When Complication Becomes Us
This morning, I am writing from the dining room at my dad’s house in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s the same table at which my brothers sat around arguing (yelling) about sports over meals.
If you want to know why I never speak softly, these dining room walls can supply the answer.
Simpler times.
It’s the right setting to reset my writing. I rarely struggle to find topics on which to write. I only struggle, at times, to decide upon the lens.
By lens, I mean what is the context that shapes the ideas I want to explore more deeply.
I am able to look back over more than three years of writing Sunday Morning Joe and see growth in my own pursuits, as well as in yours.
Many of the lessons and stories I share are random shots of goodness that don’t underscore a singular theme. Most likely because I haven’t decided what the singular theme is in my own life.
I believe that the gap between a simple life and a complicated life is defined by one’s chosen journey.
This gap is not hard versus easy or lazy versus effort. The more deeply I investigate, I realize that complicated is available and accessible — and simplicity is difficult to achieve and incorporate.
We assume that our toughest problems require complex solutions. Adding to this myth are the speed of change in our environment and our challenge to respond at that same speedy pace. This adds a layer of complication on top of complication.
Slowly and over time, complicated dominates our attention. Then, it becomes a path. Finally, we assume its identity.
Why does this quest for simplicity elude so many of us? I don’t mean for just a few months, but sometimes for years, even decades.
Because this question has been gnawing at me, I have embarked on a new writing project with the quest for simplicity as its focus.
I challenge the idea that a pursuit isn’t valued unless it is complicated. I know from my own experience that the practice of simplicity creates the capacity in my health to bring about solutions.
From habits, to mindsets, to cultures, when I fail to practice simplicity, I get stuck trying to live up to other people’s expectations and other people’s rules.
The practice of simplicity shifts the focus from “them” to “me.”
When we made our move abroad to a live in a small town in the Catalan Pyrenees, we did it so that we could pursue simplicity. This week, when I arrived back in the United States for work, the lifestyle comparison confirmed to me that I had finally found a lens for my life: simplicity.
I’m now ready to sharpen its focus.
With gratitude,
Joe
Ps — If you enjoyed this post, it would mean a great deal to me if you shared it. Please use the hashtag #DoSimple
Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medalperformance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
The best way to interact with me is though Sunday Morning Joe, my weekly newsletter that explores the art of improving performance, overcoming challenge, and aligning with purpose for Sunday readers in search of more depth and motivation. Subscribe HERE for free.
