Choosing to Keep It Stupid Simple

My friend, and fellow bold encourager, Laura Morlando – the Stress Commando – told me to keep it stupid simple and I immediately fell in love with the concept.

I had tried several different interpretations of KISS – none of which felt right – because I’ve never liked the idea of calling someone stupid or implying that they might be stupid. I almost got kicked out of sixth grade because of a teacher using this word at a student.

People aren’t stupid. They can make bad choices or do stupid things, but it’s not the people that are stupid.

So when Laura demanded I keep it STUPID SIMPLE, I understood what she meant and knew it was the right way to define the KISS process.

#QuoteoftheDay

According to the Webster’s Dictionary (1828), stupid is an adjective that comes from Latin and refers to being stupefied or properly stopped. In other words, when we keep it stupid simple then we stop creating circumstances too complicated, convoluted, confusing, and just outright chaotic.

BONUS POINTS for alliteration.

It’s not supposed to be complicated. The world has convinced us that simple is bad so we keep adding components until it’s so complicated, you’ll never be able to use all of the parts. If we are going to make better life choices aimed at our unique designs then we have to break the compulsion to make it complicated.

Breaking the Habit of Complicated

I worked with an organization that met every Monday. The whole department sat in a two-hour meeting that could have been an email and only a dozen of the people in the room needed to be in on the conversation in the first place.

They worked hard at making things more convoluted than they needed to be – and then complained because we didn’t get anything done on Mondays.

In my garden club, there was a woman who would hire workers to weed and mulch her bed in the Spring. Each year, it was harder for her to find help. I went over to visit one morning while some new workers were in the gardens. She followed them around explaining in minute details how they were to dig up weeds . . . DIG UP WEEDS. She had a specific way she wanted others to do what should have been a simple task and her constant barrage of directions drove workers to never return.

When we take something simple and add more rules and directions just for the sake of more rules and directions, we turn the task into an impenetrable mess.

You break the habit of complicated when you make intentional choices to keep it stupid simple:

Accept there is more than one way.

The boys were taught to make their beds when they were toddlers. If you’ve never seen a toddler make a full-sized bed, trust me when I say they each have their unique style for getting it done (and lose definitions of what done looks like). The point wasn’t to have hospital corners but to create a habit of making their beds. I accepted that their way would be sufficient.

Done is better than undone and perfect.

As an independent author, I’ve heard all the horror stories of the grammatical errors that make “vanity press” such a horrible addition to the publishing world. I heard it so much, I once spent a month working through a manuscript trying to weed out any potential problems. My oldest son brought me a Tom Clancy novel and pointed out a major error. “See, nothing will be perfect.” Stop adding so many rules that you never get anything done.

Learn why it got complicated.

Being raised in the South meant no white after Labor Day and not again until Easter. It was driven in my head so hard that no matter what people showed me, I couldn’t get around it. My son did the research and found that the reason was mud. The streets weren’t paved, so there was more chance of getting mud on your white from Labor Day to Easter (although I think even that is a bit arbitrary). All of his growing up, he tried to convince me to that white was okay by showing me the why behind the rules.

Know when to say when.

My husband’s aunt gifted us a cup of starter for Amish Friendship Bread, along with directions for how to use the starter and keep it alive. For the first few months, I followed those directions like the world would end if I didn’t. And one week, I forgot. I realized that the directions were helpful, but not world-ending. I made some adjustments and accommodations and kept going. Sixteen years later, that starter is still going – but not exactly to the specifications directed.

It doesn’t have to be complicated unless we make it that way (or let others dictate the complications for us). The key is to find what works for you and then start working it.

Finding YOUR Simple

You may have heard me mention this before, but my husband and I are VERY different people. We approach things from opposite sides of the pendulum no matter how many ways I explain that my side if the correct one.

It was no different when it came to planning family meals at our house. I would make a list of multiple entrees, a dozen sides, and a half dozen desserts – no matter how many people we were feeding.

“You’re making this more difficult than it has to be. Let me just pick up pizza.

For my husband, picking up pizza made it simple. For me, cooking for a small army was the simple path (in part because I used the gathering to substitute for once-a-month cooking, so I knew I’d be freezing meals for future use).

Define your simple.

What works for me (one-a-month-cooking) might not work for you. That’s okay. We are all different people with different gifts, abilities, and tendencies. Define your simple so you can find your way.

Try something different.

If the phrase “I’ve never done it that way before” is your rallying cry, you are missing out on opportunities to make it simple. Try something different and then measure the results. If you like the new way, use it moving forward. Different can guide you to simple.

Practice saying no.

People will offer you unsolicited directions on how to walk your walk. They think their way is the right way – and for them it could be. Be okay with telling them no and staying true to your path. Or, as my son likes to say, “Nah, I’m good.” Letting others define your path usually ends up complicating your simplicity.

Stop creating complications out of your simple. Choose to define your YOUniqueness so you can determine your path so you can walk it out with intentional little bits until you create an abundant life rooted in your BIG DREAMS.

It starts with you. When you strip away everything else until you uncover your heartseed – the very essence of who you are that was planted in you by the Maker before time began – then you can be sure to keep it stupid simple.

Everything else is just a distraction.

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When was the last time you let someone else complicate your simple?

Share your thoughts, comments, and tips for how we can keep it simple in a world determined to confuse it with complicated.