Day 10/365
Olabayo J. Awodirepo
(Witty_Pen)
Simplicity Can Do The Magic
The Fall 2024 semester taught me a lesson I didn’t know I needed. It started with an essay for one of my courses. For this essay, I thought I had unleashed all my arsenal of a great researcher on it, confident that I’d done an exceptional job, only to score 80 out of 100. For context, that was the lowest grade I’ve ever received for a class assignment since I began my program at UA. Naturally, I was shocked.
I reached out to the lecturer to understand where I went wrong. After a detailed discussion, I realized I had overcomplicated the essay. In my bid to show I understood the assignment well, I’d gone off track and missed the essence of what the lecturer wanted.
Adding this clarity to my arsenal, I approached the next essay differently. I focused on simplicity and sticking to what was expected. The result? I scored 96. The difference was amazing. Surprisingly, I didn’t do as much as I did for the first essay. The magic wasn’t in doing more but in doing what mattered.
I’ve realized that life often mirrors this. We stress over things that could be straightforward if only we’d take the time to understand what’s truly required. It’s not always about doing more; sometimes, it’s about doing less but doing it right.
Sometimes, we get unpleasant results not because the task was difficult but because we made it harder than needed. In trying to prove ourselves, we overthink, overanalyze, and overdo, losing sight of the most important requirements.