Live More by Doing Less
Many of us want to lead balanced lives. We may think that this involves giving equal attention to all areas of our lives. But this isn’t right. The truth is, if our lives were perfectly balanced, we wouldn’t move forward – we’d be frantically going around in aimless circles.
The key message here is: Don’t try to achieve balance; focus on what is truly important.
If you’ve ever ridden a bicycle, you’ll know that it’s almost impossible to maintain balance when it’s perfectly still. You first have to gather momentum by gently leaning forward and pedaling. Then, if you want to turn left or right, you have to shift your balance. But if you lean too heavily to one side, you’ll topple over. You need to keep adjusting your center of gravity to keep the bike upright. In other words, moving forward requires focus and constant counterbalance.
It’s the same in our lives; merely trying to find balance isn’t enough. We need to focus on our priorities to get moving. And to keep going, we have to constantly shift weight to different priorities depending on what’s most important at any given moment.
Let’s dig into why we find focusing so hard. We can divide life into three areas: work, personal, and home. Our work life involves our job, like running a business or a household. Our personal life consists of our relationships and other social interactions, as well as our goals, hobbies, and health. And our home life is dominated by chores and tasks that keep our day-to-day running smoothly.
Each of these areas is, of course, important. But it’s impossible to divide our time, energy, and focus equally between them. If we were to spread these three resources thinly across all areas of our lives, we’d be putting an awful amount of effort into achieving very little – and yet this is exactly what often ends up happening. So why do we do it?
Well, many of us try to achieve the “perfect” balance because we think it’s what society expects of us. But we need to free ourselves from these unrealistic expectations. To do this, the expectations first need to be identified – and then rejected.
For example, once upon a time, the author believed that good moms stayed home, baked cookies for their kids, and volunteered regularly at their schools. She felt guilty because she enjoyed her job, and her schedule made it hard to meet these strict requirements. Trying to do everything was just too much work and left her feeling unfulfilled.
Eventually, though, she shifted her definition of a good mom to one who loves her children in the best way she can. By rejecting the unrealistic expectations, the author stopped trying to balance and started to prioritize – and is now much happier as a result.
The Joy of Missing Out (2019) focuses on how we can eliminate stress from our lives and improve our productivity. It contains actionable strategies for simplifying our lives and identifying our priorities.
We need to be willing not to do everything.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
