Sometimes less is more. How many of us are guilty of constantly chasing and adding more to our lives? The next rung of the ladder, the next raise, the next bigger house, the fancier car, the next race PR, the next exotic bird on the list — I could go on. Our culture seems to push us to strive for more, no matter the cost.
This morning I was pondering all of this over my first cup of coffee, watching my bird feeders. I have a small hummingbird feeder — really just a plastic lidded cup with holes in the top for the hummers to drink from. I wouldn't have guessed the holes were big enough for wasps to squeeze through, but almost every day, one or two manage it anyway. They swarm the feeder frantically, fighting each other for the chance to crawl inside to the sweet nectar. The trouble is, once they're in, they can't get out — and eventually they drown in the little bowl if I don't rescue them in time.
Watching this, I wondered if we're not so different. We clamor toward the bountiful, sweet nectar of success, and often, once we arrive, we find ourselves trapped with no easy way out — swimming in place, hastening our own demise, with very little pleasure to show for it. Grim, I know. Stay with me.
Then an Anna's hummingbird arrived at the feeder. It was such a curious little thing — it checked out its surroundings, drifted to within two feet of my face, then hovered above my dog's head to check her out too. That brought a genuine smile to my face. Sitting with this small, astonishing creature reminded me that beauty and grandness often come in the smallest, most unassuming packages. Our instinct is always to add — more success, more fitness, more done — but sometimes what we actually need is to subtract, to simplify.
There's a study that backs this up. Dr. Leidy Klotz writes about it in his book Subtract. His central point: we're constantly piling on new to-dos, but we rarely stop to ask what we could stop doing. We collect new and improved ideas but never prune the outdated ones. Every day, we overlook one of the simplest ways to make things better — because we never think to subtract. In one of Klotz's studies, participants almost never considered subtraction as an option when solving a problem. But when researchers added a small cue reminding them that subtracting was possible, that single nudge was enough to change their approach significantly.
So maybe it's worth asking ourselves:
• What can I simplify?
• What can I remove that's causing me stress?
• How might removing something from my life open the door to something new?
Me? I removed the poorly designed hummingbird feeder and reverted to the old one with plastic flowers in a circle attached to a jar that is more messy, but at least we can all enjoy the bounty and one gets hurt. My lesson from the Anna's hummingbird — staying curious with the beginners mind and learning to be still in the moment allows us to experience this small wonder of a bird. To enjoy the mindfulness that is inherent in all of us and trade the birding checklist for simply being in the moment. Let's sit still and let nature speak to us. We might be surprised by what we hear.
