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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less By Greg Mckeown Book Recap

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By Greg Mckeown

Listen to my interview with Greg HERE

THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS. —Lin Yutang

For 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.

What is Essentialism?

Weniger aber besser. The English translation is: Less but better.

The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

The Paradox of Success 

PHASE 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavor.

PHASE 2: When we have success, we gain a reputation as a “go to” person. We become “good old [insert name],” who is always there when you need him, and we are presented with increased options and opportunities.

PHASE 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, which is actually code for demands upon our time and energies, it leads to diffused efforts. We get spread thinner and thinner.

PHASE 4: We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

 

Once an Australian nurse named Bronnie Ware, who cared for people in the last twelve weeks of their lives, recorded their most often discussed regrets. At the top of the list: “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

  1. EXPLORE AND EVALUATE
  1. ELIMINATE
  1. EXECUTE

In other words, once you’ve figured out which activities and efforts to keep—the ones that make your highest level of contribution—you need a system to make executing your intentions as effortless as possible. In this book you’ll learn to create a process that makes getting the essential things done as effortless as possible.

 

ESSENCE: WHAT IS THE CORE MIND-SET OF AN ESSENTIALIST?

  1. Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time. Without choice, there is no point in talking about trade-offs.
  2. The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important. Because some things are so much more important, the effort in finding those things is worth it.
  3. The reality of trade-offs: We can’t have it all or do it all.

Once we accept the reality of trade-offs we stop asking, “How can I make it all work?” and start asking the more honest question “Which problem do I want to solve?

STEP 1. EXPLORE: DISCERNING THE TRIVIAL MANY FROM THE VITAL FEW

3 Key Questions to Ask 

“What do I feel deeply inspired by?” 

“What am I particularly talented at?” 

“What meets a significant need in the world?”

STEP 2. ELIMINATE: CUTTING OUT THE TRIVIAL MANY

So we can either deliberately choose what not to do or allow ourselves to be pulled in directions we don’t want to go.

STEP 3. EXECUTE: REMOVING OBSTACLES AND MAKING EXECUTION EFFORTLESS

An Idea Whose Time Has Come 

As poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”I challenge you to pause more to ask yourself that question.

ESSENCE What Is the Core Logic of an Essentialist?

CHAPTER 2 CHOOSE 

The Invincible Power of Choice IT IS THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE WHICH MAKES US HUMAN. —Madeleine L’Engle

CHAPTER 3 DISCERN The Unimportance of Practically Everything

Crucial lesson: certain types of effort yield higher rewards than others.

“Warren Buffett decided early in his career it would be impossible for him to make hundreds of right investment decisions, so he decided that he would invest only in the businesses that he was absolutely sure of, and then bet heavily on them. He owes 90% of his wealth to just ten investments. Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.”

Some believe the relationship between efforts and results is even less linear, following what scientists call a “power law.” According to the power law theory, certain efforts actually produce exponentially more results than others.

CHAPTER 4 TRADE-OFF Which Problem Do I Want?

“You have to look at every opportunity and say, ‘Well, no … I’m sorry. We’re not going to do a thousand different things that really won’t contribute much to the end result we are trying to achieve.’ ”

CHAPTER 5 ESCAPE 

The Perks of Being Unavailable WITHOUT GREAT SOLITUDE NO SERIOUS WORK IS POSSIBLE. —Pablo Picasso

Here’s another paradox for you: the faster and busier things get, the more we need to build thinking time into our schedule. And the noisier things get, the more we need to build quiet reflection spaces in which we can truly focus.

WHERE IS THE KNOWLEDGE WE HAVE LOST IN INFORMATION? —T. S. Eliot

“Actually I’m highly logical, which allows me to look past extraneous detail and perceive clearly that which others overlook.”

Nonessentialists listen too. But they listen while preparing to say something. They get distracted by extraneous noise. They hyperfocus on inconsequential details. They hear the loudest voice but they get the wrong message. In their eagerness to react they miss the point. As a result they may, using a metaphor from C. S. Lewis, run around with fire extinguishers in times of flood. They miss the lead.

EACH NIGHT, WHEN I GO TO SLEEP, I DIE. AND THE NEXT MORNING, WHEN I WAKE UP, I AM REBORN. —Mahatma Gandhi

AN INNER PROCESS STANDS IN NEED OF OUTWARD CRITERIA. —Ludwig Wittgenstein

The 90 Percent Rule

If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.

Here’s a simple, systematic process you can use to apply selective criteria to opportunities that come your way. 

We aren’t looking for a plethora of good things to do. We are looking for the one where we can make our absolutely highest point of contribution.

ELIMINATE How Can We Cut Out the Trivial Many?

CHAPTER 10 CLARIFY 

One Decision That Makes a Thousand T

O FOLLOW, WITHOUT HALT, ONE AIM: THERE IS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS. —Anna Pavlova, Russian ballet dancer

HALF OF THE TROUBLES OF THIS LIFE CAN BE TRACED TO SAYING YES TOO QUICKLY AND NOT SAYING NO SOON ENOUGH. —Josh Billings

Asks, “If I weren’t already invested in this project, how much would I invest in it now?” Thinks, “What else could I do with this time or money if I pulled the plug now?” 

PRETEND YOU DON’T OWN IT YET 

Tom Stafford describes a simple antidote to the endowment effect.6 Instead of asking, “How much do I value this item?” we should ask, “If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?” We can do the same for opportunities and commitment. Don’t ask, “How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?” but rather, 

 

CHAPTER 19 FOCUS 

What’s Important Now?

 LIFE IS AVAILABLE ONLY IN THE PRESENT MOMENT. IF YOU ABANDON THE PRESENT MOMENT YOU CANNOT LIVE THE MOMENTS OF YOUR DAILY LIFE DEEPLY. —Thich Nhat Hanh

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“What’s important now?”

“There is a difference between losing and being beaten. Being beaten means they are better than you. They are faster, stronger, and more talented.” To Larry, losing means something else. It means you lost focus. It means you didn’t concentrate on what was essential. It is all based on a simple but powerful idea: to operate at your highest level of contribution requires that you deliberately tune in to what is important in the here and now.

There Is Only Now

Before Walking in The Door from Work 

 

BEWARE THE BARRENNESS OF A BUSY LIFE. —Socrates

Henry David Thoreau (who wrote, “I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; … so simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real”).

The Greeks had a word, metanoia, that refers to a transformation of the heart.

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