Why my life gets so complex. This is the Daily Disservice podcast with Anthony Von Gieman. Simplicity is an exact medium of too little and too much. Josh Reynolds.
Right, so it's in between too little and too much. Sak too long. Yesterday we defined simplicity, the quality of being easy to understand, easy to do, being plain, natural, right? But why do we find ourselves with lives that are so complex?
Well, why is complex? By definition, it's involving so many connected, but sometimes seemingly disconnected parts, right? Something complex is made up of different parts. And why is life so complex today?
Okay, let's look at it first from a macro perspective from Harvard Business Review. A couple of things they said that makes life more complex today. The digitization, right, of a lot of information, which is available to more and more people today, right? So suddenly we know so much more.
Another one is smart systems that communicate interdependently. Whereas before it's just the boss, right? To the employee it was just one network communicating to millions. Now it's even within the community.
Interconnectedness, intercommunication, because of smart systems available to people. Today it's more complex, finally, because of the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots. So you see, in business, for example, things have completely changed because of what's happened this past year and a half. And those who are equipped are moving fast forward compared to everybody else.
The wholesale rewriting, right, of how business is done, how industries are designed. Who would have thought, for example, that one year startups would be more valuable overnight compared to some big, even century old businesses? Who would have thought that would happen now while it is happening, right? The whole world is changing.
It is much more complicated, more complex. Well, if you ask me, why did it get complicated? Let's simplify it, as I always try here in the daily disturbance, I have how many reasons before me? I have seven reasons, okay, seven reasons why it's a more complicated and complex world.
Number one, copying others. Copying others. And their success has been the norm, an expectation from day one, right? If your dad was a great doctor, then most likely you should be too.
And that has led to a lot of disappointment, frustration, even strained relationships. So copying others been one reason why life is so complex. Because you can't stay simple and do just what you're called to do. Number two, opportunities abound.
And those who, I quote, seize the day, right? The assertive ones, the aggressive ones have traditionally been looked up to, right? These are the go getters. Pity the man who seizes the Opportunity outside of his competency.
And who actually chooses not one opportunity, not even two, but so many. That is what's happening today. Getting more and more and more and more. And then what?
Enjoying it less and less and less. Simplify, be content. Don't grab every opportunity. In 1 Timothy 6:6:7, what does it say?
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing to the world and we cannot take anything out of it. So the second reason is opportunities. There are just too many. Number three, why did life get so complex?
Because maturity is often not yet at the level to face. So much complexity in the world before us, of the Internet of which we all have access to, it has been said by cyber forensic experts, kids are given the keys to a vehicle they have not learned to drive, right? Not just kids, actually adults too, with all the possibilities of online connection today. So it's inevitable, right, if you don't have to drive.
Violations, abuse, tragic incidents, some with long term devastating consequences. So what is our level of maturity today? Number four, practices and plans of the past which no longer apply are still being forced today. That's another reason why it's so complex, so complicated in the world.
Because things are not falling into place. Because what we are trying to do was only applicable, right, for yesterday. You know, seriously, thousands of businesses have closed down because they can't cope with the new normal. You know this, there are so many reinventing themselves or even just renaming themselves.
Facebook meta, I can't wrap my mind around that word. Let's see so many pivoting that term, right? Doing anything and everything just for the sake of surviving. I mean just going to the city and I will in a couple of hours, like from my place even ways is so complicated now, it's, it's confused.
So practices and plans of the past being forced today. Number five, learning. The fifth reason why it's so complex. The world is so complicated.
Because learning has been fast tracked so much. We dive into doing things we don't really have an idea how to manage. Suddenly because of, you know, one day master classes or DIYs right, on YouTube, everyone is suddenly an expert, an entrepreneur, an influencer, you know, money trader. And the sad thing here is they are packaged so well on the outside, but so superficial, so hollow and even confused on the inside.
Number six, environmental stress. You know this, it's an all time high. And of course the environment rubs off on you and me. I mean, climate has certainly changed.
Covid seems to be a long term reality. We all would have to live with. And the continuing and escalating geopolitical conflicts reveal to us a world that's not going to get any simpler, right? In the coming days.
I mean, seriously, have you ever thought of what scripture meant by the last days? And finally, number seven, Complex Xmas, Short for Christmas, because Christmas is coming. The most wonderful time of the year. What's that song?
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Really? It's the most super stressed time of the year. Complex because of the copying mindset.
C O opportunities abounding. M maturity that is lacking. Plans and practices that are no longer applicable. P L learning that is too fast.
Environmental E changes ongoing and X Christmas around the corner. C O, M P L E X It's complex. So rewrite the script of your life. It no longer works.
Then again, does any script really work? Perhaps best to entrust your story in mine to I quote the author and the perfecter of our faith. That's God himself. His story in history gives hope to our happier endings.
Jeremiah 29. Right. For I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
To give you a future and a hope. From complexity to simplicity. Let's journey back first. Chill.
Okay? We still have each other. Walt Whitman. In the confusion, we stay with each other.
He said, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word. And in Psalm 131, 122. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great, too marvelous for me.
But I've called and quieted my soul. That's simple. Like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within.