Mckeown Greg

The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

success can distract us from focusing on the essential things that produce success in the first place

Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.5

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.”

“Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution toward my goal?” Part On

It’s a method for making the tough trade-off between lots of good things and a few really great things.

There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: “I have to,” “It’s all important,” and “I can do both.”

To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.”

In spare moments, I would write. It was a classic “straddled strategy” of attempting to invest in everything at once. The result was that while I was not entirely failing in any pursuit I was not entirely succeeding at any either

“If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?”