I just came out of a mentoring session with my mentor Linda Hutchings what a great reminder it was to take my own medicine and keep it clean by making things simple.
Perhaps like me you're a multi-passionate entrepreneur or leader who has 50 business ideas a day and struggles to decide which one to implement first. As I talked to Linda about some of my latest ideas of launching a new podcast, relaunching a group coaching program, beginning writing another book (I have two underway already), I began to hear the folly of my thoughts.
Yep that's right, I was eating my own vomit.
I'd just spent the morning supporting a CEO at a mining engineering company to reduce the friction in his business and find more flow. We've been looking at where he can strategically narrow his focus and do what is most important. And here I was stacking my plate full.
As the minimalist leader I teach others that:
Doing everything = frustration and friction
Doing few things well = flow and fulfilment
Linda kindly reminded me that we often teach what we need to practice.
Like anything in life and business everything can be improved by adding, or by subtracting. Typically adding is associated positively with enhancing something and subtracting is associated negatively with detracting from something.
The race is always for bigger, better, more. Do more, teach more, share more. We are told to keep adding - be on more committees, say yes to more experiences, strive for more money and definitely aim for more friends and likes. My kick in the pants reminder today is that more doesn't always deliver more, in fact all it often gives us less clarity and more stress.
I have a theory:
Business is pretty simple.
Humans make it complicated.
What if instead we started to focus more on subtracting?
We think the key to productivity is to find ways to get more done. We multitask, we attend productivity workshops and how to manage your email better webinars.
What if the real secret to optimum productivity is to do less while achieving more.
Here are four ideas for how you can implement this:
The most successful people I know are focused, have boundaries against time vampires, say no to everything not in their top priorities and travel light in flow. If they add something to their life, their business, their commitments it's done so in a mindful, considered way. And they're always subtracting, reducing and eliminating things that no longer support them.
What are you prepared to let go of and subtract from your world?
Alexandria Joy's (AJ) mission is to empower people to create more meaningful, joyful lives that bring a deeper connection with themselves, others and our planet. She wants to shift the way we think about and deal with success in business and life.
As an aspiring minimalist and tiny house dweller she believes in keeping things simple and making 10 degree shifts in all aspects of life and work so you can do less and achieve more.
She is the founder of company culture firm UQ Power, co-founder of Human Power and creator of The 10* Shift and the tiny house experiment The Joy Box.