Deciding to Stop Deciding.

When I started seeking simplicity, everything changed.

My career. My life. My health. My appearance. My choices. Everything. I didn’t realize I was seeking simplicity at the time. Finding freedom from things weighing me down was more like it. But once I realized that simplicity was the byproduct of freedom, I was hooked.

Why? Because I was tired. Of course I was tired! It’s well documented that adults make an average of 35,000 decisions every day. 35,000! That’s more than 2,000 decisions per hour in a period of 16 waking hours. When I began leading teams years ago, that daily number most certainly doubled. And I found myself in a constant state of decision-fatigue. With workdays that never ended, it’s no surprise that by evening, the only response I could muster was that of a teenager: “whatever.”

Now listen, I’ve made some really bad decisions. I’ve also made some really good ones. But the bad ones stick with you. Bad career decisions. Bad health decisions. Bad life decisions. I wouldn’t change them because the journey has brought me here. But when decision-fatigue sets in, your ability (or willingness) to invest the energy and intellect necessary to understand options, evaluate potential outcomes, and choose wisely, is basically zero.

Simplicity was the antidote I didn’t know I needed. The process of finding freedom from the things causing complexity and perpetuating this constant cycle of decision-making led me to prioritizing the simple. I went on a sort of “elimination diet for the soul.”

• Saying no to toxicity. Toxic people. Toxic jobs. Toxic organizations. Just no.
• Eliminating alcohol and never questioning that decision. Never having to moderate a substance that is addictive by nature is the most powerful thing you will ever do for yourself and those you love.
• Having a daily and weekly menu on repeat. Not only does it make grocery shopping easy – delivery when possible, to reduce option overwhelm! – but it eliminates the stress of figuring out the what/how/when of mealtimes. I've found it promotes comfort and ease in the stability rather than boredom.
• Reducing my wardrobe. Donating the things that don’t fit, don’t serve me, and don’t get worn, and replacing them with fewer items that reflect me (not what society says I should be), and all mix-and-match. I eliminated multiple decisions required to accomplish just one task of getting dressed.
• Ditching makeup. Be brutally honest with yourself about why you wear it. Enough said.
• Investing in myself. When you cut the clutter and quiet the noise, your purpose becomes clear. Pursuing that purpose is so much easier when you value simplicity.

I’m not talking about throwing the baby out with the bath water. There are many things we can’t change or eliminate no matter how we may feel about them. But shifting your mindset toward creating space for an abundance of things we do want, and eliminating the toxic ones, can make a huge difference.