Simplicity: The Secret To Health, Happiness & Success - Part 1
The thought of writing on this topic brings a smile to my face.
Why?
Because the best things in life are simple.
It would defeat the purpose of this Mastery Letter if I were to use overly-complex ideas.
Our minds wish to complicate everything we do, including the creative process.
I will do my best to be simple.
Allow me to guide you through an understanding of what it means to be simple and how this is the latest secret I’ve discovered to living a truly fulfilled life across all domains.
The Disillusioned Mind
The mind is the enemy of joy and peace.
Have you noticed yet how it is never satisfied?
No thing, moment, person or place is ever good enough. There’s always something missing.
“What an amazing meal that was! But if only it had a little extra salt, then it would have been perfect”
“She’s great, I love him/her, but… if only he/she would…”
“Wow, how beautiful is that view! I wish such and such person was here…”
The habit of dissatisfaction may take many forms.
Ultimately, it is a refusal to accept the current moment, just as it is.
“I’ll be happy when…” the minds says.
“I’ll feel good enough when…” it also states.
Yet when all conditions have been met, it still finds reasons not to be happy or satisfied.
No achievement is enough.
No number of things fill the void.
No change or improvement brings lasting joy.
The mind always seeks more…
Convinced that eventually there will be a defining end, the attainment of fulfilment somewhere out there…
There, not here. Then, not now. With that, not this.
Less Is More
We’ve all heard the saying, “less is more”.
Modern children grow up entertained with the latest technologies and gadgets, yet are more bored and dissatisfied than ever.
So-called high value men flaunt supercars, mansions and immodest women on social media, yet in reality they are not as happy and fulfilled as it appears.
Before attainment: “I want, I need.”
After attainment: “I want, I need.”
There is no end to the pursuit of more.
My friend recently told me that his Grandmother when in her youth would play with chicken’s feet.
That was entertainment to her and her friends.
“How could children find more joy in playing with chicken’s feet than those with the latest games console, the best graphics and highest processing power?”
My friend’s grandmother and her play-mates possessed a virtue that seems to have been forgotten…
Simplicity…
Why?
Because they had less.
Perhaps in the modern age this is something we must do voluntarily.
For if we do not simplify ourselves in a world where we can have whatever we desire, whenever we wish…
We will learn to be be happy and satisfied when we lose everything.
My friend’s grandmother lived through war…
I would not wish war upon us that we might be simpler and greater in gratitude…
I do not believe that clear vision always necessitates a crisis.
But it appears to be that way for the majority…
“Only on the brink, can we see so clearly” - Tesseract, Altered State, Nocturne
Get rid of your stuff…
Not all of it.
Just most of it…
Things that are overcomplicating your life.
Things that are not simple, but are rather making you more complex and harder to please.
Learn to find enjoyment in simple things.
Simple and easily pleased are words often used as insults…
How blind we have become, for these are rare treasures that we should seek to find within our character.
Hoarding is the opposite to simplicity.
It believes it needs far more than it really does.
Keep few possessions, give away that which you love, like, dislike and are indifferent to.
Practice detachment, for all things must go.
“You will never achieve righteousness until you donate some of what you cherish. And whatever you give is certainly well known to Allah.” Qur’an (3:92)
Learn to see the difference between want and need.
Pay attention to your language and correct yourself when necessary.
You need not much and will be happier with less.
Focus On One Goal
One goal, one priority, one action, one woman, one man, one thing…
The law of one…
Did you know that multi-tasking is a myth?
The surest way to guarantee two or more jobs done poorly is to attempt them both simultaneously.
When attention is divided, quality declines.
That is, the quality of one’s experience and of one’s potential for output.
Both input and output take damage when attention is split.
“The more goals focused on simultaneously, the less progress made in all of them” - Usman Unchained
If you lack direction, purpose or focus in your life right now, over-complication may be the culprit.
Here’s what I recommend:
Make a list of goals, choose the one that is most urgent and important.
Let me take you through a process of simplifying your goals so you can remove distractions and lock in on one singly priority.
Follow along with me, you won’t want to miss out on doing this. Especially if you struggle with feeling split between different directions in life.
Write out each question just as I have with your answers below them.
Use paper and pen or open up an empty google/ notes/ word doc.
