How to Simplify Your Life
Disclaimer- Not a minimalism article
It’s easy to get lost in the giant mound of information available in today’s world. This is a major reason why life has become more complex. There are so many new things to learn.
If you want to make a decision, you can ask Google 100 questions first.
If you want to learn a skill, there are so many free and paid courses to take.
Ultimately, these multiple choices cripple our ability to make decisions faster. Because we think we will control the outcome of our decisions better if we take longer to make a choice. Also, social media has made it easier to ask the question ‘what will others think’ during major decisions. All of these make things complicated.
In the spirit of making our lives simpler and creating an atmosphere for better work, I thought to share three principles. I adopted them since 2020 and they have helped me build focus with my work and just improve my attitude towards life. Also, I’m a huge advocate of peace of mind, and these helped me accomplish it.
1. Less is more.
The more things you struggle to do, the less competent you are at anything. The more articles you read, the more difficult it becomes to decide. The more topics you try to read, the less in-depth knowledge you will have in any of them.
Personally, I’m not a jack-of-all-trades believer. If you want to make things easier, just pick a few goals you would like to focus on. Also, don’t have too many hobbies — you’ll lose track and won’t get better at any. If you have many career interests, narrow down to just a few so you can be good at that.
Don’t read too many books at once. And whenever you read a book, digest the content and practice it before you read another one. Whenever you want to adopt a few new habits, start with just one, if not you won’t achieve anything. The less the problems you must tackle at once, the easier it will be for you.
2. Focus on your strengths.
By now, you shouldn’t have more than a few strengths.
Now, imagine this: While you’re busy taking many beginner courses to develop the skillsets you’re poor at, others are taking advanced courses to hone the skills they are already good at. In a few years, they would probably be able to command more pay for their work than you, because they are ultimately more competent. This applies even outside the work scenario.
Yes, it’s good to develop more than one skillset at a time but have a major one. Because when the market gets saturated with competition, you’ll need something extra to stand out. You can’t be extra when you only took the same 14-hour course on graphic design that all others did too.
It’s good to learn about stuff you don’t know, but make sure that at least 70–80% of your learning time is geared towards your strengths.
3. Stay true to yourself.
In the end, the beauty of life is in your ability to make decisions that suit who you are and what you want. Personally, I’m not a fan of copying CEO habits just to be successful, because it may suppress the features that differentiate your journey and experience from everyone else in the world. Elon Musk wouldn’t be who he is if he decided to copy another aspiring Mars- traveler (yes, it’s a word I made up) and do things the same way. How would he be unique then?
You can look to successful people when you face challenges, yes. But your life should be ultimately designed by you. Maybe you want to balance career with family instead of just blazing one trail alone. Or maybe you want to stick to a 9–5 job till you retire and not follow the swarm of entrepreneurs to ‘be your own boss’. And you could have investments by the side to grow your income, just something passive. The important thing is you’re in sync with your inner voice.
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I do hope that you’ll be open to keep things simple by doing less, focus more of your energy on your core strengths, and be true to your own journey. Let me know what you think of this piece, your feedback means the world to me.
Thanks for reading!
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