We always tend to make everything very difficult – “No Pain, No Gain, we believe that success, happiness requires work, effort, pain.
But why does it have to be so difficult?
Life doesn’t have to be complicated
Most things are only difficult because we chose to believe they are. Every day we are faced with many decisions, most unimportant but together time consuming.
If you take some time to clear out the clutter and start focusing on what is really important most of the smaller problems will dissolve on their own.
I remember when I was just starting this office in Norway. There were 100 things that I felt had to be done, I was rushing around looking at different desks, headsets, phones, computers, what to put on the walls and on and on the list went.
Then I realized that the most important thing was getting people into the office.
We started working with recruitment instead and all the other problems seemed to slowly dissolve, we didn’t need 20 computers until we were 20 people, for now, 3 would do.
This calm helped us build this office one step at a time.
A structured approach will help
By taking a structured approach, writing down everything that needs to be done and prioritizing the list in order of importance, you will save yourself a lot of time and stress.
I noticed this particularly when starting the office, instead of focusing on small problems that never end, we started focusing on the big issues, which helped us improve continuously. We still have the list of other things to do and whenever we have time we dive on to the next point on the list, which means it is slowly shrinking.
Focusing on one thing at a time
Another important point is to take one thing at a time. Most people try to multi task, juggling many things at once, thinking that will make them more efficient.
The problem with the approach is that you aren’t giving your entire focus to any one thing. Without 100% focus you will not be working as quickly and producing results that are of a high enough quality.
It turns out (which I have noticed myself by trial and error) that you can work about twice as fast if you focus on 1 thing then if you work on three at a time. When I stopped multitasking and instead started working with focus I increased my output by about 100%.
Taking the “Master Decision”
This was first brought to my attention by Brian Tracy, he discusses it in his book “Maximum Achievement”.
Deciding to make happiness the goal of your life makes everything easier. Instead of focusing on all the other clutter, decide to be happy, whatever happens. Make the best of your situation and your opportunities.
It makes communicating easier
Making things easier to understand helps people comprehend you and will make it easier for them to agree.
You do not sound smarter because no one understands what you are saying, using words anyone can understand whilst discussing important subjects is the best way.
This is a very important point for sales people since we often try to sound smarter than we really are. It is usually better to speak in a manner that a 10 year old would understand, that means all your customers will understand, which helps build a better relationship.
Remember to KISS
Try to keep this with you and use it in your everyday life.
Make things as easy as possible, describe what you want in simple terms and don’t try to make yourself seem smart by making others feel foolish.
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Photo Credit: Jannie-Jan
