Created by Mike Donghia. Subscribe to our blog for free daily updates.
One of the most impactful lessons of my life has been the unexpected compounding benefit of taking simple ideas seriously.
What do I mean by this?
Let’s use decluttering as an example— the art of removing unnecessary items from your physical environment.
Why we don’t take simple ideas seriously
The reason we don’t take simple ideas (like decluttering) seriously is not because we doubt their benefit. If you polled 100 people and asked them if decluttering would improve their lives, the vast majority would say yes.
The problem lies in the fact that we routinely underestimate the power of these ideas. And the reason for that is simple: most of the time we are thinking in terms of linear, incremental improvement. In other words, we’re only factoring in the first-level effects of decluttering— namely, a clean, clutter-free physical environment.
From the outside, decluttering seems like just one of any number of good ideas you can implement in your life. If you don’t have a clutter “problem”, maybe you’ll steal a few ideas that you’ve picked up here and there and start applying them, but no reason to get too crazy about it, right?
Or maybe you do have a clutter “problem” but you see clutter as just a symptom of a larger problem, or perhaps just one of many things that you’d like to change about yourself. Maybe it’s hard to know where to start.
A case where reality is better than expected
But my experience with simple ideas applied seriously has been far more exciting: when you cross the line from casually applying an idea to your life to taking it seriously, a switch is flipped.
The concentrated energy of taking a single idea seriously immediately creates progress in your life.
Progress is motivating and begets more progress. And suddenly, your whole demeanor is changed. Instead of looking for the path of least resistance, you are feeling more capable and up for bigger and bigger challenges. In other words, taking a simple idea seriously is a great way to shake yourself out of complacency.
But there’s more. Most simple, timeless ideas have stuck around for a reason— they produce cascading and compounding benefits that spill over into other areas of your life. Let me just name a few that you might experience if you completely reinvented your relationship with your home by decluttering:
- More time because you have less stuff to clean and organize on a weekly basis
- More money because you aren’t buying as much stuff to fill your home
- Improved mood because you wake up each morning to a clean, clutter-free home
The power of multiplication
Take a minute to imagine your life with more time, more money, and a generally improved mood.
Think of the blessing your life could become to those around you with more time to spend with the people you love, more money to live generously, and the emotional energy to engage the world head-on.
You might think I’m over-selling the benefits of decluttering, but I don’t think I am. These cascading benefits to your life can be found by taking just about any good piece of life advice and taking it seriously.
The hurdle is seeing beyond the mere first-order benefits of the change.
The challenge is realizing that you don’t need a plan to change every area of your life. Start small and allow the momentum to multiply on its own.
The real task is staying focused on just one idea, and taking it seriously. Far more seriously than others would dare take it.
How to begin
Here are a few practical tips for getting started in taking simple ideas seriously.
Start anywhere. You might be tempted to spend a lot of time finding the perfect place to begin, but in almost all cases, the best thing you can possibly do is to just get started. That’s because of the multiplying power of taking an idea seriously— where you start doesn’t matter so much as the momentum you will build in many areas of your life. Here’s a list of 25 good ideas to get you started. Pick one and don’t look back.
Make it too easy to fail. Now is not the time to be ambitious with your change. You may want to change your life in one fell swoop, but that’s not how these things work. Picture a train getting started… slowly at first and then nearly unstoppable. The serious aspect of taking an idea seriously should come from your resolute commitment to stick with this plan through thick or thin. Make your initial goal so small that it seems almost impossible to fail: think along the scale of 1 push up a day or decluttering 3 items from your counter.
Stick with it. Once you’ve proven that you’ve sufficiently taken the idea seriously for a few weeks, you can slowly start increasing the intensity of your efforts. But don’t forget, we are going for longevity. Don’t break the chain. Tenacity is required to continue your efforts until they become a part of you. Stopping will feel as inconceivable as starting once did and over time you will begin to see new changes grow organically from the first.
The central idea of this post is very simple and straight-forward: if you take an idea seriously, you are likely to see good results. The surprising part for me, and the reason I’m sharing with you, is that I think many people underestimate the magnitude of the positive effects. We have a tendency to seek complicated or new solutions, and overlook the simple ones. In my own life, the power of taking simple ideas seriously has been a wonderful surprise. The best part: if the simple ideas work so well, you don’t have to waste your time looking anywhere else!
If you enjoyed this article, please support my work by subscribing to my daily newsletter.
