Permission to Simplify

You can complicate your world, and you can simplify it as much as you want.

But let’s not pretend that simplifying your life is easy. Or fast. Still, I am going to confront you with the fact that your life can be as complicated, or as simple, as you allow it to be.

Because many of us fall into the habit of overcomplicating our lives without even noticing that we’re doing it. Too many friends? Too many commitments? Too many things we say yes to?

Or, simply wanting too many things, pursuing too many goals and desiring too many changes – all at the same time.

Life is complicated enough already.

There are problems we don’t choose, responsibilities we can’t avoid, and circumstances we have very little control over. But then we go and add other layers of complexity.

The complexity of our minds and choices!

We don’t just want things done; many of us want them done a certain way.

We don’t just have a dream or ambition, but we likely have a timeframe and a preferred methodology for achieving it.  And none of that is wrong.

But it adds inner complexity to a life that’s already quite complicated.

Some interesting things You should know about Your mind:

• The mind is quite procedural. Our minds are naturally drawn towards familiar procedures, rules and routines.
• The mind seeks efficiency. It looks for the simplest, easiest sequence of steps for doing something, learns them and forms a habit of repeating them again and again.
• The mind circles around unfinished goals and targets we set for ourselves. Think of this as your inner nagging voice that can loop endlessly, unless interrupted.

So, we are likely to repeat what has worked before, and unfinished goals tend to remain mentally active. These are useful abilities—but they can also keep us circling through details and familiar steps long after we have lost sight of the outcome.

Not to mention the exhaustive mental juggling.

Trapped in too much detail and too much complexity.,thinking, planning and decision-making become exhausting and doubt or indecision, leave us with a sense of overwhelm.

Even our preferences can become complicated, even when it’s not a matter of great importance. Just recall a time with a group when you spent ages discussing where to eat, or where to go because different people had different preferences, desires, conditions and priorities.

Start simplifying from the inside!

Desires. goals. Even ambitions. Expectations of what needs to happen and how it needs to happen, to keep you happy. All of that needs to be simplified.

Not to compromise, but to simplify.

i’m not asking you to abandon a single ambition or compromise on a single goal.

I’m asking you to balance your mind between being process focused and outcome focused.

Regardless of the details, known or otherwise, start by focusing on the final outcome, the big picture.

Think ahead .. a few weeks, months, or years and imagine that whatever it is, it’s all done and finished now and all is well.

Notice what that looks like and how it feels.
You can of course change minor details in your vision if you’re unhappy with any of them. But be careful not to get caught in the weeds.

Observe how your mind will likely try to jump straight into the process. Notice how it will surface possible challenges and problems you might meet along the way.

That’s brilliant. That’s risk mitigation: planning ahead and being strategic.
You’ve been getting high marks for that your entire life. In school, at work, and even in social settings.

Funnily enough, it’s the big picture and desire for the final outcome — not all the small details and all the solutions we have ready and waiting– that keep us motivated.

And this could be one of the keys to understanding why we sometimes give up on our dreams and ambitions.

Too much focus on the process can overwhelm us and overcrowd the big picture. The final outcome we desired, the thing that motivated us in the first place can get buried under the noise


Because our minds have been trained to be so tuned into the details, we often forget the big picture and lose track of the passion for the final outcome that we are pursuing.

I’m not saying brush aside all those process related problems that your mind is trying to warn you or nag you about.

Absolutely not.

Write them down. Mm-hmm .. that’s right.- make a list. Keep it on your phone or whatever tracking technology you use.

So it doesn’t need to occupy a constant space inside your mind crowding the big picture and the final outcome

Simplifying can be as simple as replacing a detailed list of conditions, alternatives and possibilities with one big strong image of what we’re after, at the very end.

Athletes constantly talk about how they have been “dreaming of this moment for years.”

By that moment, they are referring to the moment they are standing at the podium receiving their medal or award. Not that their minds hadn’t spent years furiously planning and considering all the details of their training, their regiment, their diet, and performance. Of course they did.
But the ones who make it –to give the acceptance speech– talk about keeping that big picture in mind

And I want to be clear, we’re not talking about replacing anything here.
You can still have all the detailed planning and risk mitigation time you want. Set aside 6 hours, a whole afternoon for that.

But what lives inside your mind is the simple, straightforward picture of the desired outcome that you’re working towards.

Take a vacation: simple enough, the goal might be to relax, re-energize, and spend some good time with loved ones. Pretty achievable, pretty simple so far.

But then we desire to turn the vacation into an adventure! Multiple sites to visit, selfies to take, things we must do, places we must see, shopping, souvenirs and a schedule that somehow needs to be completed before we catch a flight back home.

And somewhere along the way, we’ve complicated something simple and may be lost track of the original outcome.

The same principle applies to our professional lives.

At any given time, you probably have half a dozen different things on your mind. Things you want. Things you’d prefer. Things you’re working towards. Things you’re trying to change. Things you’re putting effort into achieving.

And all of that can be good.

But sometimes it helps to rise above all that complexity for a moment and step back.

What is the big picture?

What is the bottom line?

What am I actually trying to achieve?

What is the outcome I’m trying to get?

Because once that becomes clear, it can become your point of reference.

Your cornerstone.

Your anchor.

Something you can return to when the details begin to overwhelm you.

And when you keep returning to that overarching purpose or outcome, something interesting happens.

Some of the things that seemed important stop looking quite so important.

Some of the details become obviously unnecessary.

Some decisions become much easier.

And what looked like a very complicated problem can suddenly become a much simpler one.

Not because the world became simpler.

Because you did.