Warren
Buffett known as the king of investing world chooses one among the 100
opportunities he gets and ignores the 99. He believes this is the difference
between normal people and successful people. Normal people say yes to
everything and successful people say no to almost everything. Because everything is not important for a successful life.
If
you think you get little time to complete any task and you get confused and
fail to achieve something big, then this post is for you. In this post, we
would like to get some inspiration from the book “Essentialism” by Greg
Mckeown, who has consulted Apple, Facebook, Google, and other such big
enterprises.
This
book has inspired many people around the world who utilize this technique in
their day to day life by less time to achieve huge success.
Let’s
then dive into the learning of 'Essentialism' and see how everything is not important for a successful life.
1.Become an editor of your life
Movies
that won Oscar are edited several times and those scenes which seem less
important are removed or replaced with better ones. Today the busy schedule of
people has become their status symbol because they have been internalized that
hard work is a must for success. They treat busyness as hard work and in the
process, they take more projects and contracts to remain more and more involved
with the work. This thing they called hard work, which according to their
perception will land them among successful people.
Hard
work is a way of success but that should be in the right direction. Hard work
without any specific direction is a waste of energy, money, and time. For
example, if a person walks a total distance of 1km and changes his directions
frequently and another person walks 1km in a single direction; who do you think
has covered maximum length from the start point? It is the second one who gave
a direction to his journey, although both covered same distance.
So
here is the key.
Which
thing to avoid is as important as the thing you choose? Being busy does not
necessarily mean being productive. In the same class, only a few get the
conceptual clarity of some topic, even though all are physically present there.
If
you think about your daily schedule you will come to know that there are many
things which are less important and unnecessarily fill your time.
Pareto Principle
According
to the “Pareto Principle”, 80% of your results require just 20% of your efforts
and 20% of your results are due to 80% of efforts. You have to decide whether
you should work on your 20% of efforts to get 80% of results or you run after
20% of results and in-process waste 80% of your efforts.
These 80 % of efforts are not important, so better to ignore them!!
The
80-20 principle is applicable in every field.
No
doubt you work hard, but success comes by doing work on the right things not on
everything. A lift in the building moves up or down by pressing the right
button not by pressing all buttons.
Now
it becomes very much important for you to identify the right things for you, in
other words, you need to find your 20% of things which can give you up to 80%
of productivity. To know which of your 20% input will give you 80% of output,
you need to understand the concept of 'essentialism'.
What is 'essentialism' after all?
'Essentialism' is investing your time and energy only in those things which are essential for providing
an optimum contribution to the things that matter most to you. It means working
on only few important things that will give lead to your life.
It
teaches you to choose your work, rather than work chooses you. When you choose
something for you, it is natural that your focus would be more on that thing.
It teaches you how to achieve the highest
possible position by applying efforts at the right place and at the right time.
You
should consider the fact that you are delegating most of your time. When you
say yes to something, at the same time, unknowingly you say no to many things.
Suppose,
your friend asks you to go for a ride or a movie and you say yes, then
simultaneously you say no to many important things like studies.
If
you do not choose where your time and energy should be invested, others will
decide for you. Would you like that? of course no!
2.Learn to say ‘no’ gracefully.
Paul
Rand who has designed the logo of many big companies like IBM and Westinghouse
rejected the offer to design a logo for Steve Jobs. Steve wanted to make
variant designs of his company ‘NEXT’ for the people from Paul which he
rejected because he wanted to design a single logo for him as per his choice.
Finally, Steve Jobs made a single logo from Paul and was so much satisfied with
the professionalism of Paul.
The
point is, initially Paul could have become unpopular in the eyes of Steve for some
time but in the long run, he got respect from him.
This
may happen with you somewhere in life when you actually wanted to say a ‘no’ to
a person but to please him you say ‘yes’. Latter you regret that a ‘no’ could
have done much better. Sometimes a ‘no’ to people may be difficult because you
think it affects relationships. But if you want to be effective you have to
learn this art of saying no.
How you can gracefully say a no to people?
You
could employ one among the 3 ways to say no to people:
a. Awkward pause
Just
before you say no take an awkward pause for few seconds and say no. It shows that you are not interested in the offer.
b. Artificial delay
If
you are not sure about whether you should say yes to someone then you can use
this method. Just say, “I have numerous tasks yet to finish so I can’t promise
but I will check the schedule and will communicate to you latter”. This way you
will get some time to think over it and check if it essential now or not.
c. Suggest someone else
It’s
use is easy. When you think you are not interested in an offer you can suggest
a person who has a genuine interest in doing that work.
You
don’t have to say ‘no’ to everything, but to offers which are non-essential for
you, so that, so could say ‘yes’ to the things that matters most to you.
As
you start to work on your essential things, you would continue to make progress
in your field. You would then get many opportunities and more people would like
to work with you.
But
if you are not able to define what is essential and what is non-essential for
you than any sort of success will not last for long.
3.Set Boundaries
Maintaining
a gap or a boundary in your life is important for your mental and social
health. Work inside the line of your principles and never cross them. Do your
work on time, read while reading, play while playing, give the current work its
space, and don’t like interference.
Keep
your office work there don’t bring it home. Just like you are not allowed to
bring children to the office, you should not allow your office to your home.
Conclusion
Everything
is not important for you so become editor of your life and cut those things
from your life which are less important for your growth and success. This way
you will give maximum time to those things which are more important for you.
Learn
to say 'no' gracefully, it will bring order and direction to your work.
Set
boundaries- Build some ethics in your life in a way that avoids toxic people,
distraction and non-essential things from you. It will refine your work.
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