Simplifying Creates Answers in Business

When nothing is clear in business the answer may come through simplifying.

Simplifying creates space. And creating space allows answers to come.

This past week I nestled into a remote cabin in the Ozark Mountains for quiet rest with friends. I woke and retreated to the porch early one morning. The air was cold near the river. It was just past peak color season and I sat witnessing the trees shed their brittle leaves as if they were shivering from the cold.

Without a previous inkling I watched the fog roll in through the trees, over the rolling hills of the pasture and up to the porch where I was sitting. Enveloping me in a thick blanket of white.

The contented deer I’d been gazing at just moments before disappeared behind the heavy sheet of fog. Everything in the distance was shrouded and replaced by flecks of mist floating right in front of my face.

The fog lingered. I snuggled into the warmth of my blanket and sipped my hot coffee. Relishing this moment in complete awe.

I wasn’t sure how long it’d last, but I wanted to take in every second of this moment in time.

The sun eventually began to rise. Burning bright above this blanket of white.

Then, as quickly as it rolled in, the fog was gone. The deer were there munching the grass again, the skeleton tree branches came back into view, and the sun was bright over the treeline.

In this moment I felt like I was seeing a reflection of life playing out before my eyes.

The fog rolled in, shrouding the clarity I previously had in a thick blanket of obscurity.

Sometimes life surprises us with a fog. It in these moments it can be scary — we want to know what lies in front of us. But, it can also be restful as we’re acutely aware that this moment is poignant.

It doesn’t have to be either scary or restful. It can be both scary and restful in the same moment.

In life and business, this moment of pause that the fog creates can be the most beautiful time for simplifying. Weeding out what no longer serves us. Un-complicating something that’s become overcomplicated.

Within the heavy blanket of fog we can create space for rest and creativity.

Simplifying creates space. And creating space allows answers to come.

When the fog is thick and I struggle for control, I know that the best answer is for me to hold loosely to my idea of the future and create space by simplifying.

These past few months I've been simplifying everything about my business. Taking it down to the bare bones and seeing what is truly necessary. Exploring what I desire. Drilling down to the core of what it is that I desire. And I think the fog is beginning to clear as ideas begin to trickle in, like a faint sprinkle in the distance.

Times of fogginess will come and go. The only answer for me has been rest and curiosity during this obscurely shrouded time of business.

What is that you feel called to simplify right now? What is it that you desire?