There are certain buzz words we are probably accustomed to hearing in the self-development space: overwhelm, procrastination, burnout, self-care, resilience, imposter syndrome… to name but a few. They are all very valid and helpful topics (and generally ones I’ve discussed before too!), but one that gets overlooked often I think is simplicity. And it is most definitely our friend so we shouldn’t ignore it!
how is simplicity helpful?
This week’s blog is inspired by National Simplicity Day, which I didn’t know existed until one of my lovely networking friends flagged it this week. In my view, there are a lot of random celebrated days in the year, but this one I think is worth noting. It’s celebrated on July 12th every year to honour the birthday of Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher who advocated for a simple life. Thoreau believed that by simplifying our lives, we could reduce stress, increase productivity, and live more fulfilling lives. In my view, that’s a great philosophy to live by! So let’s talk a bit more about simplicity, why it is our friend, and how we can get a bit more of it in our lives!
Last week I didn’t write my blog / newsletter as usual. You may not have noticed, and to be fair, why would you necessarily? It’s a significant part of my weekly routine, but I imagine I’m one of many that pops into your inbox, possibly to be read, or maybe not.
Here’s what happened - we had 2 school strike days, I was pretty full-on with work and commitments, and something had to give. So I decided to strip things back and not write my blog for that week. Simple!
You may be thinking, sure that’s an easy thing to have given up, no big deal – and in many ways you are right. The world won’t end just because I don’t write my usual blog! Even so, rewind a few months and I probably would have made myself do something, write something and share it because I felt duty-bound to do so. I’d have done the very opposite of simplify, I would have made things more complicated and stressful than they needed to be, and to what end?
As it happens, no one asked me ‘where is your blog this week? How dare you!’ And that’s the irony, we forget that stripping things back will often not bear the terrible consequences that we think they will, and this goes for far more than simply just not writing a blog for one week!
overcomplication v simplicity
Humans (adults more specifically) unfortunately have a tendency to overcomplicate things. We layer on extra thinking (over-thinking!) and factors that we don’t really need to and this impacts our decision-making and action-taking. Sometimes it’s on the less important stuff (‘what shall we eat tonight?’) and sometimes it’s on the much bigger important stuff (‘shall I apply for that new role?’). I appreciate the scale and impact of those choices are of course different– but it’s the overcomplicating of them that makes the decision for either smaller or bigger decisions harder to make! My point here is, if you can become more accustomed to embracing simplicity, it will become easier for those larger moments too.
You know the phrase ‘it’s the simple things that bring us joy’? Just reflect on that for you for a moment. What are the simple things that bring you joy in your life and why is that? I’ll bet there is something about the ‘uncomplicatedness’ of those things that bring you comfort, and even pleasure. So let’s embrace that philosophy elsewhere.
How do we cultivate simplicity in our lives?
Just like a cluttered room full to the brim of stuff all over the place and we don’t really know where anything is, our thinking can do the same to clutter up our minds. Simple thinking that can help us fight the clutter might be something along the lines of ‘what is going to be useful here to help me move forward / make a decision / take action?’ – trying to remove distractions and focus on what we are actually needing to think about!
Slowing down, refocusing and streamlining are also ways to help us embrace simplicity – including saying no to some things (just like that blog!).
life coaching and simplicity: perfect partners!
Life coaching is actually a beautifully simple process – with some amazingly positive outcomes possible! Simple but powerful questions help you focus on what really matters to you. We break through the noise and distractions (internal and external) to do this, stripping back to the simple of questions of ‘what do you want for you?’ followed by ‘and how can we get you get there?’.
So embrace simplicity, it really is your friend!
If you’d like to explore this more, please do get in touch, I’d love to help you tune in to simplicity – in your thinking, decisions and actions to move you closer to where you want to be: kathryn@kbmindfulcoaching.com
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