There is beauty in simplicity. Yet, we, humans, have an almost uncontrollable tendency towards complicating life. Towards making our houses bigger, or our relationships longer, or, you know, towards just saying one more word when we should really keep our mouths shut.
The good news is that this tendency can be observed, managed and, in time, reduced to an insignificant nudge, one that we can easily pass by, leaving us in our simple, natural state of bliss.
Here are 5 early signs that you’re going to make things horrendously complicated for you. Watch for them and try not to give in, before they turn into compulsions.
1. Overtalking
Silence is golden. Like, you know, literally. There is a certain skill of speaking just the right amount of words, a skill that almost all rich people share.
Chatting, gossiping, incessant commenting on social media, all these activities are creating a huge inertia that, rather sooner than later, will put an enormous pressure on your life.
The moment you experience that feeling of “but I should teach him or her a lesson”, that’s your cue that you should actually just smile and, if the context allows, wave.
2. Overdoing
There is a certain amount of stuff that needs to be done for an activity to reach completion. Anything added after that point is not only a waste of resources, but an awful cause for more complexity, unpredictable consequences and just plain trouble.
Nobody will raise you a statue for doing more than you’re supposed to do, no matter how much your low self-esteem is crying for this.
Any small action that you’re doing on top of what’s necessary is creating ripples growing more and more into your future, to the point you’ll get crushed under your own need for perfection.
3. Overplanning
You never know what your future will bring in and, believe it or not, this is a good thing. Like Forest Gump, you’ll get to experience an infinity of chocolates every time you open the life box.
Trying to prevent this to happen, trying to fixate your life into a predictable, iron-like pattern, by planning for each and every possible outcome, will paralyze you.
Your surroundings will seem like a dome of concrete, with no correct path, no risk-free way out and a million of choices, all wrong.
4. Clinging
All things have a beginning and an end. You included. So, when the end of something is reached, letting go is the only safe way of dealing with that situation.
Clinging towards persons, places or even previous identities you carved for yourself will only add extra weight to whatever you are already carrying.
Soon you will be caught in a dreading fight between the new trying to pervade your life and the old trying to hold on, a fight that you already lost the moment it started.
5. Owning Too Much Stuff
We live interesting times. As species, it became extremely easy for us to own and use an endless inventory of things: clothes, houses, cars, devices.
The problem with this enormous availability is that we get way past our actual needs. We can probably get by with just 1% of the things we think we need. Or even less.
Although we tend to feel empowered every time we get something new, what’s really happening is that we get weaker, as every new thing will ask for some amount of attention and energy, in order to manage it.
Because if we don’t manage it, it will end up managing us.
Image by Greg Montani from Pixabay