This will (insha’allah) give you the direction you seek.
Here we go:
Q: What do I want most from life?
- To be happy
- To take my mother for pilgrimage in Makkah
- To win my boxing fight coming up in 6 weeks
- To acquire the handstand push up, backflip and front-lever
- To retire my parents and see them happy, enjoying their life
- To earn enough money to buy land and live a simpler, more natural life
- To get married and build a family with a woman who loves and respects me
- To build a meaningful and thriving, £10k a month business through impacting others
- To build a solid community and be part of a group of brothers and sisters that inspire each other
Note: Be as specific and detailed as possible about your goals.
Q: What 1-3 of these are the most urgent and important right now?
Note: Read over the list you just wrote and ask for each item “is it urgent?” And “is it important?”
If it’s urgent, meaning it needs to be completed sooner rather than later, mark it with a “U”
If it’s important to you right now then mark it with an “I”
- To be happy “I”
- To take my mother for pilgrimage in Makkah “U” “I”
- To win my boxing fight coming up in 6 weeks “U” “I”
- To acquire the handstand push up, backflip and front-lever “I”
- To retire my parents and see them happy, enjoying their lives “U” “I”
- To earn enough money to buy land and live a simpler, more natural life “I”
- To get married and build a family with a woman who loves and respects me “I”
- To build a meaningful and thriving, £10k a month business through impacting others “U” “I”
- To build a solid community and be part of a group of brothers and sisters that inspire each other “I”
Here’s the hard part. Draw a line through any that don’t have both “U” and “I”.
This should make your list shorter.
Q: So… what are my urgent and important goals?:
- To take my mother for pilgrimage in Makkah
- The win my boxing fight coming up in 6 weeks
- To retire my parents and see them happy, enjoying their lives
- To build a meaningful and thriving, £10k a month business through impacting others
Q: Now, what is the most urgent item on this new, shorter list?
Realistically and honestly I would say:
- To win my boxing fight coming up in 6 weeks
So it is decided.
This is my priority goal until it reaches completion.
Once this is complete I can choose the next goal from my list of most urgent and important goals.
“You can have it all, just not all at the same time” - Betty Friedan
Write your goal down clearly…
Priority goal: To win my boxing fight coming up in 6 weeks
Next is understanding how to attain that goal or at least, ensure the highest odds of success.
Some things you just won’t get, no matter how much you want them.
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get” - Dale Carnegie
Again, we want to make this as simple as possible.
Q: Which of the 4 domain (health, work, relationships, happiness) are most associated with your priority goal?
Domain of focus: Health
Note: If your goal resides within more than one domain just choose one. The beauty in this is that the details will look the same as we continue through this process.
Urgent and important goals usually benefit us in more than one domain of life.
Q: What sub-area within this domain needs the most work in order to best increase the odds of success?
Sub-domain: Performance
(This makes clear that in order to win my boxing fight in 6 weeks, I need to ensure my performance is at the best it has ever been.
Q: Write a little more detail about how Performance (use your answer) needs working on?
That means, cardio-vascular endurance, ability to perform under pressure, and improving my boxing skills)
The obstacle is the way, therefore next we must get clear on what exactly is blocking the way to our goal.
It’s time to make another list.
Q: The biggest obstacles/ blockades to my performance in health (use your answers) right now are…
- Smoking tobacco
- Eating processed food
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Not feeling confident in defending attacks
Split these into two lists, things to add and things to subtract:
Things to add:
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Confidence in defending attacks
Things to subtract:
- Smoking tobacco
- Eating processed food
Note: you may need to change the wording slightly of each obstacle to make it a positive or negative statement.
Q: Choose the most urgent and important from both lists
Add: Confidence in defending attacks
Subtract: Smoking tobacco
Ok… so it’s clear what we’re adding and subtracting from our lives, in the name of succeeding in our goal. In my case that is to win my boxing fight in 6 weeks.
Now it’s time for our final lists.
This is where we get clear on what specific actions must be taken in order to add what we want and subtract what we do not want.
There is power in focusing more energy towards what is desired than towards that which is not desired.
Focus more on adding over subtracting.
You will find that as you take more action in the direction of your goal while gently remaining away of what you wish to subtract, the unwanted behaviour will simply fall away.
