Bring Simplicity Into Your Life To Be Consistent

The number of videos on the internet today with people inventing a new workout routine is endless. There’s probably thousands if not millions of new content being uploaded every day.

Many of the creators need you to believe that you’re doing something wrong in your current routine to keep you engaged. They’re looking for the pain points. Perhaps you’re not losing weight as fast as you would like. Their hooks are, “my workout routine will fix that.”

In the process, you end up abandoning everything that you know. Maybe you haven’t worked out in years, but know that you need to get back into something. You’ve spent months looking up different workout videos. You give one routine a week and end up quitting because it “doesn’t feel right” or that it’s “overwhelming.”

New routines can be overwhelming. I know I’ve dealt with that in my past. When you do a workout that you’ve never done before it usually takes longer than you thought, the workflow feels choppy, and you wonder to yourself, “is this routine actually right for me?”

Go Back To Simplicity

Simplicity is beautiful. It’s something that keeps overwhelm at bay. Simplicity also helps build commitment. When you stick to a routine that’s not overly complicated, that’s simple, you don’t raise your ceiling as much as you raise your floor.

If you’re trying to get into a workout routine, start with the least sexy things that you can. This may be doing a set number of push-ups, squats or lunges each day. This may be trying to start a running routine.

One of the reasons I love running is because it is inherently simple. If I can’t think of what to do for a workout on any given day, I just go for a run. It’s always my floor.

It’s hard to commit to same thing over and over again for months on end. Your workout routine should change overtime, but it shouldn’t change in a way that’s flipping a table. It should evolve in a natural and organic way that simplicity brings.

New and Sexy Is Marketing

When you see thousands of fitness influencers trying to hook you onto their routine, they’re marketing towards you. If you do what I do, you will have a body just like me. I hate to break it to you, but there are some estimates that say that almost 1/2 of all fitness influencers are on some kind of performance enhancing drug.

If you find someone that you enjoy following, make sure that you really understand what their message is.

Beyond fitness, simplicity can be helpful in all other aspects of your life. If you’re trying to eat healthier, start with the basics. There’s no need to go out and spend $20/lb on the new fruit that was discovered in the Amazon when you haven’t even cut down on your sugar consumption yet.

“Fill your bowl to the brim, and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security, and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval, and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”- Lao Tzu

Simplicity Gives You Space

When you cut down on things that are not needed in your life, both mentally and physically, you gain back room to breathe. The more things you can do without, the more you will appreciate the things that you do have.

Simplicity is hard. Especially for people who always want something more out of life, like myself.

Learn to channel your drive inward instead of outward. Look for personal growth and building discipline.

With channeling inward, you also drive bringing presence to your life. I would argue that presence is one of the most essential skills that you could learn to feel fulfilled.

Conclusion

If you feel like your life is overly complex, and you’re constantly overwhelmed, it may take a while before you get to that feeling where you have everything under control. Remember that simplicity is as much a mental state as it is a state that you live in the physical world. If you feel like you have too much “stuff” it might not the best method to start going through everything and getting rid of the excess right away. That may cause a perpetual buy/purge cycle that you do not want to have.

Simplicity is hard because it requires some form of belief. It’s hard to do the same workout routine for more than a month. The urge to completely flip the table and start over is there, but simplicity can teach you discipline.