I’ve regularly heard the saying that goes something like “the best solution is often the simplest solution”.
Now, most of us like to think that this is something we have an excellent grasp on. We’re smart, you and I, we would never overcomplicate anything.
Except, we do. I do. I do this all the time.
I know you do too – or, plenty of you – as you email me with overcomplicated questions that I’m happy to entertain. Then I give you a simplistic answer and you’re not happy with it because the solution to your problems must be complex!
I fall into this exact same trap. Even without the example above – I can prove that you do, as well.
Have you ever completed work that you expected to be hard and said to yourself “Well, that was easier than I expected!” and you leave the situation kind of feeling like you didn’t do enough work?
If so – congratulations – you overcomplicated the work in your mind!
Overanalyzing
Taking an intensive certificate course on C++ programming taught me numerous valuable lessons – but one of the main ones is this theme of overcomplicating things.
I routinely looked at my assignments, got stressed about how much I didn’t know, and immediately assumed one had to be a rocket scientist to understand how to complete the assignment.
And yet, every week I turned my homework in – completed.
Those assignments would often be fraught with errors – not because I’m a horrible programmer (though that’s certainly arguable) – but because I was overanalyzing a relatively simple solution because I didn’t understand it.
Eventually, near the end of the course, I came around to realizing I just had to breathe when I opened an assignment. I had to remind myself that there was no reason to freak out, no reason to think I couldn’t do it, and simply to take it step-by-step.
By the end, if I kept myself from getting overly anxious, I tended to have a pretty decent grasp on the concepts at hand.
But acting like this flies in the face of an assumption a lot of us naturally tend to make today –
We assume that our work isn’t worthwhile if it isn’t complicated and difficult.
Not Everything Has to be Hard
If you’re a professional basketball player, at some point you’ve probably practiced hundreds of thousands of free throws.
If you’re a professional guitarist, at some point you’ve played hundreds of thousands of notes.
And if you’re a professional creative, at some point you’ll have spent at least tens (or hundreds) of thousands of hours in your go-to content creation programs.
I know this is crazy to consider – but you’d think that after all that time, you’d be better at what you make, right?
Perhaps even – it would come pretty easy to you.
But as I said before, most of us fall into the mistake of assuming that if it isn’t difficult then it isn’t worthwhile. That, my friends, is simply not true.
There are people who are more successful and make more money than you who work less time and less hard than you do. I guarantee the way you read that sentence, you think that imaginary person sucks, is horrible, and undeserving.
But what if they are deserving? What if they’re smart enough, and have discovered how to achieve without appeasing their ego by killing themselves to do it?
Certainly that isn’t everyone more successful than you – some of them don’t deserve it – but what can we learn from those who just keep it simple?
Quite a lot, actually.
Put it into Practice
You can very easily put this “don’t overthink it” principle into practice, right now.
Instead of trying to improve at everything – focus on improving at one thing for a set period of time. Do the easy stuff first, and assume you’re entirely capable of learning more difficult subject matter.
Don’t try and apply for, or attain the skills for all the jobs – pick one and focus specifically on what they’re looking for. Even if you don’t have the tool kit to get the job yet, assume it’s completely achievable.
If you have no idea what the next thing for your life or career is, choose one specific thing to work towards. Break it down into its smallest steps, and act on them. You may not permanently stick with it – but you won’t face option paralysis like you would otherwise.
And one of the best things you can do is simply give yourself a little credit and assume you’re completely capable of doing the things you find hard. Instead of blowing yourself off and saying things like “I could never do that!” – assume you’re wrong.
While not everyone is Einstein, Stephen Hawking, or (nowadays) Elon Musk mentally – you share the same DNA with those individuals. Your brain is not actually incapable of amazing feats. Instead of assuming you’ll never be as smart or capable as the outliers – start seeing yourself as if you’re simply in the starter stages of being an outlier yourself.
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