You need not obsess about quitting this or that behaviour.
“Floor your life with goodness and the dark can not survive” - Usman Unchained
Let’s devise our strategy for bringing what we want to add into our lives.
Q: To build confidence in defending attacks I must… (remember, insert your thing to add)
(Be specific about actions here, this will help with simplicity)
- Spar 3+ times a week
- Skipping
- Sprinting 1+ times a week
- Bag work/ shadow boxing
- Study defence drills and footage on YouTube
- Do extra training on defence and counter strikes
Q: Now choose 1 of these that will take the highest priority, this is called your ‘big move’.
(Ensure this is most relevant for that which we wish to add to our lives)
Big move: Spar 3+ times a week
Q: Then finally create a list of 3-5 smaller moves that are important and complementary to [building confidence in defending attacks] (insert what you’re adding)
Smaller moves:
- Skipping
- Sprinting 1+ times week
- Bag work/ shadow boxing
- Extra defence work with Mike/Josh/other
- Study defence drills and footage on YouTube
Now…
Split mark each item on this list as either solo or non-solo.
If you can do the activity alone without dependence on another person, mark it with “S” for solo.
If this activity depends on another person mark it with “NS” for not solo.
Solo moves can be done alone. They are therefore simpler and more accessible.
Non-solo moves require other people.
Smaller moves:
- Skipping “S"
- Sprinting 1+ times week “S”
- Bag work/ shadow boxing “S”
- Extra defence work with Mike/Josh/other “NS”
- Study defence drills and footage on YouTube “S”
In order to achieve your goal your big move must be absolutely non-negotiable.
As long as you focus on getting the big move done, you will be fine.
If however you want to increase the odds of your success even more and go from fine to great, you must perform your smaller moves.
Solo moves are more within your grasp than non-solo ones.
Fill your spare time with solo moves and schedule non-solo ones ahead of time.
Eliminate excuses. The point of us clarifying big moves, and solo or non-solo smaller moves is so we can fill our time with these activities, somewhat obsessing over our goal and making incredible progress towards achieving it.
This is the power of simplicity.
A friend of mine has one hobby… Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
The progress he has made in the last 4 years has been extraordinary.
If you want to make incredible progress, the best approach to be simple.
Have one hobby…
One thing you’re working towards.
And fill your time and schedule with things that move you towards it.
What about the thing you wish to subtract from your life?
In my case, smoking tobacco.
What I’ve found is the busier I am with my big and small moves, the less I think or care about smoking.
Without trying, your moves will ward away bad behaviours.
However you can still strategically use your small moves counter cravings and desires for things you do not really want.
Become well acquainted with your small moves and use them throughout the day, especially when feeling bored.
Boredom is the gateway to either self destructive behaviour or wise, positive action.
Q: What small moves can you use especially when bored or craving?
- Skipping
- Bag work/ shadow boxing
- Study defence drills and footage on YouTube
I suggest:
- Adding smaller moves into your morning, midday or evening routine
- Making necessary arrangements if smaller moves depend on other people ahead of time
- Maximising on solo moves wherever and whenever possible
So there we have it.
This is a process that will help you clarify your goals in life and focus in, removing distractions.
Make sure you go through this process yourself.
If you have not…
I’m sorry but the odds of you achieving anything great in life have just dropped by 90%
Do the exercise…
Be one of the few who actually take action and refuse to mentally masturbate on cool ideas.
To summarise, here are the steps we followed:
1- Get clear on what you want
- Make a list of the things you want most from life
- Mark each item as urgent or important, make a new list of items that are both
- Mark the one goal that is most urgent out of the new list
2- Assign the goal to a domain of focus
- Clarify which domain of focus your goal would be placed within
- Clarify the most relevant sub-domain (do not limit yourself to what I have provided)
3- Reveal the most pressing obstacles
- Write a list of obstacles that are preventing you from being where you wish to be in that regard
- Split these into things to add and subtract
- Choose the one thing to add that matters most in achieving your goal
- Remember to focus on adding, subtraction will happen with ease this way
4- Know your actions
- Write a list of specific actions that will help you overcome this obstacle
- Choose 1 of these specific actions as your big move
- Then create a list of 3-5 complimentary smaller moves
- Mark your smaller moves as solo or not-solo
- Focus mainly on solo smaller moves
5- Being practical
- Add the big moves into your weekly schedule and make them non-negotiable.
