"Make it simple but significant"
Don Draper's words in my head, again
“Make it simple but significant.”— Don Draper, Mad Men
Going through some files this week, this favorite quote caught my mind. I use it often as a theme when working with creative clients. It gives us an effective mantra for the work, keeps us on point, and helps to streamline in a powerful way.
“Make it simple but significant” got me thinking about how we often make things too complicated. I know I do, to the point where sometimes I actually feel complicated.
And, when the world feels chaotic and hard like it is now, it can permeate and seep into our minds, bodies, and psyches. To the point that it hurts. To the point where it’s easy to lose sight of what is significant.
This week's words: Simple and Significance
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”— Confucius
Simple is clean. There’s wisdom inside simplicity. And many of the most significant things in life, when it gets right down to it, are pretty simple. To simplify means to get back to basics, to start with one simple question, idea, or statement, and then find the significance in that.
To find the truth in simple significance. Your truth.
“Simplicity is the final achievement… the crowning reward of art.” Frederic Chopin
To be significant is to be meaningful. Significance is memorable. Significance can be priceless and timeless. Significance is a moment in time.
“Significance is about who we are before it is about what we do.”— John Ortberg
It’s our true nature. We are at our most powerful when we embody the simple truths of our soul. The significance revealed in our soulful, simple truths is where our deepest and most vital work can seed and grow.
At the same time, there’s value in the messy, the chaos, the brain dump on the page, the too-much. Because there are times when you must sort through the thick of all of it to get to significance, eliminating the unnecessary to discover what is significant. Out of that comes the simplicity.
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary, so that the necessary may speak.” —Hans Hofman
So, that’s where significance starts. Focus on the simple: the simplicity of an idea, then another idea, then a question, then this moment, then, then, then…
You can be present with simple.
When things feel complicated, a good question to pose is, “How can I simplify this?” or “What feels significant here?” or “What is not necessary?”
Just as letting go of an expectation of result often brings the best result, by focusing on simplicity, the significance of a moment or idea will reveal itself as well.
Something to think about. Simply.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Journal Prompt
Prompt: Write about a time when anticipation filled you up. Describe it through all of your senses. Then, what happened?
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I hope you have a great week filled with simple significance. And kindness.
Keep creating abundantly,
