The Art of Breaking The Complex Into The Simple

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the idea of a project or a skill that you wanted to learn or accomplish?

I know I have.

When I first started to learn the vast complexity of the web and web development it seemed unreachable.

Question…

why when ever we want to learn something new, we always look at the end result and then compare ourselves to the finished product?

I learned, as many have done like myself, that this perspective can be destructive.

What we really should do is set the finished goal as the achievement and figure out the steps in between to get there.

Instead we look at the end and say “man I’ll never get there”.

So how do we turn the complex into the simple?

Easy, break it up.

Will Smith once said

“you don’t start by saying I’m going to build a wall, you say I’m going to lay each brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid”

Mind Blown!

As simple as that sounds there were so many keys in that one phrase.

It was then I realized how I should approach everything, from learning, to implementing, to every action step I took.

What I started doing from then on was observe and analyze the overarching goals I wanted to reach and find the individual steps needed to reach the goal.

This gave me the ability to focus on one thing to fully understand the concept, in a sense master it, then move on to the next.

I was able to lay on brick at a time.

What this did was allow me to enjoy the smaller goals and achievements which were building up my wall.

Gary Keller in his book “The One Thing” explains this concept as in a row of Dominos.

There is one big domino, which is your ultimate goal, that in order for you to knock down, you must use the little dominos to create a chain reaction of power.

A single domino is capable of bringing down another domino 50% larger.

So if your goal is 50% larger than your first step then just begin to chip away at that first domino till it falls over and the second goal will be easier and so on.

Gary Keller also says

“Getting extraordinary results is all about creating a domino effect in your life.”

So if Will Smith and Gary Keller are essentially saying the same things, it must be some truth to it.

So I began to implement this while learning how to code.

I started taking the books and courses I was using to learn and started looking at it from an aerial view.

I would look at the table of contents and see what each chapter was about overall and see if I could take each chapter and break it into smaller parts.

When I began to do this I saw smaller individual parts and was able focus on one thing and practice it until I felt comfortable.

Once that brick was laid, I went to the next, and before I knew it I began to see a wall.

I was understanding how code worked to interact with each other and I was able to create simple applications without having to refer to a book or a course every time.

It was because I understood one concept.

The individual steps were the foundations or fundamentals that laid the ground work.

When ever I finished a project I could see where each piece played a role.

Now I’m taking this same concept and creating a program as a business to help young developers do the same.

It’s sometimes hard to see the little picture when you’re focused on the big.

So I wanted to help others out by giving them a learning curve to overlook the years it took me to realize this.

My program is still in the building stages to be finished, but I think it will be valuable to young developers.

This concept of complex to simple doesn’t only work for coding alone.

It can be applied to any thing you want to learn or do.

Just take what you want to learn, or do, and break it into smaller steps.

So if your project required for you to do 10 things to finish, focus on 1 thing at a time.

You can even break that 1 thing down into smaller steps.

And as you start chipping away at those smaller steps you will be amazed at the progress you will have made.

And if you really wanted to take it to another level you could use the Paretto Principle that states…

what is 20% of the task I’m trying to accomplish that will make 80% of the work much easier.

But that’s another story in itself.

So what are you trying to make complex to simple in your life?

Right now I’m learning marketing for my business, so if you want to find out how the story ends follow me and I’ll show you what I find.

If you want to check out the book The ONE Thing Click Here. (this is an affiliate link as a disclaimer)