"Quality Sizing" your life sounds expensive. It's not. Quality doesn't mean more. Quality doesn't mean expensive. Quality doesn't mean bigger. It simply means choosing the right things to share your life with. (By "right," I mean right for you — you enjoy it, and it takes some stress out of your daily life.) When you're surrounded by things that are useful and give you pleasure, nothing more and nothing less, then you have quality in your everyday life.

The key to doing this successfully is to listen to yourself and become more mindful of the way you live and what's important to you. It's asking yourself: What works, what doesn't? By adjusting things just a bit, life can be easier and more enjoyable. It's the simple things that make the difference, like having a sharp carving knife if you use one regularly, rather than butchering the roast you took the time to make. The Shaker rule of thumb is: Don't make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful.

Applying Quality Sizing in your life...

Clothes
Quality Sizing: Do you have the right clothes for your life: for work, for workout, for however you spend your day?

Not Quality Sizing: Having a closet filled with clothes and thinking you have nothing to wear; not liking the clothes you wear.

Beauty
Quality Sizing: Do you have the right shampoo and conditioner for your hair, and the right cleanser, moisturizer, and sun block for your skin? If your skin and hair look healthy, you will look your best.

Not Quality Sizing: Thinking that just because a product is expensive, it's right for you; clinging onto the past: As your skin and hair change with age, so must your products.

Cooking
Quality Sizing: Do you have the right kitchen tools to prepare the kind of foods you like to eat?

Not Quality Sizing: Thinking that you need lots of kitchen equipment and a large kitchen to be a good cook. It's better to have a few good tools that will help you prepare with ease the kind of foods you enjoy preparing — perhaps a few great knives, an easy-to-clean grill pan that heats evenly, etc., rather than lots of tools you rarely use.

Entertaining
Quality Sizing: Having a few menus that you really enjoy and that can be easily prepared. Then, experiment with those few recipes, so they're the best they can be, to you — the perfect roast chicken, the perfect hash browns. It's knowing your style: It's about having what you need to set a table you like, and the necessary serving dishes and utensils. It's knowing the number of people you're comfortable entertaining at one time.

Not Quality Sizing: Thinking that "humble" food isn't fit for entertainment. Thinking that china and silver are meant only for entertaining, and alternatively that they're mandatory for entertaining in style. Not having a good time at your own party.

Home
Quality Sizing: Making your home a refuge, a place to nurture you and your family: Having a cozy bed, a good, strong shower, a table to gather around for a meal or conversation, a place of your own.

Not Quality Sizing: Thinking bigger is better. Having a showcase that you are a slave to. Having more stuff than you need. Not having a private space that is your refuge.

You must keep examining these aspects of your life as you go through transitions. If you're just starting out, your needs will be different than if you marry and have children, and they will change again if you become an empty-nester. Those are the big moments, but there are lots of other life changes to pay attention to in-between. As the Aborigine proverb says, "The more you know, the less you need."

Enjoy the everyday things in your life!


Copyright © September 2005  KJ Gross and Low Carb Luxury