Learning to KISS

“Simplicity is nature’s first step, and the last of art.” – Philip James Bailey

One thing that strikes me as an amazing accomplishment of human beings is their ability to make the simplest things into the most complex things.

It was Albert Einstein who commented that:

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.”

To me, this statement answers one of the fundamental beliefs in our society that if something is too simple; it’s not being done right. Einstein in his quote is answering that belief by saying that things should be made as simple as possible, whilst still maintaining the outcome required, but not any simpler than that.

When we talk about elegance or elegant strategies, what we’re talking about is being effective and simple. When the lady looks elegant, it’s because she’s wearing what we see as simple yet achieving in its purpose and when chemists talk about synthesis, they’re looking for the most elegant way of combining chemicals to get the desired result.

How do we go about ensuring that we’re operating in the most elegant way possible? Simply, of course

When it comes to doing anything whether it’s learning NLP, promoting your business, building a website or working with people to help them get the best results for them, the best way to ensure you’re doing it in the most elegant way is to test. When I’m working with a client and they want a result, one of the first things we do is write down all the possible ways they can go about getting the result they want. Then we go through and find out which ones the person actually wants to do. It’s not enough to know what to do if you’re not planning on enjoying doing it. There’s always a more enjoyable way.

Once we’ve found the ways that seem the most enjoyable we can then begin simplifying what needs to be done. We do this by taking out all the unnecessary steps and we know which steps are unnecessary by trying it out. What happens if we take x part of the strategy out of the equation, what happens if we take y and move it to a different part of the strategy, what happens if we add z into the mix, what’s the difference that makes the difference.

The bit where stuff gets simpler

1. Think of some of the things you’ve been wanting to achieve and write them down
2. Pick one of those things to begin with and write a list of things you can do to achieve what you want
3. Figure out which of these things you want to do, which ones you might be able to get other people to do and which ones you have trouble figuring out why you even wrote it down in the first place.
4. For the things you want to do to get the result you want, which ones seem the most simple. Put together another list of these things in order of complexity.
5. Next to each item on this new list, write down the result you expect from doing this activity and place a number next too it from 1-10 where 10 is This will absolutely get me the full result I’m after and 1 is I guess it could get me the result if I do other stuff too.
6. From the things that will get you the greatest result, which of these things seem like the most fun and can be done right now.
7. When you choose to want to do those things on your list that will get you the greatest result in the most fun and simple way, feel free to go ahead.

One thing I’ll add to this is a comment about NLP. NLP is simpler than a lot of people think and the beauty and power of NLP and many other things is in its simplicity. There are topics within NLP that are complex and when we talk about them it’s often useful to hold up new ideas and add new things to the mix that helps us in the future to distil the discussion into something simple. The idea that skills go from conscious competence to unconscious competence is a reminder that at some point things go back to being simple again.

Take care, keep smiling and learn to become the best KISSer you can be.

Love, Jamie