Keep it Simple, Stupid

It feels kind of cliched to observe that life is as simple or as complicated as you make it. While some might disagree, I still think this is true, give or take the odd occasion when circumstances just seem to land on you.

I suppose it's easy for me, right now, to say that my life is remarkably simple, being that I've recently walked away from my job and am pretty much just existing from one day to the next without any really fixed plans. But not everyone is in a position to do this, of course! And it would be fair to say that if I am to pursue the course I intend and still make a living, hopefully with multiple income streams, the simplicity probably isn't going to last.

So much for work. Relationships seem to be the other major area in which people are very good at complicating their lives and I don't think I'm exceptional in this regard. Again, if I pursue the course I intend here, the simplicity of monogamy will be left further and further behind as I explore the greener and many-other-coloured pastures of polyamory.

So it could be said that I'm complicating my life, just a bit. My father has remarked in the past that I seem to be quite good at doing this, but quite frankly, anything is complicated when compared to my childhood. And there it is - it's all relative. When I was working in an office job, the progress of my life was simplicity itself: get up, go to work, work, come home, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat. Every so often something else might happen, but the pattern was ploddingly repetitive.

The problem with this kind of simplicity is that, well, it's boring. It almost becomes necessary to create complications in order to relieve the monotony. In the end, I think that's why I walked away.

I wonder if that's at least partly why so many married people cheat on their spouses.

What I've discovered is that there are ways and means of complicating one's life in a simple and straightforward manner. One can hold back for fear of getting into too many things - something I've spent most of my life doing, to my great detriment - or just throw caution to the wind and leap into life headfirst, tackling the obstacles as and when they arise. The latter, I think, is actually simpler in the long run.

The trouble is that the first course of action, such as it is, doesn't result in a simple and stress-free life. If you don't engage with life, then anything that just lands on you (despite your best efforts at avoidance) is all the more difficult to deal with. Enter complications, and with them, all too often, a world of hurt.

Of course the latter offers far more opportunities for pain and failure right up front, but these are usually also opportunities for growth and success - especially if you face up to them openly and honestly. It's the difference between the complications you create for yourself and the ones that happen just because you were trying to run away from them.

And the best thing about my simply complicated life? It's not boring anymore.