On Simplicity
How to Leading Your Life with Greater Simplicity and Ease
The tricky thing about complexity is that it is invisible, it permeates our thoughts and patterns but without us ever truly seeing it. We might think that we are living with simplicity and ease, yet somewhere along the way, we have learned to make our lives complicated. Or we have learned to view our live in a complicated way.
Ironically, for most us, simplicity is something that we have forgotten. As children, we viewed things with more simplicity (and naivety) and as we grow older, with work, mortgages, taxes etc., we’ve forgotten how to go back to simplicity.
“Our lifes are frittered by details. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.”
Thoreau
In this article, let’s explore: a simplicity audit and how to bring back simplicity in our life and in our work.
Simplicity Audit
First, we need to raise awareness where we are making things more complicated than they need to be, and what are the costs of this over-complication.
There are multiple areas in our work and life, that are impacted by this over-complication.
For instance, auditing your work comes down to analysing your thoughts, habits and actions - and simplifying them. Creating clear processes, eliminating non-productive tasks, and outsourcing the rest. These questions can support you to identify how to manage your workload:
What are some thoughts that you regularly have about work, that don’t serve you
What are some work habits, patterns and actions that you do daily that you could eliminate?
What are some meetings that could be shorter or eliminated?
What are the actions that truly generate results? (your pareto) and how could you focus more on these actions?
What can you outsource and delegate?
What process could you create that would save you time and energy in the future?
How can I spend more time in my Zone of Genius?
The funny thing is that we often believe that our external world is chaotic and don’t realise how much our perception plays a role. Two people in the exact same situation could feel totally differently about it, take different actions. One of them might feel overwhelmed, and the other one can deal with it calmly. The difference comes from their internal thought processes, and patterns of thinking.
Over-complication comes from managing too many parallel thoughts at the same time, being caught up in urgency and wanting to solve everything at once. If you slow down, and address one topic after the next, calmly, suddenly things feel more simple and easier.
Back To Simplicity
More than actions, and situations, complexity is in our mind. It is the way we perceive situations, it lies in our thoughts about given topics, and in our perception of life around us.
Simplifying the external world (for instance, by having less appointments or material possessions) won’t simplify our life if our internal world is in turmoil. In fact, overly simplifying the external world can make our hectic mind go nuts, because it no longer can dilute the chaos into the external situations.
“We spend so much time thinking about our life situation that our life passes us by.”
Eckart Tolle
The fascinating part of simplifying your thoughts is that it doesn’t make you more stupid, it makes you smarter - because it leaves more room for the most relevant points of reflection. You are no longer diluting your mind with everyday petty thoughts, but using your mind as a sharp tool for greater reflection, creation and engagement with life.
Simplifying Our Internal World
Back to the real question is: How do we simplify our thoughts?
By simplifying our thoughts, here’s what I mean:
Thinking more clearly
Worrying less
Having a greater overview of our life & work
Not getting caught in a tangled web in our own minds
Slowing down our thinking, being more present and engaged
Not feeling overwhelmed
Not getting caught up in our 'problems’
Having inner space to create and dream
These are most relevant practises that support us to simplify our thoughts:
Meditation. This is the number one tool that used over a period of time brings greater clarity, peace and simplicity. As you meditate, you learn to observe and detach from your thoughts, which brings more simplicity in your approach towards life.
Gratitude. Regularly pausing throughout the day to reflect on what you are grateful for supports you to be more aware of your overall situation and not get too caught up in a life problem or situation. Gratitude also builds resilience and helps you to tackle greater challenges that you are dealing with.
Meta-reflection. This entails pausing regularly during the course of the day to check with yourself, what are yout hinking about and how are these thoughts serving you. What emotions are being generated from your thoughts. What would happen if you did not believe these thoughts? This correlates with The Work by Byron Katie - going back to these core questions:
Question 1: Is this thought true?
Question 2: Can you absolutely know that this thought is true?
Question 3: How do you react—what happens—when you believe that thought?
Question 4: Who would you be without the thought?
Single-tasking. If you are in the habit of multi-tasking, then you might have noticed that it quickly clogs up the mind. Jumping from one task to the next is the easiest way to make our mind feel full. On the other hand, by single tasking, you are more likely to get into flow, and feel calmer within.
Senses. More than simplifying our mind, going back to our senses (asking ourselves: What do I see? What do I hear? What can I feel) supports us in being more present, and in tune with life. In today’s fast and busy world, we are often disconnected from our body, and simply coming back to our senses can calm our mind down.
Walking. As you walk, your brain processes the information. You’ve probably noticed that as you walk, you can digest information more readily and when you come back from your walk, you feel calmer and more composed.
Nature. This is probably my favourite. A hectic mind and a hectic environment are directly correlated. By surrounding yourself with a natural and more simple environment, this created a calmer mind. Technology makes our mind spin.The more we can reduce our use of technology, the more we can think clearly.
Information Detox: We are often unaware how much information we consume: news, social media, emails… All these sources of information require processing, analysing, reflecting and fill up our thoughts. Simplicity is enhanced when we let go of the compulsive need to constantly check information, and allow more space in our life.
Space: In the article I wrote on slowing down, we discussed the importance of pauses. Before mobile phones, we had naturally in-built pauses in our day (waiting at the bus stop, in queues, at the traffic light, in the elevator, on the train). Now, we have learned to fill in all the gaps. Without those gaps, our brain doesn’t have space to process events, emotions, decisions… Let’s re-create some space in our lives to create that space to clear the mind.
All of these above benefit most from meta-reflection. If you are in nature, walking, but unaware that you are thinking and what you are thinking about, your mind will still go down a rabbit hole.
The most powerful tool is to notice:
What are you thinking?
How are these thoughts impacting you?
How are they relevant?
One of the questions I frequently ask myself is: ‘Is this thought relevant right now?’ and if it isn’t, I make a note, I drop the thought entirely or I focus on the present (mostly I then ask: What is happening around me now?)
Then from thought awareness, we go to pattern awareness. What are some patterns of thinking & behaving that you have observed? How are they creating complication in your life and what would be one small step forward to shifting those patterns?
The mind is a wonderful tool, once we learn how to sharpen it.
We sharpen the mind, by creating simplicity.
We create simplicity by analysins our thoughts, and letting go.
Simplicity within us, creates simplicity around us.
Once we think more clearly, we can deal with situations with greater ease.
We always think: simplicity outside will create simplicity (and joy and peace) inside.
How about it shifting it around and analysing our inner world regardless of the external world?
Simplicity within = Simplicity without.
Thank you for reading,
Enjoy the journey,
Katie