EP 005: It Gets To Be Easy
July 27, 2020 | By Ashley Brown
Stop over complicating decisions. In today's episode I'll discuss how it gets to be easy! Somewhere along the way we decided that if it's not hard then we're not doing it right. And that's just not true. Decisions should be easy. Decide it gets to be easy and figure out a solution that supports your decision.
IN THIS EPISODE ASHLEY DISCUSSES:
Why we overcomplicate everything.
Life gets to be easy.
Stop overcomplicating dinner, work, your home and your life.
How to shift your mindset.
How to make decisions the easy way.
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Ashley’s Facebook group
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I get it some days it feels as if you're riding the "hot mess" express and there's no end in sight. Hello, I'm Ashley Brown, mom of three little kids who used to let life's chaos get the best of me. Then I discovered that you can elevate your life, raise kids and make what matters happen all while adding a little more elegance into your everyday lifestyle.
I'm on a mission to help busy women overcome the hot mess and create an elegant life they love by starting with the essentials. Everyday life doesn't have to be so chaotic. Join me in discussions about ways to help you embrace simplicity with practical solutions and easy to implement ideas. So you can design a home and life you love. This is a source of encouragement. This is the change you've been looking for. This is the always elegant living podcast.
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 005 of The Always Elegant Living Podcast. I am your host, Ashley Brown, and I help overwhelmed women embrace simplicity with practical solutions and easy to implement ideas so you can design a home and life you love. And in today's episode, we're going to be talking about one of my best practical solutions and it happens to be an easy to implement idea because it's all about how life gets to be easy. It gets to be easy and that is today's topic.
I think so often we overcomplicate everything. We overcomplicate decisions. We overcomplicate our life. We overcomplicate our home, how we parent. We overcomplicate our work. We overcomplicate our marriages and relationships. Basically we are just overcomplicating everything because we forget that it gets to be easy and I think there's this mindset that if it's easy and you're not struggling, then you're doing it wrong and that is just absolutely not true.
And that's what I want to talk about today is that it gets to be easy. Life gets to be easy. Your home, gets to be easy. How you raise your kids and your relationships and your work gets to be easy. I think just by hearing that, it's as if somebody is giving you permission. Or just understanding that other people are living life easily. It can kind of take that weight off your shoulders to understand that it doesn't have to be so hard. You don't have to struggle all the time in your home, with your kids, your family and with what food to get on the table for dinner. You don't have to make it so hard and overcomplicated.
So let's dive into today's topic of how it gets to be easy. For a long, long time, I used to overcomplicate everything. Whether it was the meals that I was planning and making recipes that were too hard and too time consuming. Whether it was how I was decorating my home, and I decided that I needed to make every project that I saw on Pinterest and get all the tools and make the furniture and stuff because I wanted it to be exactly perfect and the right color. Or whether it was even my work. I overcomplicated everything. Everything had a million different steps, nothing was easy, everything was a struggle. My tasks were not getting done because I was making it too hard. And maybe this is something that's resonating with you because you're just making stuff too hard in life, but there's a solution. And the solution is understanding that it gets to be easy.
So once I started really understanding what that meant and started living my life intuitively with the mindset of it gets to be easy, everything changed. And let me just tell you, having that weight lifted off your shoulders is amazing. Understanding that things don't have to be so complicated, you don't have to struggle, you don't have to do it perfectly. You don't have to suffer the consequences of a wrong decision, because most decisions can be fixed. You can change your mind. You can pivot a different way. I think we just don't fully understand that. Instead we agonize over the decision instead of just making the easiest decision that's available right there.
So let's dive into that. What does it mean when I say it gets to be easy? Well, it means that it gets to be easy. It means that any decision you're struggling with right now, think about what's the easiest way to get this job done? What is the easiest way to complete this task? What is the easiest way to get dinner on the table tonight? Maybe it's ordering a pizza. Maybe it's reheating something that you made the other night that you froze and you could just heat in the microwave for a few minutes. Maybe it's just cooking up some tacos. I don't know, but whatever it is, it gets to be easy. And this is something that you should definitely write on a Post-it and make it your mantra for life, for your week, for your day, because it has helped me so much. And I know it has helped my friends and other women that I talked to about this because it's just these few little words that just remind us that it gets to be easy.
Let's dive into some more examples about home and life and just about my decision making process that helps me really kind of weigh out my options and understanding what is the easiest option? What is the hardest option? What is the right option? And making a decision from there.
So recently we just started redecorating our house. Not so much redecorating, but we moved in our house a couple of years ago and it was a lot bigger than our old house so we knew we needed more furniture as the years went on. When we first moved in, we got a lot of things for the house. Then I wanted to wait a few years and live here to really see what we needed and how we lived life. Before I invested in furniture, I just wanted to see what we really needed, how our life would evolve and what would actually go into a space.
One space I had, I knew I wanted to put a desk there for the kids so they could do their homework. But now that's not something that I actually want. I moved them into my office with me and got them desks in here and now I have this big open space in my living room where a desk was supposed to be. So I thought about it for a while and I decided that I wanted to put a sideboard buffet there because I don't really have a place to store my napkins and entertaining stuff. And I do entertain a lot, at least I used to pre COVID. I just wanted a place for all of that stuff. So what was once going to be place for a homework station is now going to be a place for that.
So when you're trying to shop for furniture, especially during a pandemic, it's so hard. It's really hard to get to the stores. They don't really have inventory, so I'm shopping online and it's hard to make decisions. And I always have to remind myself it gets to be easy. One of the things that I'm looking at when I'm shopping is what item is going to get here the fastest? Because obviously during this pandemic, things are taking two or even three months to ship and I want it done now. I want it easy. For me, that means I'm looking at what could be here in a few days.
