Reflection Time - Making Tough Decisions and Shaping the Future

byobdude

1.1K followers

5 years ago

Recently I read the book Essentialism by author Greg McKeown and published a short book review on my website.

If you haven't read the book yet, I highly recommend you do so.

"Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin?

Do you sometimes feel overworked and underutilized?
Do you feel motion sickness instead of momentum?
Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?
Have you ever said “yes” simply to please and then resented it?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist."

Looking in the mirror, I had to admit: Yes, I found myself stretched too thin!

I'm a guy with a lot of interests, very curious by nature and like to dig deep into topics that spark my passion.

But this is not a hobby, this is a business.

And I'm not closely where I want to be - yet.

"Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

I can do anything, but not everything

So, a couple of decisions I made as a consequence of reflection time:

1. I decided what I want to go BIG on.
   
2. Everything else had to go.

For me, that meant:

• letting go of several top-level domains that I owned for months (in one case years) but haven't acted upon
  
• letting go of one trending topic that I know can be covered by one of my other sites
• letting go of one highly creative project that I was passionate about in the past, but no longer am passionate about
  
• letting go of one "prestige project" that I would get a lot of respect for from the wrong people for the wrong reason (thank you, ego)
• deleting my first two blog posts here at WealthyAffiliate, because they clearly lacked direction and I wasn't giving it my best
• letting go of the idea of "trying to rank (quickly)" within WealthyAffiliate - if it comes as a byproduct of high contribution, that's fine of course
• letting go of the need to check google analytics for a relatively new site

To deal with the last point, and because I know how addictive the activity of "checking (live) stats" is for me, I de-installed the analytics plugin.

It's useless to focus on analytics in the first couple of months of any new website. Instead, focus on creating excellent content.

Making these decisions hurt at first, but I feel better now with a refreshed sense of purpose!

If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no

I don't want to add any fluff here, as this topic was already covered extensively by several authors like Derek Sivers. (No “yes.” It's either “hell yeah!” or “no.”)

I try my best to make this the maxim of every part of my life going forward, as good as I can.

"The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.

In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless."

What do YOU want to go big on?

"Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life. Instead of asking, “What do I have to give up?” they ask, “What do I want to go big on?”"

I hope you enjoyed the read and are inspired to (re-)decide on your own vital few.

Stay awesome,

Tim