How to Simplify Your Life: 7 Easy Steps to Take

1. Make life easier

In many situations, it's not that my life is necessarily complicated; it’s the way I'm handling life that makes it more complicated.

To simplify life sometimes means adding things in to make it easier, but I've noticed that sometimes eliminating things can also simplify your life tremendously, making it that much easier.

2. Stop over-complicating things

Sometimes I can fall into a pattern of making life far more complicated than it actually needs to be. Maybe it's the idea that if something is complicated, it must be better than something that is simple.

A complicated workout routine with a personal trainer must be better than simply moving my body daily.

A complex diet with restrictions based on calorie intake must be better and healthier for me than simply eating whole foods that are nutritionally dense along with a ton of fruits and vegetables.

An intricate 20-step, color-coded productivity plan will somehow make me more productive than simply focusing on the top three things to accomplish for that day.

When things are overly complicated, I become overwhelmed and frustrated with the whole process and usually quit. For me, the name of the game is to keep it simple. The simpler, the better.

3. Do less

There is a silent pressure within me that's always urging me to do more. And I don't know if this comes from society, and then just I internalized it, or if it's something that's always been within me.

But no matter how hard I try, that silent nagging feeling to do more is never very far away.

Even with a brain injury where my physical and mental stamina is reduced significantly, I still have to fight against that internal whisper to do more. I gently remind myself to accept where I am and what I'm doing today. There is no need to continually pile on more things to do.

I mean, there's no award for the person who does the most. The times when I have taken on more than I could, I was frantic, exhausted, overwhelmed, and eventually burned out. My mantra to quiet the nagging voice within is that I'm doing enough and I'm okay with that.

4. Stop overthinking

Like many of us, I can get caught up in overthinking and excessive analysis, which leads me to either take on everything all at once, which never works out or do nothing because I'm paralyzed by analysis paralysis.

Overthinking makes life more complicated. When I obsess about a decision that needs to be made or things that need to be accomplished, I become frustrated and stressed out.

Life is filled with decisions from simple things like what to wear that day or what to cook for dinner or big life-changing choices like changing a career or traveling the world. The more I overthink things, the more muddy my thoughts become, making it difficult to see a clear solution.

Fortunately, I have a trick to prevent overthinking.

If the decision is not a life-changing choice, I give myself a 30-second time limit to make a choice. This saves me so much time and energy throughout the day.

As I sit, looking out onto the ocean, surrounded by nature, I am humbled. An acknowledgment that the world around me and Mother Nature is perfect without me trying to interfere.

5. Eliminate controlling behavior

It's exhausting to try to control every situation and outcome. Understanding that control is merely an illusion is freeing. Life is unpredictable, and there are countless factors beyond my control.

6. Accept imperfections

Accepting this truth helps me to be more open to accepting imperfections in myself, in others, and in the world. I embrace self-compassion, treat myself with kindness, and understand that I'm only human and that making mistakes or encountering imperfections is perfectly natural.

I give myself grace, and I treat myself with the kind of empathy and compassion that I would give a good friend in the same situation.