Life Is Simplicity
By Les Mottosky
For centuries, Buddhist and Hindu traditions have warned that the mind, when undisciplined, makes a poor master but a useful servant. The distinction is whether we consciously direct thought or allow conditioned loops to run on autopilot.
As a servant, the mind supports clarity and peace. As a master, it generates emotional turbulence. While both states involve choice, the ability to choose must be cultivated. The equation becomes mindful effort and simplicity or unconscious habit and unnecessary complexity.
Before this hyper-technological existence, disciplining the mind was a simpler endeavour. So was life. More difficult for sure, but much, much more simple.
We often conflate simple with easy. They aren't the same. They're never the same. Complexity is easy because it's often the result of insufficient effort to prevent or resolve it. And lack of effort is easy.
The human mind prefers simplicity not because reality is simple, but because cognition is expensive. Every perception, decision, and judgment draws from finite metabolic and attentional resources. Simplicity is how the brain conserves energy.
From an evolutionary standpoint, organisms that could rapidly reduce complexity into usable patterns survived. A rustle in the bush was either wind or predator. Hesitation killed. The mind evolved to compress, categorize, and prioritize. This created a sequence that turns chaos into a signal fast enough to act.
Simplicity is utility.
It's also speed.
Psychologically, simplicity creates coherence. Humans need narratives that are immediately and permanently relatable. Too many variables fracture meaning and produce anxiety. A clean story stabilizes identity, values, and intent. This is why we resist nuance until we’re forced into it. It also explains why clarity feels like relief. Even when it’s only partial clarity.
Neurologically, our brains operate as a prediction engine. The three pounds between our ears builds models of the world and then updates them only when reality ignores our conditioned expectations. Simple models are easier to maintain, easier to test, and less costly to revise. Complexity increases error, fatigue, and indecision. This cognitive overload is uncomfortable and it makes our choices less accurate. That's why deciding from that wall of toothpaste brands in the grocery store can feel overwhelming...and you sometimes grab the wrong one.
Simplicity is that essential connection between reality and action. Without it, insight stalls. With it, progress becomes possible and momentum, inevitable.
Because we're so frequently mentally processing, we crave simplicity as the necessary counter-balance.
We could assert this is one reason why ocean front property is so popular. What is the view those beach house owners are paying for? At first glance, it's some golden-brown beach, two shades of blue and a thin line separating them. It's almost a nothing-to-see-here vista; simple as simple gets. But the mind is at ease when the eye beholds it.
That moment is more about inner peace than outer beauty.
For our brains, simplicity isn't merely the absence of complexity.
Simplicity is peace of mind.
And in an age engineered for distraction, peace of mind isn’t only a luxury, it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.
TAGS: #Life Is Simplicity #Radical Reframe #Disrupt The Usual #Wisdom In Leadership #Adaptation As Innovation
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist & Advisor // Revealing competitive advantage. I help leaders build aligned creative cultures that can measure their vitality and adapt to rapid change. It's not easy. But it's simple.
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