Losing weight? Two moves. Building a business? Three. Almost every goal you'll ever chase comes down to a handful of key moves. Everything else is noise.

Occam's razor is a principle, usually traced back to the 14th-century philosopher William of Ockham. It suggests that when you're weighing competing explanations, the one with the fewest assumptions is usually the best place to start. Great thinkers have leaned on versions of this idea for centuries. Isaac Newton wrote his own take on it into his rules of reasoning, and Stephen Hawking referenced it in his work as well.

Even though simplicity is often the best answer, it's not one hundred percent appropriate for everything. Sometimes your metabolism really does hold you back from losing weight. Sometimes someone in your family really is trying to mess with your marriage. Sometimes certain groups really are marginalizing others. You can't always choose the simple path just because it's convenient. A quote often attributed to Albert Einstein sums it up: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

So may I be bold and offer Sourena's Razor? When you're making decisions and building an amazing mindset, the simpler the plan, the better. Clarity is key when you go after your goals.

Here's the problem: as human beings, we overcomplicate almost everything. We prefer the complex to the simple. To move forward, we need to be clear about what we want, how to get there, what challenges stand in our way, how we'll deal with them, and who we can lean on. That's already a lot to hold. And then we add layer after layer until the whole thing feels impossible. The goal is to strip it back and focus on only a handful of priorities. Once you have those, you can channel your time, energy, and money toward what actually moves you closer to your goal.

I have cerebral palsy because of a doctor's negligence. It was a mistake made by someone I didn't know, a big whoopsie. It would have been easy for me to spiral into questions like: Did I do something in a past life? Is there some reason beyond human understanding? Maybe. But even if the answer were yes, how would that serve me in this life? I'm trying to build a career, raise my boys, love my wife, have a little fun, and find joy and satisfaction. The simple explanation, that someone made a mistake, lets me put my energy where it belongs.

You can use the same lens on everyday frustrations. If someone cuts you off on the road, assuming they're malicious and out to get you will do nothing but ruin your day. The simpler explanation? They're a bad driver. Thank your lucky stars you didn't have an accident, and remember that this person is in your life for five seconds, tops. If a cashier is rude to you, don't assume she's a bad person. Assume she's been on her feet for hours scanning groceries and maybe has carpal tunnel.

Just don't confuse simple with easy. My buddy Chris Stevenson says fitness is simple, but it's not easy. One consequence of overcomplicating everything is that it hands you an excuse not to do the work. If you tell yourself you can't lose weight because you have a bad metabolism, or that diet and exercise won't make a difference for you, you're creating complexity, and that complexity turns into excuses. Simplicity removes excuses. And when you remove the excuses, all you're left with is the work.

The work can be frustrating, tedious, tiring, and confusing. But to accomplish your goals, have clarity, and develop an amazing mindset, you have to do it. Overcomplicating things just gives you a way to avoid it.

Business is no different. You can overcomplicate the simple very quickly. You can decide there are no good employees out there, that the competition is out to get you, that the deck is stacked against you. Or you can accept reality and start grinding, hustling, and making things happen.

Every goal needs a plan of attack. One of my favorite concepts in personal development comes from Brendon Burchard's book High Performance Habits, where he talks about charting your five major moves toward a goal. My version and interpretation is this: every goal should be boiled down to between two and five key moves. Losing weight broadly comes down to two: diet and exercise. Becoming an entrepreneur comes down to three: developing a product or service, building a team, and communicating with customers. Do each of those at a high level and you end up with a product people want and a team that takes care of the people who buy it.

Now, simple doesn't mean ignoring whatever you'd rather not deal with. There's a real difference between complexity and nuance. Success isn't always straightforward, and some things in life need nuance: your own quirks, other people, and life in general. A salesperson working with a customer or a manager working with an employee can't ignore the situation or the emotions in the room. Every situation comes with challenges and limitations, and those add nuance. But life is complicated enough. The last thing you want to do is add unnecessary complications and muddy the waters.

It's also worth noticing how often complexity is used to manipulate. We see it in advertising and politics. People want your vote, your money, or your agreement with how society should behave, so they tell you some outside force is holding you back, and that if you don't buy their product or vote for them, you're doomed. Complexity creates confusion, and confused people are easier to steer.

My mentor, Larry Winget, a retired Hall of Fame speaker and multiple-bestselling author, has always been a champion of simplifying everything. He never believed in hidden tricks to success, because strategies can be learned. His sales strategy? Ask people to buy. If they don't respond, ask again. If there's still no response, ask someone else. His leadership advice? Give people a reason to follow you. And think about it: if someone really had a hidden formula for success, why would they put it in a twenty-dollar book? Sure, a few things really are closely guarded, like the Coca-Cola recipe. But even the famous Big Mac sauce is often described as basically Thousand Island dressing, which is mostly mayonnaise, ketchup, and relish. Most of the "hidden" answers turn out to be simpler than we think.

The same principle works at home. If you're a parent with a rambunctious child, you can focus on society and family dynamics, or you can focus on becoming a better parent. If you're in a rocky marriage, you can focus on extended family drama or on how your partner won't listen, or you can focus on what you can do to improve the marriage: be nicer, tell them you love them, send flirty texts, stop nitpicking and picking fights just because, and simply be a better person. If you're in business, you can spend all your time on how bad the economy is, how difficult your employees are, and how demanding your customers are, or you can decide to work on all of it.

Many of us want to find deep and powerful meaning in virtually everything. That's natural. It's part of the human condition, and in the right context it's healthy. But over-analysis is destructive. Author Mark Manson said it well; to paraphrase: don't go looking for meaning, become a better person. I love that, because the way we improve our lives is by becoming better leaders, spouses, parents, and humans.

So here's what to take with you. First, when life hands you something messy, choose the simplest explanation that lets you move forward. Second, remember that simple isn't easy; simplicity strips away your excuses so all that's left is the work. Third, boil every goal down to two to five key moves, and put everything you've got into those.

Success takes focus. And focus is a precious, finite resource. Focus means channeling your time, energy, and resources toward what will get you to your goals, and away from everything that distracts you.

So here's your challenge: pick one goal today. Grab an index card and write down the two to five key moves that will get you there. If it doesn't fit on the card, it's too complicated. Then share your moves with someone who will hold you accountable, and get to work.