“The prizes of our society are reserved for outer, not inner, achievements. Scant are the trophies given for reconciling all the forces that compete to direct our development.” – Gail Sheehy
I could not wait to press publish on this post!
I've been excited for months for this moment.
What was previously Enlightened Resource Management is now the website you see here:
Value of Simple
And I'm your thrilled tour guide for a new source of skills, inspiration, and action for you and those you care about.
I passionately believe you'll find value in the new focus on what I do and know best: simplifying, organizing, personal finance, and helping people find their reasons for making big, positive changes.
The Simple Mission of Value of Simple
Everything done at Value of Simple is primarily related to this:
“Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
I have a profound belief that as our wants and needs multiply, our lives get needlessly complicated…and then we suffer enormously.
Simplifying is not the only cure for chaos and unwanted complexity. But it's the cure I know best.
Imagine your life stripped down to the things and people you truly care about. As a result, competing priorities for your time, money, and talent have been managed masterfully.
I'm not aiming for a minimalist paradise here. Some minimalist concepts are borrowed to show the power behind adding more simple and organization to your life. But I'm not asking you to live a life of intentional scarcity.
I want everyone to understand how much better life can be the more simplified and organized it becomes.
Simplifying and organizing are perfect tools for getting more (or less) of what you need. The value in achieving them comes in ways you can expect – more time, money, and respect or less fear and stress – and in ways you can't predict…like more confidence and happiness.
But nobody said adding more simple is easy.
There will be some short-term awkwardness, discomfort, and vulnerability along the way. We'll limit these by starting small, but as the goals grow larger, the barriers become bigger.
Don't worry. You won't be alone in acquiring the tools to break down walls built up around you.
This isn't just me and you working together to liberate the things you want to set free.
You'll see stories from other people – famous and successful as well as obscure but effective – spread all across Value of Simple. Your confidence in starting and finishing your goals around simplifying and organizing will blossom with each person you see achieving what most of us have only dreamed about.
Since you've made it this far, some of these principles should be resonating with you:
- One small change can lead to big changes over time.
- Life is easier, cheaper, and happier when we need less and minimize our desires.
- Feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable make keeping new habits and learning new skills tough.
- Positive change is faster and more rewarding when connected to a belief or movement larger than yourself.
Do you feel the promise in one or more of these principles?
You're not alone. A lot of us do. And a lot of us will discover the promise for ourselves at Value of Simple.
My Welcome Message to You
The themes in my welcome video will look familiar if you've already been to the About page on Value of Simple. If you haven't checked out the page yet, please do.
This new website will heavily feature audio and video content so I thought it was appropriate to create a short, two-minute welcome video to tell you what I have to offer.
Note: The video is outdated and unavailable as of 12/15/2015.
Notes About the Transition
Fear not long-time readers of Enlightened Resource Management (ERM).
All the greatest hits from the ERM days are still available.
But it's time to refocus my energy and resources on a greater purpose than what ERM was offering. A purpose that gives you valuable tools to add more simple to your life.
The change is seamless for all the current email and RSS subscribers. But this means ERM is now retired here and other places on the Internet
If you want the full origin story of Value of Simple (VoS), read it here.
I'm Super Happy You're Here!
I made it clear on the Start Here page that I'm genuinely excited you're here!
This is not just my new beginning. I really want it to be yours too.
I'm on a mission to equip as many people as possible with the skills, tools, and resources they need for just a little more simple (or all they can handle).
New people join our quest every day and we're only just getting started.
Join for free here if you want to pick up our quest to liberate our time, money, talent…and more.
And if you know someone who should be part of this community but isn't yet, please send them a link to this article.
Now is a great time to explore Value of Simple and I'm pumped up to hear what you think of the place!
Welcome to our quest! There are huge things to come for all of us.
Take it away Albert.
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein.
Your partner in simplifying,
~ Joel Zaslofsky
P.S. Subscribe to the site's RSS feed so you can see the giant launch article on Monday the second it's published. It's going to blow people away with contributions from A-listers and hugely inspirational folks.
So what do you think of the new website? Let us know in the comments!
I’m enjoying your focus on simplicity, Joel. It is such a comfort in a world of chaos. I look forward to watching this new blog develop!
Thanks Linda. Obviously there’s some overlap between what I’m doing and a number of other folks (Ciara for example). I’m not trying to do anything better than anyone else but I’m confident I have a unique special sauce that people will value.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this will develop too!
Awesome, Joel, congratulations! The site looks great. I’m looking forward to following along 🙂
Awesome indeed. 🙂
I’m happy that this site is more than just a pretty place for people to peruse. I think there’s some dynamite stuff here already but the best is definitely yet to come.
You’ve chosen a great focus! There’s a million things you could write about when it comes to simplicity.
and you’re right – adding more simple isn’t easy. Steve Jobs said that too – “simple can be harder than complex”.
I like that your focus isn’t minimalism – just simplicity. Personally, I’m not a minimalist, but I love simple design, simple solutions, clutter free environments, etc…
But, I don’t need to live in a white house, with white bare walls, with one chair, one cup, and one plate, lol. Know what I mean?
Anyways, congrats on your launch.. I’ll help ya spread the word 🙂
You rock Denise!
I’m glad my message about the difference between simplicity and minimalism got through. I think of myself as a minimalist but I’m not trying to convince other people they should be as well. As you said, there are many paths to simplicity and minimalism is one…but there are many more I can share.
I hope you like my modified digital version of a mostly white house, with white bare walls, and a single chair. 🙂
Loving the new site! Excited to see all the great stuff to come.
Congratulations Joel, Love the new site, looking forward to your new content.
Congratulations Joel! This is so cool. I really like the look– it’s original.
Can’t wait to see you grow. 🙂
If you’ve ever been to Smart Passive Income, you’ll notice a number of elements that inspired what you see here. Like this whole commenting system for example.
But I mixed and matched a number of elements from different websites and came up with some original concepts too. I’m glad this doesn’t look like anything else…that was the plan. 🙂
Oh, you mean other people should comment so they can see the awesome, exclusive page only people who comment for the first time see? Ya don’t say. 🙂
Hey Joel, awesome relaunch! Love the look 🙂 … as I’m posting this, me and Erin are having a Puttytribe Huddle and discussing how much we love your the look and functionality of your commenting section. And we both want it.
Hey Harrison,
Are you trying to make me blush? 🙂
Consider yourself successful. I left a comment on the Puttytribe thread offering up whatever small help I can on creating a commenting system like this custom built one.
I hope people come to Value of Simple in the future for the design, the usability…but most importantly, the content. A pretty face only takes ya so far.
Congratulations, Joel! I’m really loving the new message and excited to see more. Happy launch!
Fantastic Joel! It’s awesome to see you’ve made such a large step. I’m looking forward to reading your new content!
Hey Amit,
Yep, it’s a big leap. No doubt about it. Good thing I’ve redirected traffic from my old domain to here so nobody can see the terrible design and usability that used to exist. Let’s hope the Wayback Machine never picks up Value of Simple for everyone to see. Although, I might embarrass myself from time to time with a screen shot from “the old days”.
Joel, I’m so excited for you!! The site looks awesome, this welcome post is incredible… Everything is just so well put together and focused. Love it. Congrats! =)
Hey Kaylee,
I’m excited for me too! 🙂
I wanted to make sure this new online home felt more like a home – to me and everyone else – than my last one. I’m glad to hear you think I’ve accomplished something cool, but I’m just getting warmed up.
Hi Joel – I really like the new format of your blog! Congratulations on the new launch!