Saying yes to one thing means saying no to the other. If you think you can do both, you will often be disappointed. The essentialist sees the consequences of choices as an essential part of life. Instead of thinking, "What do I have to give up?" the essentialist thinks, "What do I want to go all out for?"
“It's all important” becomes “Only a few things really matter”
Hard work is the key to success, right? Not according to McKeown, who argues that it is precisely top people and leaders who fall into the success trap. Success leads to more opportunities, which leads to a division of attention and distraction from the important things that made us successful in the first place.
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In addition, more effort does not necessarily yield more results. McKeown also refers to the well-known Pareto principle : 20 percent of our efforts yield 80 percent of the results. Or in 'essentialist' terms: distinguish the vital few from the trivial many in order to achieve better results with less.
2. Choose correctly: distinguish the trivial many from the vital few
Okay, so choosing is inevitable. But how do I choose? How do I distinguish between the vital few and the trivial many? McKeown's mantras are:
Give yourself the space to step back, explore your options and think. Schedule time for this literally, about 2 hours of thinking time per week.
Be selective. Not everything that comes to you is relevant. Filter what is important to you by writing down your thoughts, finding the common thread in your day, week and life.
Play more. Playing stimulates the brain and italy whatsapp number curiosity. Think about what excited you as a child and how you could do that again now.
The real challenge in our society is not to be constantly occupied with something. Rest is essential for recovery and productivity. The outcome of the research by K. Anders Ericsson (and Malcolm Gladwell's popularization of this research) on violinists is striking. It is now common knowledge that to become an expert in something you have to spend at least 10,000 hours on something. An underexposed conclusion from this same report is that the best violinists distinguish themselves from the good violinists by sleeping more.
If the answer is not a resounding yes, it should be no. In other words, be more selective in your choices. McKeown introduces a simple selection process:
Make a list of 3 minimum criteria that the opportunity would need to meet in order to be considered.
Make a list of 3 ideal criteria that the opportunity would have to meet in order to be considered.
Does an opportunity not meet all 3 of the minimum criteria? Don't do it. Does an opportunity meet only 2 of the ideal criteria? Don't do it either.
3. Letting go of what doesn't matter
Okay, so now we know how to distinguish between the important decisions and other trivial choices. But to fully focus on those important decisions, we need to actually ‘eliminate’ all the non-essential choices. McKeown also gives a number of how-to’s.