The individual and the collective trend towards complexity. When we are born all we can do are simple tasks, but as we grow we can perform more and more complex activities. A measure of a developed society is one that has increased its level of complexity. But the things which make us the happiest in life are often the simplest. Listening to music, a quiet cup of tea or coffee, meeting friends, enjoying a sunset. At work, once we have nailed down a process, our natural tendency is to make it simpler.
Personal development is a busy, multi-million-pound industry. Naturally providers want to stand out so that they can do well and help as many people as possible. To this end it’s not uncommon for people to ‘invent’ new processes, dress old ideas in new clothes, or set themselves up as the only one who can solve your problems. From the outside this can make the field of personal development look confusing. But in reality, it isn’t. Having a happy and fulfilling life is quite simple. As the name of my podcast says, there are Just Two Things you need to know –
- You are responsible for your life, for what you think about it, how you feel about it, and what you do with it. You and no one else.
- And that what you put out is what you get back. Somewhere, somehow, somewhen.
Now that may sound too simple for some people. So, let’s expand on these a little. There is only one person who is in every single scene in the film of your life, and in case you hadn’t guessed, it’s you. Your parents or early life caregivers, your siblings, your teachers, your friends, your partner or ex-partners, and even your children will come and go in your life. But you are there all the time. So, if anyone is going to make changes or improvements in your life, it must be you. In addition, no coach, therapist, or guru can make changes for you. What they offer you are, the thinking and behaviour of the healed mental state. For you to get any benefit from this you need to match that thinking and behaviour, but no one can make you do it, or do it for you. Your life is your responsibility. And responsibility means your innate ability to choose how to react to situations that crop up in your life; your response-ability. To the extent that you do not accept responsibility for where you are in life, then you are powerless to transform it. If you persist in blaming other people for your current life situation, then you are saying to yourself that the situation is outside of your control. By doing so, you will then have the experience of being out of control. Think about it like this; your current circumstances do not matter, all that matters is how you choose to respond to those circumstances.
In every religion on the planet there is a variant of what is known as the Golden Rule, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” Though it does appear in slightly different forms, for instance as Karma in Eastern religions, nevertheless it is a common feature of religious thought. To quote from the Jewish kabbalistic book, The Zohar, “Reality resembles a mirror. Every deed we perform, each emotion we display and every word we speak is reflected back to our lives in equal measure.” Carl Jung the famous Swiss psychiatrist said, “When an inner situation is not made conscious it appears outside as fate.” What he means is, if you are unconscious about some behaviour or emotion in you, then through the collective unconscious you attract someone or some situation to you who has your problem, so that you can become aware of it in you. Now many of you may not connect with Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious, but that’s how he thought. Now just quoting these references does not make, “what you put out, is what you get back,” true. I laid out my evidence for thinking that it is true in my book It’s Time, but there isn’t space to do that here. At least start to get a sense of this by observing your own life and the lives of those around you.
Whether you believe life is like a mirror or not, in my next blog on simplicity I will describe things that you can think or do that will make your life easier no matter what you believe.
Keep life simple and you will enjoy the rich complexity inherent in existence.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler ” – Albert Einstein
