At the end of each year, we are struck by a strange, heavy feeling that is hard to explain, not necessarily because the year was bad, but because we carry more than we can handle - not what we need, like postponed decisions that have turned into burdens, unfinished projects, incomplete conversations, and habits that continued because we lacked the courage to change them.
As I revisited this recurring feeling, a simple phrase that my mother used to quietly repeat came to mind: “Shake your sieve.”
She used to say it as the dignified people of Tafila would state their wisdom: deeply calmly, without long speeches or heavy advice.
The sieve, in its simple meaning, does not create anything new, but it separates and keeps what is beneficial and leaves behind what is burdensome and of no benefit.
Today, in a tiring era filled with complexities, challenges, canned advice, and fake influencers, conscious simplicity seems more urgently needed than ever before.
The world around us continuously pushes us to add more products, more skills, more relationships, and more new beginnings. Thus, fullness became an end in itself, not a means.
But perhaps our problem is not that we haven’t started enough, but that we have not stopped enough... We carry more than we can bear and continue out of habit rather than choice.
Perhaps mental peace, and perhaps success as well, are not found in having more but in having less; in letting go of what is no longer necessary rather than continuing to carry it.
Does what we hold on to today really serve us, or are we keeping it out of habit? And do we need to build immediately, or sort first?
Real change does not happen in large leaps, but in small repeated adjustments, and with the simple courage to admit that some habits are no longer suitable, and some relationships have drained us more than they have given.
The end of the year is not a time for self-flagellation or harboring regrets, but a quiet moment and a genuine opportunity for honest confrontation. To sort through what we have, keep what is worth it, and drop from our sieve what has weighed us down with behaviors that have exhausted us, expectations that have disappointed us, and attempts that time has proven to be futile and unsatisfying.
The new year does not need noisy promises nor decisions that burden more than they amend; it needs lighter baggage, deeper understanding, and simple courage to shake our sieve.
Start from today... Choose something that drained you this year like a habit that exhausted you, a relationship that took more than it gave, or a commitment that no longer serves your goals. Write it down, and decide clearly what you will do with it.
You don’t need a complicated plan, just a simple, honest question to ask yourself: Do I really need this in my upcoming life?
Shake your sieve... Not everything we are used to deserves to be taken with us.
