Simplicity is where it’s at. Unfortunately, complexity has all the sex appeal and allure.
Temptations and distractions cause you to veer off the simple path in the blink of an eye as soon as you relax your vigilance. Life finds a million persuasive ways to whisper in your ear that you need to complicate things.
Accepting that ‘simple’ is the answer seems too easy. Surely what’s already available can’t be ‘it’?! So we instinctively add more and more complexity — one tiny, entirely reasonable and logical step at a time — until we’re buried beneath the weight of an intractable mess.
You need to take preemptive action to stop this happening.
The best way to do this is to create a simple strategy, and commit to it wholeheartedly. To strip away all distractions and impediments — leaving you with nothing but a single straight and narrow path to follow.
Take this one decision in advance, and you instantly remove the need for thousands of future decisions.
When you have a strategy you believe in, you can simply get your head down and do the day to day activities without questioning anything.
Whatever takes you away from the present moment damages your ability to live well. A simple plan frees you from worrying about past or future — leaving you totally present in the here and now. You can “chop wood, carry water” every day without overthinking.
You’ll find you effortlessly do what’s important, and you ignore everything else.
Taking a simple, firm position like this is hugely powerful.
Half the problem is that we’re always unsure. So our actions are tentative, and we constantly second guess ourselves.
A simple plan carried out with total belief and commitment delivers both results and peace of mind. It beats more “perfect” strategies hands down. They sound great, but lead to complex plans that we never actually execute… or grand systems that we’re constantly tweaking rather than putting into practice.