Essentialism

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By Greg McKeown

I finished reading this book May 21, 2016. It took a few weeks to read. It took a little longer to get through this book than it should have, but mostly because I got off to a slow start, and clearly had something to learn from the book about the disciplined pursuit of less. One of my favorite quotes in this book and really the summary of the book is "The life of an Essentialist is a life lived without regret. If you have correctly identified what really matters, if you invest your time and energy in it, then it is difficult to regret the choices you make. You become proud of the life you have chosen to live."

"The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better. It doesn't mean occasionally giving a nod to the principle. It means pursuing it in a disciplined way."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"The way of the Essentialist is the path to being in control of our own choices."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"If you don't priortize your life, someone else will."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. But their exploration is not an end in itself. The purpose of the exploration is to discern the vital few from the trivial many."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"If the answer isn't a definite yes then it should be a no."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Sometimes you will have to turn down a seemingly good option and have faith that the perfect option will soon come along."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"It takes courage, insight, and foresight to see which activities and efforts will add up to your single highest point of contribution. It takes asking tough questions, making real trade-offs, and exercising serious discipline to cut out the competing priorities that distract us from our true intention. Yet it is worth the effort because only with real clarity of purpose can people, teams, and organizations fully mobilize and achieve something truly excellent."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Anyone can talk about the importance of focusing on the things that matter most — and many people do — but to see people who dare to live it is rare."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough."
― Josh Billings
"There should be no shame in admitting to a mistake; after all, we really are only admitting that we are now wiser than we once were."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"I am not saying we should never help people. We should serve, and love, and make a difference in the lives of others, of course. But when people make their problem our problem, we aren't helping them; we're enabling them. Once we take their problem for them, all we're doing is taking away their ability to solve it."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
― Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
"Many of our nonessential routines are deep and emotional. They have been formed in the furnace of some strong emotions. The idea that we can just snap our fingers and replace them with a new one is naive. Learning essential new skills is never easy. But once we master them and make them automatic we have won an enormous victory, because the skill remains with us for the rest of our lives. The same is true with routines. Once they are in place they are gifts that keep on giving."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"When faced with so many tasks and obligations that you can't figure out which to tackle first, stop. Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is most important this very second — not what's most important tomorrow or even an hour from now. If you're not sure, make a list of everything vying for your attention and cross off anything that is not important right now."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"When other people are saying yes, you will find yourself saying no. When other people are doing, you will find yourself thinking. When other people are speaking, you will find yourself listening. When other people are in the spotlight, vying for attention, you will find yourself waiting on the sidelines until it is time to shine. While other people are padding their resumes and building out their LinkedIn profiles, you will be building a career of meaning. While other people are complaining (read: bragging) about how busy they are, you will just be smiling sympathetically, unable to relate. While other people are living a life of stress and chaos, you will be living a life of impact and fulfillment."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"The life of an Essentialist is a life lived without regret. If you have correctly identified what really matters, if you invest your time and energy in it, then it is difficult to regret the choices you make. You become proud of the life you have chosen to live."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"What is essential? Eliminate everything else."
― Greg McKeown - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
"Out of all virtues simplicity is my most favorite virtue. So much so that I tend to believe simplicity can solve most of the problems, personal as well as the world problems. If the life approach is simple one need not lie so frequently, nor quarrel nor steal, nor envy, anger, abuse, kill. Everyone will have enough and plenty so need not hoard, speculate, gamble, hate. When character is beautiful, you are beautiful. That is the beauty of simplicity."
― Ela Bhatt

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