How to uncomplicate your life?

We usually spend so much time worrying, planning, thinking, and being sad instead of actually doing anything about things, that it’s safe to say that 80% of our waking hours are spent in creating complications, leaving only 20% to actually live.

Now, I am not a believer of writing long-winding articles just to increase the number of words. So, I’ll just come to the point here. It’s March now, and most of you would either be worried about something right now, or you would be having one of those days on which things seem just fine, either way, we both know that this feeling won’t continue for long. Unless you adopt the measures I recommend.

Step 1: Think about your February problem (refers to whatever you were worried about last).

Step 2: Think about all the possible solutions you thought of and all the emotions you felt.

Step 3: Think about how it was eventually solved. Was it exactly the way you wanted?

When you think of all this together, you’ll realize that you wasted a lot of time being angry and worried about something that existed purely in your imagination. Why, you ask? How could it be in my mind when the problem was as real as it could be? I’ll explain using an example.

Let’s assume that you had to look for a place to live in a new city. Your hotel bills kept increasing and you weren’t able to find a place which suited your tastes, was near to your workplace, and fit your budget. You had three options, you could stay in the hotel for as long as it takes to find a place which fit your requirements, or you could compromise in one of the aspects: increase your budget, decrease your expectations, or brace yourself for travelling a long distance every day. You saw it as a ‘problem’, you felt all those negative emotions. The keyword in this entire process is YOU. Either way, you had to work hard but most of you would have complicated it even further because of how you looked at it. But if you shifted your perspective and looked at it as an adventure, as an opportunity, half the issue would be solved there.

All the overthinking, the anxiety stops the moment you realize that. Most of you might think that it’s easy to say but difficult to do, I agree. That brings me back to the keyword, ‘you’. No matter how you look at it, ultimately you are the key to the door which can take you away from everything that has been troubling you. Because it’s ultimately you who decides the path you want to take. It should always be ‘I want to do this’ not ‘I need to do this’, because no matter how helpless you act, the choice is always yours. So take care of yourself, prioritize yourself, protect yourself and the rest will automatically fall into place. And because YOU are so important, don’t spend your days torturing yourself about a problem, because no matter how big or small it is, ultimately it’ll be solved. Change your perspective, romanticize it if necessary but don’t let it consume you with worry and sadness.

Even I am not an expert at implementing the technique but given that I understand it, I feel I am halfway there. We humans don’t have an infinite lifespan, the least we can do for ourselves is live in the little time we have. Think about it.