The Quiet Revolution We've Been Waiting For

In our society, doing the most is highly valued. It's intoxicating and addicting to always be on the brink of doing, acquiring, and achieving more.

As the eldest daughter of immigrants, doing the most was always my drug of choice. The result? I was burning the candle at both ends, making micro progress in a million directions, and not feeling as productive as I thought I ought to be.

Old habits die hard, I fear. But when there's a will, there's a way, and I've been unlearning the act of busyness and learning the fine art of essentialism.

I used to think that doing the most meant you were the most disciplined and hardworking. However, essentialism is an underrated discipline that rewards those striving for excellence.

I'm kicking off this inaugural newsletter with 27 of my favorite lessons from my latest read: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. I will also dissect three of my favorite quotes and what I learned from them.

I love some of these quotes so much that if I could stitch them onto a pillow, I would. Needless to say, I hope there is something here for you.

27 of My Favorite Lessons from Essentialism ✨ 

1. Do not major in minor activities.

2. Identify your highest point of contribution.

3. Do not try to force execution at the last second.

4. Remove obstacles to make execution easy.

5. An essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential; a non-essentialist thinks almost everything is essential.

6. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

7. Focus is not only a thing; it's an action.

8. In every set of facts, there is a point to be made, whether said or unsaid; therein lies what matters.

9. To capture the essentials, look for the lead (broader patterns and trends).

10. Pushing oneself to the limit is easy! The real challenge for those who thrive on challenges is not to work too hard.

11. Apply extreme criteria (with a numeric value, for example) to choose what/where the highest contribution can be made.

12. Ask yourself: "If we could be truly excellent at only one thing, what would that be?"

13. Ask yourself: "How will we know when we have succeeded?"

14. Learn the art of the slow yes and the quick no.

15. Kill your darlings! Even when it breaks your heart.

16. Your goal is to make someone's life easier and have the clearest possible understanding of the main message.

17. Less is better. Less is better! In German: weniger aber besser. And in Spanish: menos pero mejor.

18. Make social contracts with others and focus on what you want to achieve.

19. Create buffers through extreme preparation.

20. Produce more by removing more.

21. Aim for small wins [and short horizons].

22. The most effective form of human motivation is progress.

23. Design routines that make success the default.

24. There is a right time. Tune into what's important right now.

25. Essentialists know that execution is easy if you work hard at it and hard if you work easy at it.

26. What might you want to do someday as a result of today?

27. To be an essentialist in our society is an act of quiet revolution.

Let’s dissect three quotes, shall we?

1. Aim for small wins [and short horizons].

How often do we set ourselves up for big, lavish goals and resolutions, only to fall short before gaining momentum? As a neurospicy girly, I am no stranger to mighty ambitions and setting all-or-nothing expectations for myself. It’s like trying to run a marathon on day one when you’ve never run a day in your life.

When I strive for perfection and attempt too many changes simultaneously, the margin for error is so small that I have nowhere to go.

I am humbly learning the fine art of setting shorter horizons—in other words, smaller, shorter goals. For example, I want to do everything at once: prioritize good workouts, read every day, wake up without scrolling, sleep 8+ hours, etc., etc.

Instead, I am focusing on building two habits and routines now.

💤 First, I am focusing on improving my sleep hygiene for higher-quality sleep and taking action steps to help me maintain my routines (I’ll share more on that in a future issue).

 🤓 Second, I am working on making working on my creative side projects a regular part of my weekly routine.

Even though I have other tried and true routines running on in the background, such as working out, reading, and cooking a few times a week, I’m not focused on actively improving them at the moment. I’m directing my energy to fewer goals and more attainable action steps.

Instead of going in a million directions and making little increments of progress, my mental energy and focus are directed to two things where I can measure progress and feel accomplished.

2. Essentialists know that execution is easy if you work hard at it and hard if you work easy at it.

You’ve probably heard of this quote: “There’s the pain of discipline, and then there’s the pain of regret.” Well, this nicely pairs with the quote in question.

You get to choose your hard. Yes, waking up is hard and easy to snooze and stay in bed, scrolling for 30 minutes. In turn, it’s hard to be groggy all day and feel you’re starting your day distracted.

It’s hard to enforce certain work processes at first, but harder to force execution to compensate for poor work processes. Whenever I find friction at work or in my daily routines, I remind myself that my future self will thank me for the actions I’m taking now.

Choose 👏 your 👏 hard. 👏 

3. To capture the essentials, look for the lead (broader patterns and trends).

Sometimes, we are too close to something to see it for what it really is. By examining what is said and unsaid—what’s visible and invisible, the matter and anti-matter—you paint the complete picture of what is essential.

When you can capture the bottom line message and understand what matters in a given situation, you can focus on contributing to that North Star. In doing so, you avoid getting hung up on side details that may be shiny but ultimately distract you from working on what really matters.

Take care, and see you next week. I’m so happy to be back writing to you!!!

Erika 🤎