Needing more is slowly destroying you.
It’s devastating:
- your clear mind
- your current or future business
- your willingness to work
Here’s how, and how you can gain it all back.
#1 — Decisions
Choice overwhelms our society.
It’s exhausting to always search for what we need.
As a teacher, I’m about ten times more exhausted by choices than other people because in a classroom, I’m usually making around 20 decisions every 5 minutes.
In her book, Obsessed, Emily Heyward dives into why a lot of businesses have minimized choice.
Instead of providing 30 different kinds of toothpaste that all have different perks (think whitening, fresh breath, mint flavor, dentist recommended), provide one option that covers everything.
A minimalist of the mind finds what they want quickly, so that they aren’t draining brain power on something as small as toothpaste.
Decisions are everywhere. Their goal is to drain your energy and willpower. Make them quickly and move on.
You can always change your mind later.
#2 — Business
Similar to what’s listed above, some of us have too many options.
So creating a business that focuses on simplicity creates an easy life, for you and your customers.
Alex Hormozi, entrepreneur and future billionaire, mentions that having multiple streams of income doesn’t matter, at least, not in the beginning.
It’s more effective to pick one thing that you want to do and become really amazing at it.
Think about some of the biggest fast food businesses. They just got really good at doing one skill over and over.
- McDonald’s is spectacular with making the process quick and easy
- Chick-Fil-A’s chicken sandwich is immaculate
- Panda Express has been in business for over 60 years
They’ve all specialized in just one task. Chick-Fil-A doesn’t try to make burgers with beef. They doubled down on chicken sandwiches and they’re riding it to the finish line.
Greatness comes from doing the same tasks over and over.
If you want to be a great writer, you would:
- write often
- read often
- edit well
- learn specific skills, like good intros and strong paragraphs
And that’s it. Do those few tasks over and over for 30 years and you will become a great writer.
#3 — Clutter
Clutter clogs the brain.
When my house is a mess, it becomes difficult for me to fully focus on writing, or anything else for that matter. My brain convinces me to retreat into laziness because I’m, again, overwhelmed with choice.
Alex Hormozi says anxiety comes from having too many options.
So when I need to:
- clean the house
- write an article
- spend time with my wife
- work on teacher stuff
My productivity meter shuts down.
Less is More is a Netflix documentary about minimalism that helped me reduce clutter in my life.
In fact, I pride myself on having only a few signature outfits, a few pairs of shoes, a few options for what to accomplish in a day.
Having less makes cleaning a less aggressive task because everything has a place and you’re not stuffing the junk drawer with items you’ll never use again.
Now, it takes roughly 30 minutes to clean my house, which allows me to do so and get back to working on what I love.
Your clutter is keeping you from your work.
Make less more in your own life so that you can focus on what matters.
More is Exhausting
Being a minimalist doesn’t mean not enjoying life.
It means that you get a fuller life out of having fewer distractions, things, and decisions.
The fallacy is that if I have more ______, then I will be _____.
Fill it in however you want:
- If I have more money, then I’ll be happier.
- If I have more friends, then I’ll have more fun.
- If I have more stuff, then I’ll be cooler.
It’s all lies.
- More money means more costly financial decisions
- More friends creates more distractions
- More stuff clogs the smoothness of your brain
With more comes more overwhelm. With less comes freedom.
We both know which one you should choose.
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I help women improve their personal and professional lives. Sign up for Moving One Degree to take small steps toward your goals right now.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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