Less is More

A client has sent me this link to Grant Blakeman’s 3-minute speech and asked for my thoughts about the concept of “negative spaces.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_u5b1CAr4

Well, it just so happens that I am currently working on creating a logo to represent my growing business. Up until now, I took the DIY approach in creating my website and business cards, embracing the concept of “imperfect but good enough.” But growing is about knowing when it’s time for a change. A client who is a corporate and personal branding expert gave me a good talking to explaining why I need a great logo to represent my company (a website overhaul is next in line...). He went on to explain that a great design work takes into account the used (positive) and unused (negative) space. The negative, or white, space is often more critical than the design itself because it brings the design into focus. With any piece of design you must have a negative space. In his opinion, the more negative space, the better. It brings balance and symmetry to the design and draws people in. Less is more!

And this idea is so true when living in a world of choice overload. Most of us could probably use some negative space to gain clarity about what matters most to us and what we need in order to achieve a greater balance. Our minds run through endless loops of worry, fears, and wants, creating an “empty space” will allow us to take a break and quiet the mind to gain perspective and focus. It’s about creating the “me” time to ponder the meaning of our life whether by running, hiking, reading, gardening, or any  pastime activities we enjoy doing to reflect on who we are, what we want, and where we’d like to go next. It reminds me of the story about the businessman and the fisherman. This story is often told in “finding a purpose” type workshops. I will go with the version told by the most passionate speaker claiming it originated in Brazil.

A successful businessman on vacation is sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village observing a fisherman unloading his boat. Since it is still early in the day, the businessman asks the fisherman why he doesn’t stay longer at sea to catch more fish. Confused by the question, the fisherman replies that he has enough fish to feed his family. Intrigued, the businessman asks what the fisherman is planning to do for the rest of the day. The fisherman responds saying that his daily routine is to wake up early every morning to go out to sea to catch a few fish, to spend the day with his family and to get together with his friends in the evenings to drink, play music and dance throughout the night. Now it is the businessman who gets confused feeling compelled to offer the fisherman advice on how to become more successful. He instructs the fisherman that he needs to spend more time at sea to catch more fish to then buy more boats until he has a fleet of boats, at which point he’d need to move to Sao Paulo to manage the growing business. Puzzled, the fisherman asks what would happen then. The businessman gets really excited explaining that if the fisherman works really hard for about 10-15 years he’d be able to either sell the company or go public. And then he would be very rich. “And then what?” The fisherman asks tentatively. The businessman answers triumphantly: “then you can go fishing in the morning, spend the day with your family, and party with your friends all night long.”

When we fail to incorporate negative space into our complex lives, we may end up losing sight of what’s really important and why we do the things we do, our purpose. We need to make sure we never get too busy making a living that we forget to make a life. But getting the balance right is tricky. There’s no formula to help us simplify our life and make things easier. Simplicity has a different meaning and a different value for every person, and it changes at different times in our life. At the core, it means spending most of our time doing what is important to us and learning to eliminate the non-essentials.

For me, this is the year of simplifying my life by taking the leap to start my own business. I had to let go of my anxieties and fears about money and learn to create the negative space in my life to bring to focus all that I have to offer. It’s still a work in progress….

But to keep with the theme of “less is more,” here’s the short list of how to simplify your life in just 2-steps:

• Identify what’s most important to you
• Eliminate everything else