Why keeping it simple is my new mantra

For years I have been the champion of overcomplication. I am such a perfectionist that I would often spend so long trying to make things better (because we can always improve our performance) that any enjoyment related to the activity in question would vanish pretty fast. In a weird way, my desire to make things perfect has often been linked to ‘getting stuff done’, which I am sure many would agree they are not two things that often go together. I mean, how many times have you found yourself doing something just because it had to be done, it needed ticking off the list, with no regard for how it was going to get done? Well, in my case, it would get done and pretty well too, but man, the overcomplication and the overthinking!!!

So when I recently realised that the only person who actually cares about the quality of my doing is me, I decided that perhaps it isn’t necessary to spend so much time perfecting everything.

Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean that I now settle for rubbish – far from it – but I enjoy what is simple and often looks basic, because there is a perfection in the simplicity of it all.

I have also found that my compelling need to go over and above can be satisfied by enjoying the actual process, rather than just getting to the end with limited or no fun whatsoever.

And this is why I now keep it simple, beginning with the end in mind.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash