6 Ideas From Essentialism That Changed My Life
The Hyperfocused Entrepreneur
March 25, 2023
Read time: 16 minutes
I hate to admit this, but the truth is I’m a pretty lazy guy.
And my laziness (like a lot of peoples) manifests itself in two major ways:
First: Actually getting started on a task or what we call procrastination.
Second: Staying on task or not getting distracted.
Throughout my 20s I fell into this trap of watching all this hustle porn about how you’ve got to Rise and Grind at 4am and then work until your eyeballs bleed.
I remember feeling perpetually disappointed in myself because I just couldn’t seem to tap into this superhuman work ethic that everybody was bragging about and saying was necessary to become successful.
And for a long time I thought that meant I was just doomed to a life of mediocrity.
Truthfully, I had taken to just making excuses, in particular, pointing to my ADHD as the reason for my laziness.
Well, it was around the time I was 28 years old, my fiance had just left me, and I was living in a van that I realized I needed to start changing some things.
So I went on a search for a better way. On that journey, I stumbled upon a book that fundamentally changed how I saw this whole concept of “working hard”.
That book was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. In particular, there’s one line that’s really stuck with me through the years:
“If you seek tranquility, do less. Or, more accurately, do what’s essential, which brings a double satisfaction: To do Less, better. Because most of what we say and do IS NOT ESSENTIAL.”
When I adopted those words (Do Less, Better), I started making incredible progress towards my goals because my focus was no longer diluted across hundreds of menial, inconsequential activities.
Instead, I hyperfocused on executing just a few things that truly mattered to the absolute best of my ability.
This philosophy is called Essentialism and it was popularized in a book written a couple years ago by Greg McKeown accurately titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
Now in this article, I’m not gonna break down Greg’s book, but instead, I’m going to share 6 ideas from the philosophy of Essentialism that have had a massive positive impact in my life.
“Success isn’t about HOW MUCH you get done… it’s about WHAT you get done.”
If you’re like me, you often fall into the trap of filling up your to-do list with all sorts of stupid little things that aren’t terribly important, but they are easy to do which gives a sense of progress because we get to check the box and feel good about having done something.
The problem with these types of activities is they’re ultimately easy to accomplish, but they don’t move us towards our goals in any sort of meaningful way.
It’s the difference between being Busy versus being Effective.
Stanford professor, Cal Newport, wrote a book called Deep Work and in it he describes this sort of “busy” work as what he calls Shallow Work. Deep Work, on the other hand, are the meaningful activities that only YOU can do which will move you towards your goals.
Here’s an example of the difference between Deep Work and Shallow Work in my own life:
I get hundreds of emails and comments from you guys every single day, and it’s important to me that you guys feel seen and valued, so I make an effort to respond to each and every comment, which isn’t terribly difficult, but it is very time consuming and it doesn’t scale or provide tons of leverage for the amount of energy it requires. This is Shallow Work.
Deep Work, on the other hand, is what I’m doing right now, which is creating this newsletter for you guys. See, researching, ideating, writing, editing, and posting, a ton of time and energy goes into an article like this.
And that work, by its nature, is very hard. So at any given moment if I have a choice between answering emails or working on the next video, well it’s a lot easier to just default to doing the emails.
But that’s not the ESSENTIAL activity. You’re here for the newsletter, not the comments.
Which is why working on 1 newsletter is more important than responding to 1,000 comments, because Success doesn’t care about HOW MUCH you get done… it cares about WHAT you get done.
If you’re like most people and struggle to know what to prioritize, I actually did a video talking through the system I use called I.C.E. which you can learn more about in this video we did called The Productivity System That Made Me A Millionaire in 3 Years.
But, before you pop over there, here’s the second lesson from Essentialism that changed my life:
Saying Yes Is Just Another Way of Saying No
This is a pretty simple mental model, but one I’ve found useful whenever somebody comes to me with a new project or whenever I get shiny object syndrome and want to drop whatever it is I’m working on to go running after the new thing…
It goes like this…
If I say yes to this, then what do I have to say NO to?
If I say Yes to joining that softball league on Tuesday nights, then I’m saying NO to taking that class on copywriting at the community college.
If I say Yes to going out for drinks with buddies, then I’m saying No to going to bed early so I can get a full night’s rest.
If I say Yes to buying that fancy new car, then I’m saying No to saving that money up for a downpayment on a cash flowing property.
In economic or investing terms, we call this concept Opportunity Cost.
Which is just another way of saying if I allocate resources towards doing THIS thing, then I cannot by definition allocate those same resources to doing THAT thing.
In business, we try to quantify the costs of doing THIS rather than having done THAT, but it’s hard because we have to pick a direction with limited information that may or may not prove accurate.
And this holds a lot of people back from making hard decisions because they don’t feel ready or well enough informed to take action.
But the problem is, the only time you’ll ever have perfect information is when you’re looking in the rear-view mirror and by then, the opportunity has already passed.
So you’ve got to exercise your judgment in making these decisions, but in my experience, simply going through the thought process of asking yourself, “If I say Yes to this, then what am I saying NO to”, well, that intention alone will get you 80% of the way towards only doing the things in your life which are essential.
Pardon the interruption…
But I’ve got something here you’re absolutely gonna want to check out.
The reason I think you’re gonna want to check this out is because you’re hear, reading this article which tells me you aren’t like most people.
See, most people are out there struggling with feelings of overwhelm, burnout, and constant procrastination.
They think that if they just had MORE time to get everything done, they’d get everything figured out and quickly be living the life of their dreams.
But you and I both know that the problem isn’t a lack of TIME…
It’s a lack of FOCUS.
I mean, you’ve heard the lie that time is your most valuable asset, right?
Well, people like us know it’s not.
We both know that our most valuable asset is actually our FOCUSED ATTENTION.
It took me almost 30 years to figure this out… and another 5 to figure out how to turn my ADHD into a super-power.
But once I did, everything in my life changed for the better.
So, I spent the last year laying out the step-by-step systems which enabled me write so many bestselling books, build multiple successful businesses, and acquire over $70M of real estate.
It’s called The Hyperfocus Masterclass.
Over the past two months we’ve had over 1,200 students go through the program and the feedback has been incredible.
Want to learn how to do less, but better, so you can get more done in a month than most people do in a year…
Then click here to join The Hyperfocus Masterclass.
If you don’t set your priorities, someone else will.
In the not too distant past, if somebody wanted to get ahold of you, they’d either have to write you a letter (that could take weeks to arrive) or they’d have to trek over to your house and knock on the door.
Both of those activities required significant effort on their part which meant they probably weren’t gonna just pop in on a whim. They likely only reached out when there was something important to communicate.
That’s really not the case anymore.
See, with the advent of the internet, social media, smart phones, emails, and text messaging it’s never been easier to just ping somebody to say “what’s up” when you’re bored.
This is both a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because who doesn’t like a good cat meme sliding into their DMs?
But it’s a curse because now their boredom becomes your distraction, AND most of us feel this unspoken obligation to not only respond, but to do so fairly quickly.
Like, if you don’t respond to my text within a couple hours (or a day at most), I’m gonna get to thinking you’re ignoring me or upset.
And so there’s this constant intrusion that we allow others to have into our lives, and if you let this go unchecked, then you’re REALLY gonna struggle to get meaningful work done throughout your day because you’ll constantly be pulled in a hundred different directions as you compulsively check your emails, dms, and text messages just to make sure you didn’t miss any and inadvertently upset someone.
If you’re a chronic people pleaser, then you’re definitely gonna want to pay attention, but this goes for everyone…
If you want to make progress towards the big lofty goals in life that truly inspire and motivate you, then you have to become ruthless with your time, who you give it to, and WHEN you choose to give it to them.
For me, this means only checking emails and text messages at designated times throughout the day. At pretty much every other point in my day, my phone is on Do Not Disturb so that I’m only interrupted by other people’s requests for my time and attention when I CHOOSE to be interrupted.
Make one decision now that’ll make 1,000 decisions for you in the future.
Have you ever wondered why in pretty much every picture of Steve Jobs, he’s wearing a long sleeve black shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers?
It’s because he knew it wasn’t worth wasting mental energy every morning deciding what to wear.
So instead, he chose one outfit, and then every morning he’d wake up, grab the uniform, and get to working on the things in life that ACTUALLY mattered.
See, he made ONE decision that had the effect of making 1,000 future decisions by default..
And we can apply this concept to all sorts of areas in our life to free up cognitive bandwidth.
For instance, if you wanted to start eating healthy you could standardize your grocery shopping list to only include healthy food. Now, when you pop open the cupboard, you’re not tempted to eat oreos, cause all ya got are bananas.
So that one decision (what are you going to buy at the store), automatically makes a thousand decisions for you throughout the course of the week.
Whenever possible, strive to make a single decision that’ll make 1,000 decisions for you in the future.
Here’s one more that’ll pay massive dividends:
Decide NOW to get rid of your television or streaming services and maybe replace them with a book or learning a new skill or just hanging out and playing games with the family…
Voila, you now no longer have to wrestle with what to watch each night after dinner… now you just grab the book, or the guitar, or monopoly or whatever…
This is just one way of replacing non-productive behaviors with more beneficial ones.
Which leads us to the 5th idea from Essentialism that changed my life, and this might just be my personal favorite.
The goal is simply to be the person who shows up and puts another pearl on the string.
In a video we released last month called Learning this about DISCIPLINE changed my life, I shared with you guys a concept I borrowed from Abraham Maslow called The +1 Framework of Decision Making.
It’s no joke to say that this framework changed my life, but there’s another mental model that’s very closely related that I think is equally impactful.
It’s called the String of Pearls Theory by Phil Stutz.
See, whenever you’re pursuing a difficult goal which requires you to execute certain difficult essential activities, you’re likely to experience this internal resistance, this voice inside that tells you you’re not good enough or makes you question why YOU think you can do something like this?
And this internal critic is born from your self-identity. That is, the beliefs you have about who you are and what you’re capable of.
For me, I spent most of my life struggling against the identity I had for myself that said I’m lazy and I’m unfocused and I’m undisciplined.
And you can see how this identity isn’t gonna help move you forward towards your goal. In fact, for most people, because they are their own harshest critic, that identity they have of themselves stops them from ever even taking the first step.
Well, to overcome this, I want to introduce you to the idea of the String of Pearls.
Now, in this framework imagine a string of pearls. Each pearl on the string represents an action towards your goal.
And just like with all Strings of Pearls, no one pearl is the centerpiece. No one pearl is more important than the others.
See, every action, every pearl, has the SAME value despite the fact that some might be prettier than others, because what you’re actually building is not a String of Pearls, but you’re building the identity of the type of person who simply shows up and puts another pearl on the string.
That’s it.
And I find this framework incredibly powerful because it taps into the one thing that humans find most fulfilling in life, which is a sense of Progress.
See humans are like that urban legend about the sharks that says if they’re not swimming forward, they’re drowning.
Well, that’s not exactly true when it comes to sharks, but it is a good metaphor for humans because we do in fact only have two directions we can go in life… Forwards and Backwards.
There is no standing still.. That’s merely an illusion or a lie we tell ourselves so we don’t have to look in the mirror and accept the reality of our situation which is simply that we are not living in alignment with our greatness.
So the MOST essential thing that we each have to do every single day is to simply show up and put another pearl on the string.
And remember, it doesn’t have to be a perfect pearl. It can be the ugliest thing in the world.
Because one pearl is better than no pearl and the string doesn’t care regardless.
Now the next question we have to answer is which STRING do we put these pearls on? Or, rather, what project should we move towards.
And to answer that, we go to the sixth idea from essentialism that changed my life:
You must Master your 4 Spheres of Influence
Now, if you remember from a bit earlier, I told you I’m pretty damn lazy.
Simply put, I don’t want to work harder than is strictly necessary to get to my goals.
So before I take on any project, I stop and ask what are the fewest number of levers I have to pull to achieve my desired result?
Once I’ve identified those few levers that matter most, I focus 80% of my energy on just them.
Now, all projects and goals have different levers, and part of your job is to develop the critical thinking and judgment skills necessary to discern what those levers actually are.
How to develop those skills of discernment are beyond the scope of this video, but if that’s something you’d find interesting, email me the word “leverage” or “leeverage” and if we get enough interest, I’ll deep-dive this topic in a future newsletter.
With that said, in the project of Life, regardless of who you are or where you are, I’ve found there are really 4 levers which matter most.
I call these my 4 Spheres of Influence and it’s ESSENTIAL that everybody master them.
They are your Mindset, Health, Wealth, and Skills.
These are 4 areas that directly influence your quality of life AND that YOU are almost entirely in control of. There’s a 5th sphere that you partially control, which I’ll share in just a second as kind of a bonus.
First, it starts with your Mindset.
Your Mindset is the lens through which you see the world. If it’s broken or scuzzy or distorted then that’s gonna affect how you see things.
In a very real way your Beliefs become your Thoughts, which become your Actions, which in turn drive your Results.
So, if you want to improve your results, it starts with improving your Beliefs which is a byproduct of your mindset.
Now, I know some of you reading this are probably thinking, “LAME.. my mindset is fine, it’s just that I don’t know what to do. Gimme something less Foofoo and more tactical.”
I get it…
l thought the same way back at the beginning of my journey, but the thing is there’s levels to this mindset game and regardless of where you or I are standing on the path, we cannot see the next “level” until we’re actually standing on it.
Once there, you’ll look back down on where you were and realize, holy crap..I knew nothing before.
With this in mind, I encourage you to get into the mindset weight room every single day to continually hone this muscle. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but some of the most common and effective are meditation, prayer, and journaling.
The second sphere of influence is your Health.
If your Mindset is the windshield through which you see the world, your body is the vehicle.
And the unfortunate news that a lot of people don’t seem to have figured out is you only get one body, so you’d best take care of it ‘cause once you wreck it, there is no trading it in for a new model, it’s wrecked for good.
Now, it’s no surprise that you should avoid destroying your body, but far less obvious is prioritizing all the routine maintenance and tune-ups that’ll keep your vehicle performing in tip-top shape.
There are 3 areas, in particular, you’re gonna want to develop a daily care routine around: your Sleep, Exercise, and Nutrition.
But that’s a topic for another day.
The third sphere of influence is your Wealth.
And regardless of how you feel about money, you can’t deny its importance in the world in which we currently reside.
As they say, money doesn’t solve all your problems, but it does solve all your money problems.
And for me, personally, my life drastically improved for the better when I no longer had to lose sleep worrying about whether or not I’d have enough to cover next month’s rent, or what would happen if my car broke down on the way to work.
The first step to claiming control over this sphere of influence is to learn the rules and strategies of money.
I recently did a video called I read 100 books on money, here’s what I learned… that’s a really good starting point if you’re committed to learning how to play the money game.
And last, but not least, the fourth sphere of influence are your Skills.
Your skills are, ultimately, the thing that enable you to change the world around you. The better, more high value your skills, the better, more high value change you can make
And I think deep down we all want to leave this world a better place than we found it. Well, skills are what enable you to do that.
If you’re curious to learn what I think are the 6 most valuable skills in the world, then check out this article.
The 5th bonus sphere of influence is Relationships.
don’t include this in my primary 4 spheres because relationships are by definition a two-way street which means you really only control half the equation.
With that said, if you ever ask an 80 year old in a retirement home what truly matters in life, they’ll almost always say it’s about the people you loved and the people who loved you.
And so, it seems only fitting that we’ve saved the best (or rather, the most essential) for last.
Now, I’m no expert on relationships, but it is clear to me that what makes this game of life worth living are the people around us.
So let me just take this opportunity to say thank you for being here, for checking out this article, and for being a part of this awesome community.
I know your time is precious, so thank you for spending it here with me. I hope you got a ton of value out of this newsletter.
If you did, let me know what was the most essential lesson you took away from this?
Until then,
Stay Hyperfocused, My Friend
AV
From the Podcast This Week:
If you’re an expert at something, here’s how to make more money.
Want to go even deeper?
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- Invictus Capital: my real estate private equity firm.
- Multifamily Investing Made Simple: Top Apple Podcast.
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3. Want more like this? Check out these 3 popular articles from the vault:
- My Simple 3-Step Framework For Making More Money
- These 6 Skills Will Make You Millions
- It Never Gets Easier, You Just Get Better
4. The Amplified Impact Podcast: A daily podcast for those in relentless pursuit of Less, but Better:
