He who chases two hares catches neither.
Russian proverb
There’s a constant stream of information coming at us from different angles convincing us what to do with our time and our energy.
Our family pulls us one way, our friends another. Advertisers want us to buy widgets and influencers want us to travel to Bali.
Every day our attention is divided across more people, more issues, more apps, more tabs, more trends, and more distractions.
There is a strong cultural and institutional pressure to do more, but the more we chase the less we capture.
Ancient wisdom and modern thinkers constantly remind us that less is more, but with every passing year it becomes harder to resist the expanding influence of everyone and everything that want us to do more.
Intuitively, we know we can’t have it all. We know over-investing in one area of our lives will take away from another. We know the people asking us to do more have their own best interests in mind, not ours.
And yet, the allure of new opportunities and accomplishments has remained a thorn in our side for thousands of years.
The temptation to do more will always remain, but we can protect ourselves from this instinct by immersing ourselves in the wisdom of ancient philosophers and modern thinkers who have all come to the same conclusion: less is more.
Prompts
Which people, institutions, or influences in your life are pushing you to do more?
What are you trying to add to your life that is actually taking away from the things you care about most?
If you were forced to do less in your life, what’s the first thing you’d take away?
Deep Dive
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu
“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”
Henry David Thoreau
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”
Socrates
An argument for the “disciplined pursuit of less”.
A detailed look at the powerful strategy of accomplishing more by ruthlessly focusing on less.
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
A strategy for reducing digital clutter from our lives to focus on more important areas of our lives.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin