The power of simple

Yesterday, I mentioned in The Daily how I like simple. And I spoke about how keeping things simple allows me to maintain the lifestyle design I want. At least most of the time. 🙂

But, let me take this a bit further…

Because I know a lot of people look at this online business thing as pretty complicated. It is easy to get mired down in this to a point where you’re just paralyzed in a sea of complexity. Like…

• Trying to make your theme do something you want and you end up deep-diving into a bunch of PHP programming code. It begins to feel overwhelming and impossible.
• You’re trying to expand your traffic and you end up feeling up to your eyeballs in SEO tactics, video marketing tips, blog post frequencies, yada yada
• You want to sell something on your site and end up researching a ton of tools, integrations, customizations

We’ve all been there. But…

When you feel things getting complicated, stop and look for what you’re doing wrong. Question your assumptions.

True power is found in simplicity. Complexity is a sign of failure.

Often we end up introducing complexity because of our assumptions. We think we NEED something, but… perhaps we really don’t.

Perhaps it got complicated because you forgot what your original goal was. You forgot your why. And then lack of that magnetic north on your virtual compass made it easy to get off course until you get lost in the weeds.

Sometimes, complexity comes from another source. Simple lack of understanding. Could be going past words you don’t understand (happens all the time when non-techies try to tackle tech)… or just doing things out of order.

Doesn’t matter the why. Complexity is a symptom. It means something went wrong. Something was skipped over.

When I feel like things are getting overwhelming or complicated, here’s what I do…

1. Stop.
2. Go get some space. Go for a walk, do something physical. Doesn’t matter what it is. Just not on the computer.
3. Come back, revisit my original intention. Where am I heading?
4. Look for the shortest path to get there. If there’s something I feel is hard to deal with, I first question my assumption. Am I making it complicated? Is it necessary?
5. Set out a plan.
6. Do it.

One thing I don’t like to do is try to plow forward right through it. I’ve done it before. It ends up being a lot of wasted time.

This modus operandi is also a fundamental philosophy I work into The Online Business Roadmap, inside The Lab. It is a massive undertaking… starting an online business from scratch. But, my mission is to keep it simple by removing unnecessary steps, putting things into the right order, and setting out a doable plan.

Just remember…

Complexity is a symptom.

True power is found in keeping things simple.

– David