Essentialism
Saying NO, so you can say YES!
(I promise there is a valuable company building lesson at the end of this post — forgive me whilst I first outline the essentials 😉)
What you DON’T do in life is more important than what you DO do.
This is controversial logic in a World that celebrates doers. All of our feedback loops are pre-programmed to reward and celebrate doing.
When was the last time you got positive feedback at work for what you didn’t do?
When was the last time you saw an Instagram post celebrating — “this is what I’m not doing right now!”
Or perhaps most importantly, when did you last congratulate yourself for choosing to say NO!
I’m not talking about saying ‘no’ to bad habits or behaviours. This is obvious. Bad behaviours stem from a lack of desire or commitment, rather than a lack of understanding. Instead I’m talking about saying ‘no’ to things that we know are good for us.
If we pause for even a moment, it’s obvious to see that saying ‘yes’ to all the good things in life is just a mental trap. There have always been, and will always be, more good things than there is time to complete them.
We constantly justify our actions based on things that need to be done. If something needs to be done and it’s good for us then we rarely stop to question whether it’s the right thing to be doing.
Warren Buffet sums it up best…
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
The key word here is “almost”.
Really successful people achieve seemingly impossible goals because by saying ‘no’ to almost everything, they can focus and excel at something else.
Buffett is well known to practice what he preaches. He’s an individual with almost limitless financial resources. He could choose to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it. And yet to stay at such a high level of performance for such a long period of time he’s chosen to consistently spend 80% of his day reading and learning. The compounding impact of this type of behaviour cannot be underestimated.
All of what I’ve said above is motivated by the fact I recently read ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ by Greg McKeown.
(thanks to ahmed husain for the recommendation on this one)
“…the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter”
(Greg McKeown)
Like many books, the key message could probably be delivered in a short blog post (or in a single quote like the one above). But, sadly for us mere humans, reading shorthand isn’t effective at changing our behaviour. If any of the above resonates for you, and/or you recognise this inner struggle in yourself, then I’d highly recommend reading the book.
Based on what i’ve said above the most likely misconception of Essentialism is that it’s a philosophy of saying ‘no’. This is of course a vital component but in reality this is a philosophy about being able to say ‘yes’ — to the right things.
This is not another productivity book about how to get things off your to-do list. Instead it’s about getting the right things on the list in the first place.
If you’re interested in the subject but your reading list is already a mile high then the podcast between Tim Ferris and Greg McKeown is a good place to start.
I said at the beginning of this post that I would finish with a valuable company building lesson. I’m sure it’s already obvious:
Start-ups are perhaps the best example where a seemingly impossible goal needs to be achieved with too little time and resource. The only way to beat the odds is to practice a form of Essentialism. To create a systematic way to make sure you and your team are focusing on the right things at the right time. Saying YES to achieving the desired outcome requires saying NO to a lot of other things along the way.
“Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic, approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless”
(Greg McKeown)
