Do Love Hope

With the complexity of life created by all the modern conveniences of technology, maybe it is time to get back to the basics. Isn’t it ironic that the very things that were created to simplify and improve our lives have the ability to complicate and clutter our lives? I read yesterday that Bill Gates, a pioneer of modern computer software who had a vision of a personal computer in every home in a time when IBM and mainframe computers were all the rage, just gave up on the social site Facebook.

What? Bill Gates, the sultan of software, the titan of technology, the wizard of the web quitting one of the leading social mediums of our time. "It was just way too much trouble so I gave it up," Gates told a group of business people. While in Delhi, India receiving an award for his philanthropic efforts, Gates also confided to the audience that he was "not that big at text messaging" and that "I'm not a 24-hour-a-day tech person". "I read a lot and some of that reading is not on a computer," he said. Gates said the information technology revolution had been "hugely beneficial" but added: "All these tools of tech waste our time if we're not careful."

As a fan of twitter, I recently had a similar experience, though I had only 300 people I followed not the 10,000 who wanted to be friends with Bill Gates. The reality was I could not interact with this many people. I had to focus down the 100 that I could follow and interact act with regularly. More was not better. The answer was to simplify.

“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.” What a simple idea! These words were uttered by Joseph Addison, an English essayist, poet and politician who lived nearly 300 years ago. Life may change in fast and furious ways through technology and innovation but the simple desires like happiness have not changed since the beginning of time.

Do…Love…Hope. The thought of Joseph Addison and these three simple words have so inspired me over time and I believe they can have a profound impact on your life as well.
In the coming days I will get down to the brass tacks of each word and, based on the power of simplicity, we will get on the road to happiness.