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simple

The Simple Manifesto

September 29, 2014 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

Red-Tailed Hawk
Let’s make this simple.

And when I say that, I don’t mean just these words you’re reading right now.

I mean, let’s make everything simple.

Let’s stop making things hard just because we have an idea that anything worthwhile has to be a challenge.

Let’s stop complicating things in some misplaced effort to justify ourselves and affirm our right to be at the table.

Let’s be done with attempting to prove something by being difficult and inscrutable.

Because it really never works. That is, if you intend to get anything done.

Sometimes people complain to me that they send email and never get any responses. When I review what they’ve written, it’s easy to see why – they’ve very formally written right around whatever they have to say. And often they fail to clearly ask  for what they want the reader to do, so they never get what they need.

That right there is the definition of “doesn’t work”.

And we want it to work, don’t we?

Here’s something to consider if you’re struggling with the idea of “simple”:

Wordy, flowery, clever does not equal smart, insightful, helpful.

Formal, complicated and incomprehensible does not help clarity, understanding and action.

1 + 1 does not need sine, cosine or tangent to solve.

When you have a choice, and you always have a choice – pick simple.

Make your presentation less about bullet points and more about a story.

Make your meeting less about catching everyone up and more about making decisions.

Make your email less about sparkling, witty repartee and more about asking directly for what you want/need.

Take one clear step forward instead of three steps to the left if you want to move ahead.

Always, always, always look for the simplest solution. You don’t need stress and friction.

Own easy.

Be easy.

And you’ll win, easy.

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Happier Living, Uncategorized, WiseWork Tagged With: choosing, easy, in the flow, making choices, simple, stress, stress management, success

The Simplest Solution

July 4, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment


Ever heard of Occam’s Razor? William of Ockham was a 14th century monk who labored in Latin on matters of logic. His key observation, translated and traveled through the centuries, is called “Occam’s Razor” (obviously spelling mutated over time):

“All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.”

What’s this mean for your life?

When you have a problem with someone else: what’s the simplest solution? Would it be… telling Karen, who talks to Alex, who mentions something to Tom, who plays golf with the husband of the person you have a problem with? Will that approach solve your problem, or potentially make it worse? Using Occam’s Razor to cut away the extraneous steps, we find the simplest solution — talking with the person directly to handle the problem.

How do you know when you’re not using the simplest solution? When you find yourself saying, “I can’t”, as in “I can’t find a new job at my age because I’d have to go back to school, and pass that exam, get certified, and probably move to some new city, which would be really hard on John and the kids.” Rather complicated scenario, huh? It’s a solution which — surprise, surprise — successfully keeps you from doing anything at all. Can we discover the simplest solution? Could it be to find a great job that provides training right in your own home town?

Sometimes it seems we love having the problem so very much that we envision only completely unworkable, complicated solutions — just so we can hang on to the problem we say we hate (but actually love). It’s like: “I need a job but don’t want a job but want to revel in what a screw-up I am ‘cuz I’m not getting a job.” How can we love and hate a problem at the same time? It’s called story fondling, and it reinforces negative stuff and keeps us totally and completely stuck in the past.

Identifying the simplest solution is a way to cut through all the debris in your life and find a really good, clean place to be. The simplest solution is always authentic. The simplest solution is easy. The simplest solution is the way to go.

So, when you find yourself tied up in knots trying to find a complicated solution to whatever you face, think of good old William of Ockham and ask yourself: “All other things being equal, what’s the simplest solution?”

Filed Under: Career Coaching, Clarity, Getting Unstuck Tagged With: life coach, Occam's Razor, problem, simple, solution, story fondling, work

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