- Make necessary arrangements for big moves and non-solo smaller moves ASAP
- Add solo smaller moves into your habit tracker within the morning, midday or evening routine
This may have seemed somewhat of a complex process...
Sometimes, in order to get to simplicity have to move first through complexity.
Take juggling for example, or any skill you can develop with practice.
Initially it seems complex...
You put in the work and soon it is simple.
What takes a long time one day will take a shorter time soon enough, once you get used to the process.
Remember... Simplicity on the other side of complexity is often so.
Who over How
Take a look at your big move and your list of small moves (clarified through the exercise above).
What are the things you must fill your day with in order to achieve your most urgent and important goal?
How do you feel about those actions?
Do some of them scare you?
Do you feel intimidated by the things you know you want to do or should be doing?
This is not abnormal.
In order for you to grow, the zone of comfort must be stretched.
Here’s what I will say.
And it will not have been the first time…
“It does not matter what you get, what matters is more-so who you become” - Usman Unchained
What you get (achieving your goal) requires you to be a certain character.
Winning my fight in 6 weeks is going to require me to be a fighter.
It will call for me to take on an identity that I may have not yet embodied before.
Q: What identity does your goal call for you to step into?
Also…
Q: What character virtues do your defined actions call for?
I’m afraid of sparring, so I know this will require courage.
I’m averse to sprinting, so I know this will require discipline and willingness.
Therefore my answers are:
Identity: I am a Fighter
Required virtues:
- Courage
- Discipline
- Willingness
- Hard-work
Do the same for your most urgent and important goal.
It’s all well and good wanting things in life.
But how many of us are actually willing to earn what it is we desire?
We want things handed to us on a plate.
That is not how reality works.
You are not entitled to anything.
Nor am I.
If you pray to have certain things in your life… prepare to be tested.
The tests provide opportunity for character sculpting.
The next time you find yourself wishing your something or disappointed that you don’t have it already, ask yourself…
Who do I need to be in order to get that?
How can I earn the right to acquire such a thing or achieve such a goal?
It’s not about the how or the what…
It’s about the who…
The who you need to be, and the who you will become.
Be Resourceful
Excuses are lame and boring.
We all make them…
“I’ll go to the gym when I can afford it”
“I’ll start working out when I can drive”
“I’ll stop smoking after this last pouch of tobacco”
Tomorrow… tomorrow… tomorrow…
“Do not wait for tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come” - Imam Ali
Your ego might now say, “well what’s the point in doing anything if I’m not going to be here tomorrow?”
To that I would say…
“Live as though today is your last in preparation for the chance of tomorrow” - Usman Unchained
Today could be our last…
But it also could not.
100 days into the future (God willing) will you be pleased or unpleased for having put the work in each day?
When I lived in Brighton I remember believing that I couldn’t afford a gym membership.
I became well acquainted with callisthenics, training with my bodyweight.
Although my excuse of not being able to afford the gym was clearly a lie, I was resourceful enough to train without the need for equipment.
Pull ups, push ups, handstands against the wall, rings workouts using trees…
I would use anything in my environment to train with.
The simplest things require the fewest resources.
Resourcefulness is to make a lot from a little.
Perhaps you want to start recording videos but you think you need a high-end camera, ground-breaking video editing or whatever else it is that you don’t currently have.
Years might have gone by while you’ve been procrastinating this dream of being a content creator and sharing valuable messages that impact others.
Then one day you decide that enough is enough.
You use your iPhone camera and realise that regardless of the kit, you still needed to get good at speaking in front of a camera!
Now you regret not starting earlier
For if you did, your confidence and skill would be far more developed.
Do what you can, with what you have.
Be simple.
Do not overcomplicate the process by making excuses and overly focusing on what you do not have.
Draw, paint, create, dance, fight, cook, build muscle or do whatever it is you want to do.
Focus on what you do have.
Right here.
Right now.
And maximise through that.
Eat Real Food
Simplicity is a virtue than can help us across all domains of life.
I’ve always found physical training to be the easiest factor in the health equation.
