“If you cant explain it to a 6 year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Albert Einstein.

We as humans have a tendency to complicate things. When I refer to things I really refer to all aspects of life, our mind, our thoughts, our voice, our actions and our behaviours. We are so good at it that in fact we have become less effective and when we are less effective we are not as good as living life as it is meant to be lived – with peace, passion and purpose.

Here are my thoughts on why we complicate things:

1.     When we don’t receive the rewards that we desire we add more to the mix. More things to do in hope more will bring greater results. In this sense more is more, when in fact more is less.

2.     We have been given more to do by those that done understand or lack the wisdom of what should actually be done.

3.     We add to our list of things to do as we evolve. Without reassessing our list, we continue doing potentially wasteful things.

4.     We like to be perceived as being busy as this satisfies our ego. This often results in doing many things very poorly and the actual perception to others is just that – ineffectiveness.

5.     We have been granted access to too much information. We become cluttered by information and inspired by new ideas or things to do, and without actually considering the real purpose of doing them – we proceed anyway.

6.     We become distracted and loose our focus. It is easy to loose sight of our vision in this busy and cluttered world. When this happens we have a tendency to fall of the rails and get carried off by all these requests and demands that are not at all purposeful.

Here is how we can go about making sure we keep it simple. Ask yourself a series of questions.

1.     Is what I am doing taking me towards my goals or away?

2.     Is what I am doing purposeful to my future vision?

3.     Could what I do be simplified or defined?

4.     If I didn’t do this what would be the consequence?

5.     Are there tasks that I am doing that are no longer needed?

6.     Will what I do create positive outcomes or value?

7.     Is what I do conducive to my self-improvement?

8.     Is what I do taking me towards more freedom or away?

These are powerful questions that I assess and explain in more detail in this episode. If you are really looking to become more productive and effective in what you do, you must keep things simple. We all have all that we need already within and the best way for it to be realised is not to complicate our actions but to keep them simple and keep them improving.

For any of this to really make sense and matter you really need to have clarity around the future vision including your life values and you need to become a master at goal setting. There will be things that pop up from time to time that are not relevant to your particular direction however some things can not be avoided. Take care of these without complicating the particular task at hand and then get back on track.

Your vision and values are achieved by the goals you set today. Goals are achieved most easily when the actions you take are simple and uncomplicated.

To find out more about vision and goal setting reach out to me at leighmartinuzzi@gmail.com.