A Simple Kiss

  The best of professional athletes, no matter their sport, will talk about slowing the game down. There is a clarity that comes when the immediacy of the game is slowed, and the game of life is no different. For instance, if you were to take football as an example, running backs who are able to see the entire field in front of them, can anticipate the blocks before they develop, and therefore make the best decisions which allows for the most yards on a particular play. These decisions don't always mean following the play as it was designed, but rather they can adjust their run as the play develops. These small decisions made during the game will almost always result in a higher grand total of gain, and taken as a whole, have a direct bearing on whether the game is won or lost. Life is no different, in that it is those small decisions and adjustments that we all make every day, that when taken in total will decide whether our day is a successful one or not. Put enough successful days together, remembering to take one day at a time, and before you realize it, you have a successful month. put enough successful months together and you have a successful year, and successful years give way to a successful life!
So in reality, it is those small decisions that we make on a daily basis that will lead to how successful we are in life. So then, assuming you buy into this theory, how then do we put this concept into action? How do you slow down the pace of life, a life that more often then not, comes at you so fast that you can be easily overwhelmed by it?
  The key of course is to simplify things, because it is by taking the complexities of life, and reducing them to their simplest form, that the rapid pace of life slows down. And when you are able to slow down that pace, you will find that there is a clarity to it. Obviously, the clearer things are to you, the better your decisions will be, and the clearer your life becomes, the better your life will be. I realize that I made it sound so simple that it is almost redundant, but keep in mind that this is a learned response. One that I don't always follow myself, because it is one that takes a lot of practice, and a solid commitment, a commitment that in the difficulties of life is easy to loose sight of.
So if the key to a successful life is to simplify it, how is it that we go about accomplishing that? The first and most obvious thing that we must do comes from that old AA standard, The Serenity Prayer. Admit to yourself what it is that you can control, and separate it from the things which you cannot. In other words, the things that you can change from those you cannot. Leaving the things that you cannot change alone, and listing the things that you can in the order of importance. You will find that the things of importance will take the most time. These important things should be prioritized and then compartmentalized into groups of actions that must be taken to achieve whatever that goal is. Of course there will be problems and obstacles, and you should expect these. But when these things arise, remember the word KISS, which means, keep it simple stupid!