My Mantra for 2025: Try the simple solution first

Each calendar year, I choose a personal mantra to keep to-of-mind and influence my thinking and decision making (past years’ mantras are here).

In 2025, my mantra is Try the simple solution first.

This one really gets to me. To my habit of looking for the most mysterious and complex explanations for everything everywhere all the time. Instead of just putting my phone away at bedtime, I scour Google or ChatGPT for magic cure-alls for perfect sleep. When I feel the slightest bit off, I “reverse scan” Instagram – not for my friends’ posts but for the latest aesthetic ad for gummies, all to ward off the realization that I’m aging.

The same can be said for every conspiracy theory clogging up the news. Maybe it’s just incompetence or genuine intent.

For the reason that your neighbor is “ignoring you” – maybe they’re just living their own life.

So I’m going to try and be more mindful about looking for the simple solution first. I’ll try to go to bed in a screen free room for a few days and see if I feel better. I’ll try to remember my Four Agreements – what somebody else does is about them, not me.

This doesn’t mean stubbornness for one approach over another; it just means going in order. Start with simple, give it time, see if it works. Then going to the next simplest thing. Then see if I can slowly lose the urge to click on the next magic cure.


Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.