nor will I ever return to how I used to earn money. Less earning and more learning has taught me a different way that suits me better. In 2025 I am excited to get back to the work I love and the inevitable side effect of earning money again!

ACHIEVE LESS, ENJOY MORE

I’m not a big achievement chaser, enjoyment is way more important to me than achievement. Achievements aren’t hugely important to me yet I do have ambition – ambition to work towards and fulfil my dreams. On this journey towards my dreams, enjoyment of every step is much more important to me than achievements.

If I’m enjoying life, that’s achievement enough for me.

LESS SPEED, MORE PROGRESS

In my 20s, 30s and early 40s I lived life at a fast pace – always going, always doing, always striving, moving at the speed of light. A few years ago this all changed and I started to slow down. This slower lifestyle brings me more peace, tranquility and bliss than any fast paced life ever could!

Ironically I seem to be getting more done. Dr Wayne Dyer sums up this concept with his quote ‘Doing nothing yet getting it all done’.

LESS RUSHING, MORE RELAXING

• Rushing makes me feel under pressure and stressed which is not enjoyable for me.
• Relaxing makes me feel happy and peaceful which is immensely enjoyable for me.

I choose relaxing over rushing every single day.

LESS CONSUMING, MORE CREATING

For many years I spent much time consuming a huge amount of content – physical books, audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube videos and scrolling social media etc. That was until I experienced burnout and stopped all content consumption.

I still love consuming content in these ways, I just don’t love or do so much of it! These days I consume less and create more. I write more, learn more about writing, share more of my writing and I am developing more depth, meaning, openness and transparency in my writing.

BUY LESS, USE MORE

In terms of material things I have plenty and enough of everything. I used to love shopping for all sorts of things – clothes, make up, fancy toiletries, stuff for our home, books, stationary, the list goes on and on. The problem with this constant shopping was that I ended up with many things that I just didn’t use and eventually things that I no longer liked.

The irony is now that I have less, I use (and like) what I have more.

That’s it, my LESS IS MORE principles for 2025.

Ironically, with so much LESS comes so much MORE peace, joy, contentment and happiness.

​What would your LESS IS MORE PRINCIPLES be?

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Siobhain

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