That's deciding factor number one. Instead of sitting there struggling and picking the best piece, and the perfect this, and the perfect that, and then not having it here for three to four months, I've decided it gets to be easy. Let's just fill this spot in. If it's not the right piece, I can return it. I can sell it. I can move it to a different spot. I can just change my mind and decide, "Hey, I actually do not want this here," and like I said, return it, but it gets to be easy. And I know that's a very trivial example and I am okay with that because it's something that I'm sure as you are purchasing furniture for your apartments or your homes or whatever, everyone kind of struggles in this area. But just remembering that it gets to be easy, helps with those decisions.
Let's talk about another decision or another way that things get to be easy. How about getting dinner on the table? For some reason, we overcomplicate that area of life so much. And you guys, it gets to be easy. We're talking about feeding your family or feeding yourself. What is the easiest way to get food in people's mouths? Sometimes that is takeout, sometimes it is a pizza, sometimes it's maybe just a stash of frozen food in your freezer. And it's okay because what is the easiest way that we can get this job done?
Instead of overcomplicating it and making all these beautiful meals from scratch, all these Pinterest ideas that you have, and having dinner take an hour and a half for prep work before you can even get it on the table when you have a million things going on, it's just not realistic and it gets to be easy. So if you just remember those words and remember that feeling that it gets to be easy, you don't have to struggle in this area. Life just becomes so much simpler. This is one of my best practical solutions for making decisions and for my home and for my family is what is the easiest way that this can be accomplished?
Let's talk about another area of life that gets to be easy. Your job. For me, my job or part of my job is recording podcasts. But sometimes that can be super challenging because I do have three little kids at home who are always here, who no longer go to school and it feels as if we're also on summer vacation. I have a husband who's home a lot in the evenings and also on the weekends. And so just getting some alone time and a quiet time to record a podcast, sometimes is very challenging. For me, I always think about what is the easiest way I can get this done? Sometimes that means, recording a podcast Sunday morning before people wake up and that's okay. It gets to be easy. Do I necessarily want to work on a Sunday? No, but do I want to record a podcast when the house is quiet? Yes. So what is the easiest way to do that? And that sometimes mean waking up and just doing it in the morning on a Sunday when everyone's still asleep.
Here are some other ways that life gets to be easy. Dinner time. Your dinner decisions get to be easy. Work gets to be easy. When it comes to making decisions, what is the easiest way to get this done? I think that is a question we always need to be asking ourselves. What is the easiest way to accomplish this task? Sometimes that means ordering stuff from Amazon with your two day ship and your Prime and just getting it here and getting it done so you can check things off your list. Sometimes it means ordering pizza for dinner or having a stash of freezer meals in your freezer so that way, when dinner comes and your day gets away from you dinner can just be easy.
Sometimes the decisions are a little more complicated. Like with your kids and your kids' activities and different parenting decisions. But just stop and pause and ask yourself, "What is the easiest way that I can accomplish the results I want?" and go with that. I don't know why as a culture, we have decided to overcomplicate everything. Everything from decisions about your home and how you set things up and the furniture you buy, to what you make for dinner, to how you work, all of a sudden became so overcomplicated. And for no reason. Because somewhere along the way, we decided that if we don't struggle and if it's not hard, then we're not doing it right and I don't agree with that at all.
To me, life gets to be easy. Decisions should be easy. Life should be fun and that's what makes it simple. This is an easy, practical solution. Decide it gets to be easy. That's it. That's the practical solution. What's the easiest way to make this result happen. And once you start thinking this way, life starts to be fun again. And it starts to actually be easy. Then you begin to create this life of ease that I'm always talking about and it always goes back to that decision making process.
So let's talk about a couple of steps of the decision making process. For me, when I'm making decisions, obviously I weigh out the pros and cons. I think about what's the end result that I want. And then the next question I ask is, "What is the easiest way to make this happen?" And usually that's what I go with. So as humans, we like to follow the path of least resistance, but somebody told us a long time ago that that's wrong. If we're following the path of least resistance, then we're not doing it right because things shouldn't be that easy. But it is and so this is your daily permission and reminder that it gets to be easy.
Think about the different decisions weighing on you and decide, what's the easiest way to get the end result I want? And try that. Try to make your decisions as easy as possible and life becomes easier and you become happier and then things become simpler. It's a whole cycle of now you're happy, now you're making easier decisions, life's simpler, life's more fun. And then that elegance starts to come in because things just kind of flow with that rhythm.
You don't have to struggle. You don't have to overcomplicate things thinking that you're making the right decision because you have all these obstacles in your ways. Forget all that. Just make the decision that it gets to be easy and figure out the solution that is the easiest to that.
I really hope this episode helps you guys. I know it's seems as if it's more of a little pep talk than an actual solution, but this is the solution. It gets to be easy.
If you're looking for more help in this area, maybe even more examples in a work setting. Or if you own your own business and you're looking for a way that it gets to be easy then check out The Purpose Show, episode164, with Allie Casazza. She talks about letting it be easy in the work setting. I know that episode has really helped me and inspired this episode.
I hope you guys have a great day. I hope you remember that it gets to be easy. Stop overcomplicating things and just let it be easy. Life gets to be easy, it does. It gets to be easy. Don't overcomplicate it, make the decision. You can always return things. You can always quit things. You can always make a different decision, but start with the decision of it gets to be easy.
Until next time, I'm always cheering for you and I will talk to you guys soon.
The episode is over and now it's time for you to take action.
What can you do today that will help you create who you want to be? Little by little progress adds up and in turn makes a big impact.
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You have the power to create who you were made to be. You can move past the chaos and start living a life you love with ease. And remember, I'll be there cheering you on.
Until next time. I'm Ashley Brown.