And that’s exactly why I’ve never been lean enough to see my abs.
The gym isn’t where you get into great physical shape. It’s in the kitchen.
Nutrition is not only the core of developing an aesthetic physique, it’s where most of our diseases and health conditions tend to root back to.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates
Is there a store-bought food or drink item within your arms reach right now?
If so, take a look at the ingredients.
How many ingredients can you count within whatever you have hold of right now?
(If you don’t have anything right now go and check next time you’re in the kitchen)
I’m guessing there’s at least 15-20 ingredients.
And I’m also guessing there’s a few you couldn’t pronounce even if you tried.
This is a sign of food that’s going to make you sick, tired, malnourished, addicted and unable to develop the physique you desire.
Both health and aesthetics suffer through so frivolously consuming ultra-processed, artificial ingredient lathered “foods”.
If you’ve struggled with nutrition, mood and energy swings, stubborn fat, overeating and cravings, it is essential that you simplify you world of food.
“Walk amongst, but not as one of them” - Unknown
Just because 99% of the population are consuming cakes, cookies, sugary drinks, chocolates, protein shakes and processed foods as though it is normal… it doesn’t mean you have to also.
Here’s the simplest tip for optimising your nutrition.
Eat single ingredient foods.
Natural, whole foods are single ingredients.
There’s nothing added to rice… it’s just rice.
There’s nothing added to chicken from your butchers, it’s just chicken.
Eggs, nuts, fruits, meats, fish, honey, cacao… whatever it is
Consume it in its pure form.
When you make a curry you might add a total of 10 ingredients to the pot.
That’s including all the spices, the meat, the vegetables and the carbs you’re most likely having with it.
A standard commercial protein bar has 15-20+ ingredients in it…
That’s more ingredients than the curry that could feed an entire family with.
Complexity surely is not the way forward when it comes to food.
The less ingredients the better.
A banana is a banana. An apple is an apple.
Eggs are eggs, steak is steak…
Salmon is salmon and ginger is ginger.
Look at the ingredients on your loaf of bread… there’s most likely so much in there that doesn’t need to be.
All the extra “ingredients” are added as bulking agents, flavour enhancers, ways to addict you and get you buying more, and as sinister as it might be…
They make us sick, tired and dependant on doctors for pharmaceuticals.
Single ingredient foods.
Add them together to make simple meals.
Let it be as natural and whole as possible.
No artificial shit.
No chemical, fluorescent nonsense…
No protein powders, protein bars, pre-workout supplements… none of it.
Just eat real food…
Do this and you’ll see your health and physique transform over time if you're consistent.
If you wish, I’ll create a simple recipe e-book sharing the most nutritious, easy to prepare meals I love.
To Conclude: Part 1
In order to keep this Mastery Letter simple, it’s going to be better to split it into two parts.
If there is something of great value that has been lost over last 3 generations, it is the virtue of simplicity.
Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were far simpler than we are today.
They were happier.
Their marriages lasted longer.
They were healthy, strong and without modern disease.
The modern approach to life has lead us into sick, unhappy, lonely and unfulfilled lives.
If you wish to be happy, healthy, strong and build a family that sticks together, begin simplifying yourself and therefore your life.
Less is more.
It’s the small things that count.
The truth is simple, and so are the best solutions to our problems.
Goals need not be complex, business is best done simply.
Happiness need not be complex.
Nutrition, health and exercise can also be simple.
You don’t need fancy equipment.
You don’t need expensive ingredients.
I thank you for reading all the way through to the end of this letter.
Before you go, let me ask you…
Would you benefit from a simple recipe e-book?
Simplifying my meals truly has changed my life.
I used to overeat and binge like a monster, and really I mean that…
It got dark to the point where I would eat even if I felt full and sick.
Simple food is the way forward.
If that’s something you would like me to create, I will do so in time for next week’s Mastery Letter.
Just let me know via instagram @usman_unchained.
Also… more free stuff for you.
FREE GIFTS:
Free habit tracker template here.
Free 60 Minute Coaching Call with me if you’re looking to develop Discipline, Inner-Peace, Confidence and/or Self Love.
And if this was any way useful to you, take a moment to share it with somebody it might help.
Until next time.
Stay sharp.
Usman
Who is Usman Ali?
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