Literally, this proverb always admired me. Since childhood to an elderly stage, the topic bothered me to pen down about the depth present in this single sentence.  What do we think about being simple and how does simplicity enable success? These questions always perplexed my tiny mind.

However, upon brain storming and with the passage of time, when a journey of life reached its middle, this sentence compelled me to overthink which made me decided to inscribe the beauty behind this point. Initially, it is to note that the key to success is to focus on simplicity. Once you have a strategy and a plan on how to achieve your goal (that means having it in writing), you must stay focused through the execution phase.

The phenomenon of simplicity explains to be ‘less equals to more’. Less stuff, less expense, less work [of what doesn't matter] equals more money, more time and more joy. It is rightly said that the simpler we can make things, which will help improve our efficiency and effectiveness which generate better results.  

To me, simplicity means power, the power to rise above confusion and complexity, and to get meaningful stuff done. The power to create what deeply matters to us. To me, the act of creating deeply desired results is the best road toward to success of many kinds. One of the key position people in my life was my father. An extremely simple person in many ways and extremely successful. I learned a lot from him about living a joyful life with simplicity and how to make the complications simple with creativity. Most people tend to complicate their lives. Personal ego and greed, unrealistic expectations and irrational fear do confound our lives. Moreover, I think that a lot of people unknowingly mix the meaning of complication and complexity together.

Complication is just a long and intricate road that leads to confusion and frustration. Whereas, Complexity is when different simple solutions are working together to achieve a bigger goal. People are not afraid of hard work, they are afraid of failure, and complexity just adds to that fear and erodes confidence.

The simpler we can keep things the more successful we will be, it's as simple as that! Moreover, this is for sure that success leaves clues. By studying the practices of great leaders, great companies or even great cross-country people; we can learn more about what it takes to be successful in our own endeavours. These were successful because they stuck to a simple and clear strategy of running hardest at the end, and ignored everything else. In our own lives, we tend to overcomplicate things. We spend our time trying to find the magical formula for success, rather than finding a simple strategy and working toward the success itself. Our willpower is limited.

You can use it endlessly searching for success, or you can use it to work toward it by taking a deep breath, create a concrete plan and focus on execution. Eliminate waste, simplify, aim to work leaner, smarter, faster and stronger. It is always the simple that produces the marvellous. According to Richie Norton, simplicity is complex. It’s never simple to keep things simple. Simple solutions require the most advanced thinking. High thinking refers to thinking beyond yourself or above yourself (or your self).

Observing or witnessing the thinking mind. the phrase 'high thinking' in the proverb refers to the purity and highness of thoughts and deeds. More than making our lives affluent, we should be more empathetic and selfless for others. High thinking could mean taking a macro or long-term view of your life.

It is generally said that man should believe in simple living and high thinking. Simple living is well defined but what constitutes High Thinking? Are we all capable of thinking high?  To understand more, the easiest definition of high thinking is unselfish thinking. It only means not to think about your own self, about your own benefits about your personal gains in all matters. It means to take yourself out and think in terms of others and the society, find ways and means as to how you can contribute to make it better with your effort. Man lives as a part of one big family and it is our duty to give something for the family’s uplift. As your works are frozen thoughts so your thinking has to be high to be beneficial.  Somehow, “High thinking” is like “high level” and “focused thinking”.

It sounds a bit elitist. High thinking leads to positive attitude which leads to positive ideas. Interestingly, having a mind filled with positive ideas is bliss as it can help you in attaining heights of success. When good thoughts generate in mind then it also helps in boosting our confidence. Our thoughts shape our path of success so we need to train our thoughts to attain success.

There is overwhelming evidence from research in positive psychology that people who are happy are more successful. Positivity is related to higher levels of job performance, supervisory evaluations and perceived customer service. Positive people perform better because they are more motivated and more effective. This is due to a number of benefits associated with experiencing positive emotions. It keeps stress at bay, boosts your confidence and self esteem, keeps you psychologically fit as those who are psychologically strong are more resilient, more energetic, optimist and confident.

Besides it enriches mental health. It is truly said that happy brains are smart brains because it opens us up, broadening the range of ideas that come to mind which leads to greater creativity.  Social benefits personally attached with people, which leads to high quality relationships related to personal growth, creativity, motivation, and productivity. Moreover, one can retain good health as positive people are physically healthier. They have lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, lower levels of stress-related hormones, and stronger immune systems.

Anyhow, positive thinking is an attitude that pushes you to expect good and desired results. Power of positivity helps you in creating and transforming energy into reality. Positive mindset helps you to seek happiness, health and a happy ending regardless of the situation.

To conclude, the next evolution of simple living and high thinking is simple living and positiving thinking with high awareness—the evolution from intellectual to spiritual. the high thinking came first, followed by the simple living, and then more high thinking.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 05 2022

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