3 Lessons From “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”

Every morning, right after I eat breakfast, I watch a few inspirational and/or educational videos on YouTube. This morning I happened across one that really resonated with me.

I had one of those Aha! moments, like, “I knew I was on to something!”

So, in this video Matt D’Avella was interviewing Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. (I’ll put links at the end of this post.)

I had never heard of Essentialism, but I quickly realized that Greg was talking, in part, about Deliberate Thinking, which is the core of my mission:

We’re on a mission to grow a community of Deliberate Thinkers who are committed to facing their limiting beliefs so that they can realize their full potential!

And, I’ve been working on some posts, still in draft form, regarding work and our relationship with money that seem to echo the message of Essentialism, so I got pretty excited to learn more about this concept.

This is a 1 Minute Motivation, so I can’t get into too many details here, but I wanted to present a quick introduction to Essentialism.

3 things I know so far:

1. Essentialists pursue fewer, high value things. Greg gave the analogy of being in a coal mine. You’re digging shovelfuls of coal one after the other because it’s there. It’s easy to find. It demands your attention. And boy does it keep you busy! Until you realize that you could be digging for diamonds. It will take some concentrated effort, and you won’t find as many, but the ones you do find will be infinitely more valuable. (I apologize to Greg if I screwed up that analogy, but I think I got pretty close ?)
2. Essentialists understand the importance of saying “no.” There’s no shortage of authors, speakers, etc. telling us that we need to say no more often, but Greg reminded me of another point. We are always saying no to something. Saying yes to one thing automatically means we are saying no to something else. We need to make sure we are intentionally choosing the things we say yes/no to.
3. Essentialists give themselves space to take time and discern what is important to them. Yes! That’s exactly what The Expectation Gaps is all about! Giving you a structured way to Deliberately Think about the choices you are making; to help you commit to life-changing habits. Scroll down to discover how The Expectation Gaps works.