Simple Over Smart
A father goes to meet his children at an early morning hour and realizes something about his mind
He was not an emotional man, but sometimes strong emotional wishes would sneak up on him unbidden. He wanted to go surprise his children in the morning before they left for school. They stayed in the neighboring state, with over 200 miles separating them from him. And so, he started driving in the cover of the night, with barely four hours of sleep under his belt and the fresh regret of watching that late night movie. While driving, many distracting thoughts would stream through his head, but none with the potency and emotional energy of seeing his children in the morning. How amazed they would be at this feat their father had pulled off. This is what he realized — A man doesn’t need much to pull him towards his goal. Goals are irrational things and require the dimming down of complex brain operations to basic feelings. Our brain is capable of a lot, but it wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything worthwhile if it were to be lost in its complexity. He realized something very important about the pursuit of goals doing this early morning drive. People write best-selling books, breaking down the act of achieving success or of reaching your goals, but really the answer is very simple. All you have to do is break out of complexity. You need to stop using your brain in all the million ways it is capable of being used in and have to hook it to just one thing. In his case, it was this image of his kids running towards him and greeting him warmly. It was a silly, emotional wish, and he could’ve got that feeling tomorrow too, but somehow the brain caught on to that and erased all thoughts and options to execute it fully. He would’ve wasted energy if he was thinking about anything else. So, the secret of success is actually less thinking and not more. The achievement of goals doesn’t take a smart person, but rather a simple-minded one.