Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less should be required reading for parents, spouses and for anyone working for others in business and in corporations – if you find yourself struggling to find time to be one-on-one with your kids, or your spouse.
I’ve also always believed that it should be easy to have (and to enjoy) deep relationships with our loved ones.
Before he wrote Essentialism, and adopted the Essentialist
way of life, the author, Greg McKeown, had a really nasty, appalling experience.
The day after his daughter was born, healthy and happy, he visited his wife in
hospital, and although she looked radiant, she was exhausted.
But this didn’t stop Greg from yielding to pressure to go
and attend a client meeting!
There he was, on the phone and on e-mail with work, even as
his beautiful new baby lay in his wife’s tired arms – and this was clearly a
time to be there for his wife and his newborn child.
This should have been one of the happiest, most serene days
of his life, a day to relish the real juice of life, to feel fully alive and to
rejoice in the miracle that bringing another life into this world should be. But
in the event, for Greg, the day was actually filled with tension.
He said “Yes” when his business colleague “pressured” him to
go meet a client!
You’re probably thinking, “This couldn’t happen to me!” But,
for the parents out there, if you’ve ever missed a fun family event at your
child’s school, or his/her birthday party, or the first day of Chanukah with
your children (any important non-Christian holiday; Eid el Fitri etc.) – what’s
the difference?
You weren’t there for your child – or perhaps you weren’t
there for your spouse, or your family. Not being there is not being there – there
are no degrees to it. And very few excuses!
But, having said that, most of us are unsuspecting victims…
Once upon a time, you could confidently look forward to a
quiet weekend at home with the family, and maybe a game of golf or chess with
friends – or crochet with a neighbor, or a couple of neighbors.
But today, increasingly, it’s typical to find that by
Saturday morning, your wish to have a quiet weekend notwithstanding, you are
inundated with errands and demands on your time, not least because today’s
corporate environments expect you to work for them from your home.
Modern businesses and companies may talk about work/life
balance but they still expect their employees to be on their smart phones 24/7
and 365 days a year!
Essentialism is the way out if you’re one of those people
who find themselves stretched too thin, who feel both overworked and
underutilized, who find themselves majoring in minor activities at work and in
life generally.
According to Greg McKeown, “if you don’t prioritize your
life, someone else will!”
Click here to check prices and see available formats; see if the holiday discount deal is still on!
The basic value proposition of Essentialism is that only once you give yourself permission to
stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your
highest contribution towards the things that really matter.
This is the antidote to the much-vaunted idea that we can
have it all and do it all. This idea has been championed in corporations. It is
embedded in job descriptions that provide huge lists of required skills and
experience as standard.
But this myth is especially damaging today, in a time when choice and expectations have increased exponentially, because it results in stressed people trying to cram yet more activities into their already overscheduled lives... at the expense of their kids, their spouses, their communities.
This book will show you how to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect from you. It will teach you a method for being more efficient, productive, and effective in both personal and professional realms. It will teach you a systematic way to discern what is important, eliminate what is not, and make doing the essential as effortless as possible.
In short, it will teach you how to apply the disciplined
pursuit of less to every area of your life.
I highly recommend that parents, spouses and anybody who
works for others – or even the self-employed – buy this book, especially so
that you can find time to be one-on-one with your children, and your partners.
In this modern, information age where people don’t seem to
believe that they have a choice in what opportunity, assignment, or challenge
to take on, where they believe they have to do it all, only by being selective can
you buy yourself space – and in that space find creative freedom.
That’s what happened to Sam, a corporate type the author
writes about in Essentialism.
Sam decided that enough was enough. He wanted to quit, but
then he talked to his mentor.
The mentor gave him surprising advice: “Stay, but do what
you would as a consultant and nothing else. And don’t tell anyone.”
In other words, his mentor was advising him to do only those
things that he deemed essential, that he liked – and ignore everything else
that was asked of him.
Sam took the advice – and it worked like a charm!
He found he could concentrate his efforts on one project at
a time. He could plan thoroughly. He could anticipate roadblocks and start to
remove obstacles. Instead of spinning his wheels trying to get everything done,
he could get the right things done.
He even became more popular at work and at home.
He immediately found that he not only got more of his day
back at work, in the evenings he got even more time back at home. He said, “I
got back my family life! I can go home at a decent time.”
You need this book if you want to build deep relationships
with your kids, or your spouse, or other loved ones – or even with your dog! Remember
that deep relationships – and deep bonds – give you lots of leverage!
If you’re on the receiving end of not getting quality time one-on-one
from a parent, or your husband or wife, gift them this book. It could be the
beginning of rebuilding a deep bond with them.
Time, or the lack of it, is usually a big stumbling block to
building deep relationships with our loved ones. Essentialism will help you
liberate more of your day.
Experts agree that having quality time, one-on-one with your kid or spouse is the best – and easiest – way to build a deep relationship. Essentialism could also be the ticket to your becoming more creative, more productive, and to gaining mastery in all other areas of your life.
Sometimes we all need these reminders. Reminders that life is too short to waste, and too precious to leave to routine.