“It is your work to clear away
the mass of encumbering material of thought,
so that you may bring into plain view
the precious thing at the center of the mass.”

— Robert Collier

“The ability to simplify
means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak.”

— Hans Hofmann

“Genius is the ability
to reduce the complicated
to the simple.”

— C. W. Ceram

[Classic post from 11-20-10]

Until I can find the simplicity in something, I struggle. In all of my learning, I seek to understand the simplicity of the subject so that I understand it well enough to teach it in its simplest way. There are many subjects I don’t get to that level of, but those that I do get to become so easy.

As an example, in my commercial truck training related to potential overloading problems, I relate a service body to closets we have in our homes. The reason is what we do with closets. We fill them up and they never get emptied until we move. Since a service body is just a bunch of closets, that is exactly what service body owners do. Therein lies the potential problem that everyone can now see clearly. The truck is always full and getting fuller. I use a number of these simplifications because they are easy to understand and easy to teach and fulfill the training goal.

I’ve studied so many things, and the single most studied has been psychology as it relates to sales, sales management, leadership, and motivation. When I was in college, I choked on psychology texts. They were so boring and dull and unnecessarily complicated. It’s not that complicated. So, I’ve studied alternative ways to understand this subject by delving into Transactional Analysis, popular psychology, and self-help psychology which simplifies so much of that subject. And, it has been of great benefit in my work and in my personal life.

Napoleon Hill stated, “All great truths are simple in the final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not, they are not great truths.” I also have found the most profound things I have learned have all been so incredibly simple and easy to understand–when I was willing and interested in the study rather than skimming.

“The Obvious Is That Which Is Never Seen Until Someone Expresses It Simply.” — Kahlil Gibran

Spread Some Joy Today–Learn something that excites you so you can teach it. Then teach it. There is great joy in this.