Are we making our lives too complicated?
Life is a race, “Run, run, run!”. True? May be or maybe not. All of us have some goals or targets in our life. We break those targets into small tasks and get on with our work. We are optimistic when we start any project and we imagine as if everything will go right for us. It is like a person who has to go to his office which 100 km far. His driving speed his 50 km per hour. He has to reach his office at 11 am, so he starts exactly at 9 am. His math is good, the calculation is accurate but he ignores that there will be roadblocks, unpredictable weather, and something else which will delay his reaching to the office on time.
The principle which was called “KISS” was designed in 1960 by the US Navy. It simply means “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. It stresses the point that we should keep things simple rather than trying to make it complicated. We should make sure that we do not try to add unnecessary complications to any design.
Keep it simple and focus on what matters. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed. -Confucius
The same thing applies to all of us. We plan things as if everything will happen according to our calculation and nothing will go wrong. We often get so absorbed in our work that we do not even know where are we going. The projects we do keep on dragging and when things are not going according to our calculation, we begin to feel depressed as well as anxious and try new ideas.
The best approach for this is that we should take a step back and reflect on what we want to do and how we are going to achieve that. Some consultation can be done with people before we begin our work. The best way to learn tennis is to take a racket and go to the tennis court and nothing else. There will be distractions along the way, improper advice by people, hoping to achieve success very soon but none of this is going to work. Pick up the racket, go to the tennis court, and hit as many balls as possible and in some time you will begin to see positive results. Buying rackets of 10000 rupees or Sports shoes of 5000 rupees is not going to work. In fact, it might prove to be a distraction because you will think about these things more and put more pressure on yourself.
The best achievers in the world kept their methods simple. They practiced whatever they were good at and never experimented much. One of the reasons for this was that they did not try too many things. One thing which is making people deviate from good methods is their mindset. Their thoughts are not channelized and they are not patient enough. They want to get results too early. They dream of becoming like their role models but they never study their lives carefully. And when things are not working for them, they try a few more things. When those things do not work either they again try those previous methods. May be finally they reach their destination, but then they realize that the path was much easier but they made it unnecessarily complicated.
The solution for this is to keep things as simple as possible. Suppose you want to read a book. Make sure you do not have a mobile near you or your blue tooth speaker or headphones with you. Because all these things are teasers which are waiting to disturb you. The moment you do not understand anything, you do not have to switch on the internet and go to google because you are then going to check your emails or use social media.
Simplify, simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau
If you are working in an organization and want to get a promotion then there will not be any short cut for you. The method is simple. Do your regular work, keep on getting better, and get a better understanding of your work. When you work hard over a period of time your work will get noticed and you will go to higher ranks. By just becoming frustrated or trying too many things or changing your job is not going to work.
One classic example comes to my mind about this. It is about the Google Search Page. Whenever we want to search anything we open the google page. Is it too fancy? Is it very eye-catching with different colors on it? No! No! It is just a simple text box with a simple Search button. Because that is what is required to search for any information. The page is kept light so that it open quickly and there are autosuggestions in it so user gets an idea when he types a few words. If a person who tries too many things and lacks clarity, if he designed that page, it would have been very colorful, with background music and popups to make money but it would have taken such a long time that users would leave that page even before the results would appear.
