I think keeping commitments, focusing on self improvement and building long lasting habit is an ambition that causes life to flourish. The reason is really subtle. The more focused you become on what is the most important the more simple your life becomes. Simplicity is the foundation of a life of purpose, meaning, and real growth. I say real growth because you are not really growing unless you are focused on your own dreams, goals, ambitions.
The less you do that is not focused on your goals, the more that you can truly grow. So yes, less is more. The more you say yes to the things that you should have said no to the more complex your life becomes and the less time you have to focus on what is really important to you. This causes stress, anxiety and discouragement. Sadly, we try to get out of it by buying more things, saying yes to unwanted and unneeded things, allowing people in your life that create unnecessary drama and before you know it your life is so complex and so full of demands and engagements that you are now at the point where you have no time or energy for what is important.
So the less you do, the less complicated life becomes. The more you say no, the more chance you have to say yes to what is really important to you. Less is more. I have noticed throughout my life, that we humans will gravitate toward complexity. We will just make the world around us complex. We are good at it. We accumulate, organize, reorganize, prioritize, create hierarchy, develop models to showcase our hierarchies. In our pursuit of perfection we become rotten with it. Rotten with Perfection.
So that is me. Constantly making things too complex in a pursuit of perfection. What I do not realize is that all the tweaking that I am doing to create perfection is leading to the exact opposite state – complete failure. Perfection is not complexity. Perfection is simplicity. The simpler the system, the more perfect it is. The more self sustaining it becomes. Good habits, stay habits when they are not complex. When you start making something so complex that you have to be performing at optimum levels at all times to keep up with then you are going to discover that the foundation you are on will get rotten, things will start to crumble and you will not keep up. It will all come falling down.
Funny, we do this with almost everything in life. I know I do. I am constantly trying to make things more complex in a weird attempt to try to make it better. This fact must resonate in my soul – you are not making it better unless you are making it simple. Simplicity is ultimately how automation is achieved. The most complex computing systems are actually just assemblies of extremely simple, repeatable, predictable processes. Do you really want to be perfect? Then the only way you are going to get close (good luck) is by simplifying every aspect of your life. You want to have more success in your career? Simplify. You want to have more success in a relationship? Simplify.
Cut out the excess. Cut out the extras. Cut out the drama. Cut out to unnecessary and unwanted additions. Say no to distractions. Say no to lame people. Say no to new systems and processes that add complexity. The pursuit of better is reduction, not expansion. In a wierd twist of irony, only the simple efficient things expand. Where the complex things tend to collect together and condense. A rule in business as well as biology. An ant hill is a mound of intense productivity, to rival any of the best assembly lines that man has created – however – the ant is extremely simple. Bacteria is one of the most simplest of life forms. They are single cell, no nucleus, no complex membrane, one small strand of DNA – yet they are incredibly prolific.
You can invent a crazy complex form of investing, but you will never out perform the incredibly simple, consistent, and repeatable investment strategy. The complex has moving parts that are subject to failure. The simple repeats without failure. There you go. Stop pursuing perfection and figure out the path to simple. In my pursuit of running, I have had to learn this lesson over and over again. Successful runners run. Often and in diverse circumstances. The ones that just go run, tend to not get injured as much. The run naturally and build strength and endurance naturally. It is not a complex affair. From bed to road in just a few minutes. No worries, no drama, no concern over gadgets, electronics, play lists, supplements and shoes. You just go run. Easy. Simple. Repeat.
I have notices this in other areas of life as well. The most successful people in a given career have figured out how to remove all the extras and find a natural, consistent and easy way to do their core job function that leads to greater success. It is so hard to do that. I marvel at people that seem to have accomplished that. As I just surround myself with complexity, I see some really successful people that just seemed to have found the simple, and in so doing, thrive. So I am ending my pursuit of perfection. Goodbye perfectionist and hello simplist. That is right, I just coined my own word. I am a simplist.
Guy Reams
365 Member
45 Days Left to 1st Marathon
