Ever feel like you are hanging by a thin thread? Take for example this pic of Phil above. It may look like he is in quite a predicament dangling off a bridge. But in reality, he received proper rappelling training. Our friend Dave is an experienced mountaineer and taught Phil exactly how to use a Petzl Pirana, carabiner, harness and some basic rope knots. What makes the photo precarious is really a limited point of view.
I’ve found that nearly all of us make things harder, more complicated, and even a bit scarier, by adding a mental layer of difficulty and a mindset of limitations. We make simple things complicated:
- Fear about what might happen: Let’s say your friends want to try a new hiking trail, but you’re afraid of heights and how they might react … you might put off that conversation because of that fear, instead of simply talking to them about it and getting the support you need.
- Overwhelming thoughts: Doing one task at a time is pretty simple, but we get overwhelmed by all the things. We think about an entire list of things that we haven’t done yet, and we feel stressed about it, and end up feeling like we can’t do any of it.
- Beating ourselves up: If we didn’t do what we thought we should do, we feel like we did things wrong, and we chastise ourselves for not doing things right. This discourages us from just simply starting again.
- Frustration with another person: If people don’t behave the way we want them to, we can get frustrated … and then it can derail us from our intentions.
There is nothing inherently wrong with doing all of this — it’s human. This is how our minds work.
However … if we bring awareness to our added mental layer, we can simplify it by letting go of that extra layer and the limitations that hamper progress.
It’s a practice that I find many in the outdoor community adopt. You pack only what you need and you go about doing things as simply as possible.
For example:
- Habits like exercise or meditation: We have lots of ideas about how hard the exercise is or how we haven’t been meditating as much as we “should” have been … and it creates extra stress and obstacles to just doing the exercise or meditation. What if we let all of that go, and simply went out for a walk or did some pushups? What if we let all of that go and simply sat down to meditate for a few minutes? Habits can be that simple, without all the extra mental layers.
- Decluttering: Most people overcomplicate it, because they feel overwhelmed by how much there is to declutter in their house or office. What would it be like to let go of this layer of “there’s so much!” and just start with one small area? Pick up one thing at a time in that area. Ask yourself if you use/love it or want to get rid of it, and put it in one of two piles. Repeat.
- Tasks: Same idea — we have so many things to do that it overwhelms us and stresses us out, makes acting on things more difficult. Letting go of the idea of “there’s too much,” we can simply pick the most important thing to work on right now, and focus only on that.
I know it’s not as simple as that, because letting go of the mental layers isn’t always easy. But the point is that it could be simple. It could be much easier, if we would let go of those layers. When you quit worrying about all the usual thoughts like “shoulds” and “too scared” and “can’t afford it” you will experience a freedom to live without limits. So enjoy the YouTube short below and be free!