13 Ways You Are Complicating Your Life - Life's Little Pleasures and Struggles

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We often unknowingly make our lives more stressful and complicated without meaning to do that. Life naturally comes with different kinds of challenges and struggles as we grow up. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated. But most of the complications we face are the results of our choices, decisions, and habits. Sometimes, we make things more complicated than they need to be without even realizing that. If you are trying to simplify your life so you can focus more on what is important and meaningful, you need to stop doing certain things that are complicating your life – needlessly.

While trying to live your best life, it’s important to make sure that you don’t do things that can make your struggles harder. You need to be intentional about your life goals. You need to carefully avoid all those things or habits that can create problems in the way of creating a life that you love and dream about.

Here are 13 ways you may be needlessly complicating your life:

“Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” ~ Confucius

1. Comparing yourself with others

Most people complicate their lives by making unhealthy comparison with others. Comparing yourself with others whose exact reality you are not fully aware of is something that can create jealousy and negativity in your mind. Too often it means comparing your own messy reality with someone else’s carefully presented/edited image.

Comparing yourself to someone else will set you up for failure. Do your best, keep things as simple as you can, and improve your life focusing on your end goal.

2. Seeking other people’s acceptance or approval

You don’t need other people’s approval to do the things that you are doing to improve your overall well-being. Do what is necessary by carving your own path and taking the steps that will bring your goals within reach.

Other people will not always understand your journey or your struggles. They are not living your life. You can seek advice or suggestions from those who you trust and respect. But you don’t need their acceptance to prove your worth.

3. Procrastinating

You can take breaks from time to time, but can’t always put things off for later times when you are able to do those on time with little efforts and planning.

Constant procrastination creates burden that hampers the progress you might be making in simplifying your life. It overwhelms you and makes you lose focus on what you want to achieve in your life.

4. Worrying too much

You may be complicating your life by worrying too much about your future. Worry doesn’t solve anything or automatically make things better. There are some things you can’t control, and you can’t change them no matter how much you worry. So don’t waste your time and energy trying to predict what can happen tomorrow. Because worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s trouble; it takes away today’s peace.

Worry won’t stop the bad stuff from happening, and it just keeps you from enjoying the good in your life. Simplify your life by choosing joy over worry. Make the best of your present life, stay positive, and concentrate on your goal. This will surely make your life so much better.

You may also like to read: The Side Effects of Worrying—and What to Do Instead

5. Not saying “no” enough

By doing more than you should, you are complicating your life. Stop saying “yes” to everything and learn to say “no” more often. If you say “yes” to every request, you will spend all your free time and energy by keeping busy with the things or people that will not leave any quality time in your schedule for yourself or for the things that matter most to you.

Remember that every time you say “yes” to something you don’t like to do or don’t have time to do, you are saying “no” to something else that you truly want/need to do. Saying “no” when you need to say “no” is actually one of the key habits for those trying to simplify and enjoy their lives.

6. Trying to be perfect all the time

Perfectionism stalls progress and sometimes paralyzes effort entirely. We all make mistakes and mess up sometimes, and that’s alright. Always trying to be perfect in everything will increase your stress levels, and you will not be able to enjoy your life to the fullest.

Learn from your mistakes and do your best next time. Accepting that you will never be completely flawless is a step in the right direction and will help you start enjoying every single day as it comes. Simplifying your life is all about the progress you make, it’s not about perfection.

7. Multi-tasking

Some people are good at multi-tasking but most people aren’t. In order to simplify your life, you may have to stop multi-tasking and do one thing at a time. Even if you can handle multiple tasks well at a time, when you try to do more than one task at the same time, you feel under pressure and your stress level increases.

It also affects your productivity, and you fail to concentrate fully on what you are trying to accomplish. Your brain lacks the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time and gets tired by quickly switching your attention from one thing to another. As a result, you hardly enjoy your task and often experience frustrations, overwhelm, and disappointments.

You may also like to read: How Multitasking Affects Productivity and Brain Health

8. Not letting things go

Knowing when to let go is never easy, but that certainly makes your life easy. The harder and tighter you hold on to something, the deeper it hurts. In order to create a happy, meaningful life you need to stop dwelling in your past, let the grudges go, and focus on your present life.

When you are trying to improve your life for a better future, the best thing you can do is to accept your past, learn from it, embrace change, and move on. By living in your past, you are unnecessarily complicating your life.

9. Ignoring your health

You can’t simplify your life by ignoring your health. It’s possible that when you are working hard on some other important life-goals, you are forgetting about your health, or paying less attention to your physical well-being. Life will always feel complicated if you don’t take good care of your health. You don’t enjoy your blessings much when you are sick or suffering from major health conditions.

So, take plenty of rest, eat healthy, and take time to move your body. Your physical well-being will help you simplify your life further.

10. Complaining and not appreciating

If you complain about everything that goes wrong, you will unnecessarily stress yourself out and make things harder for you. Instead of focusing on what’s going wrong or what you don’t have, focus on what’s going right, how much progress you have made, how far you have come in your journey, and count your blessings.

Complaining won’t allow you to appreciate your blessings and be grateful for that. Focusing on the negative leads you to becoming a toxic, nagging individual. Instead train your mind to focus on the good things and practice gratitude. And practicing gratitude – both in good times and tough times – is an important part of simplifying your life.

Related post: How Gratitude Can Help You Live a Simple Life

11. Not nurturing your relationships

The quality of your life largely depends on the quality of your relationships. People who are happy enjoy healthy, meaningful relationships with their family and friends. By ignoring the important people who matter to you, you are not only complicating your life, but depriving yourself of the intimacy, joy, and happiness.

When you take time and efforts to nurture your relationships, you show that you care for them. It increases your mutual love and understanding, and strengthens your connection and bond.

12. Taking part in drama

Indulging in the drama of other people and giving yourself freedom in this can cause significant stress in your life. Don’t feel any obligation to be a part of any drama, and in the process lose your own sanity.

There are people who take immense joy in creating and participating in drama. Communication with such people should be minimized if can’t be completely avoided.

13. Not paying attention to your home

Your home is part of who you are. It represents your values, priorities, and lifestyle. You can’t simplify your life without simplifying your home. Many people, while trying to simplify their lives, forget about simplifying their physical spaces that can have a profound impact on their overall well-being.

Clutter and mess cause unnecessary distractions and stress. Start by getting rid of the stuff that are neither useful nor beautiful. Make room for things that you love, enjoy, and that add value to your life. Declutter every corner of your home one by one, and organize everything to reduce your stress. Create a calm, peaceful space where you can relax and focus on the things that matter.

Now that you know what things are complicating your life, try to stop doing those one by one to make your life more meaningful and enjoyable. Take it slowly – step by step, and focus on your goal. You don’t have to stop doing everything in a single day. Just be intentional about the positive changes you want to bring in, and you will soon notice a big difference in your life.