This past week on our podcast we’ve been talking about simplicity. I think this is the time of year when we lose our New Year’s goals–they fall to the wayside, or we get discouraged by how little we’ve accomplished in the past month, or they’re still hanging out in front of us, something to aim for when we get time (if we get time). Although there are many reasons for this loss, I think overcomplicating can be one of them. Sometimes, when we set our goals, we make them more difficult than they need to be.
One of the things I’m trying to do regularly is to ask this question Tim Ferris recommends: “what if this were easy?”
This is a great question because it changes my perspective right away. What if it were easy to design our website? Or to get healthy? Or to eat dinner every day? Or to (you fill in the blank)?
My first thought is to get someone else to do it 😉 Today I was making hot chocolate for lunch (50% eggs so it totally counts!), and I asked myself what it would look like if it were easy. A cook came to mind.  The same thing happened with our website–my first thought was to get someone else to do it. And that’s not a bad idea.
Rory Vaden talks about how if we’re going to multiply time (do the things today that get us more time tomorrow), we have to start by asking whether it’s something that needs done at all. If the answer is yes, we should ask if someone else could do it. If so, delegate! If you can’t delegate for whatever reason, getting expert help is a great next step. Maybe read a book or take a class. The difference between having a paid wordpress theme and a free one has been night and day–for the first time, I can call the makers and get help if I’m stuck or if the theme isn’t working properly.
Not having to do the work or having someone handhold me through the process are both easy ways to do something–especially in contrast to bumbling my way through something I’m not familiar with.
Asking what it would look like if something were easy can jump us to the end result. It’s kind of like jumping to the end of a maze and working your way back to the beginning–sometimes it’s easier that way. With our podcast website, we talked about what would be easy for us (not having to program or customize!), and then found a theme that was drag and drop. I could wax rhapsodic over how easy it is compared to what I was doing before!
Anyway, sometimes we get stuck because we don’t know what easy looks like or we don’t believe easy is possible. Imagining an easy end result shifts that mindset and gives us the clarity and focus to figure out how to get from here to there. It’s a beautiful thing!
What if what you’re working on today were easy? What would that look like?
