Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

As economist Thomas Sowell wrote: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS.

The idea that we can have it all and do it all is not new. This myth has been peddled for so long, I believe virtually everyone alive today is infected with it. It is sold in advertising. It is championed in corporations. It is embedded in job descriptions that provide huge lists of required skills and experience as standard. It is embedded in university applications that require dozens of extracurricular activities.

What is new is how especially damaging this myth is today, in a time when choice and expectations have increased exponentially. It results in stressed people trying to cram yet more activities into their already overscheduled lives.

It creates corporate environments that talk about work/life balance but still expect their employees to be on their smart phones 24/7/365

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

Less but better. A more fitting definition of Essentialism would be hard to come by.

Done is better than perfect

Essentialists see trade-offs as an inherent part of life, not as an inherently negative part of life.

very few things are essential

Play, which I would define as anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as a means to an end—whether it’s flying a kite or listening to music or throwing around a baseball—might seem like a nonessential activity. Often it is treated that way. But in fact play is essential in many ways. Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Institute for Play, has studied what are called the play histories of some six thousand individuals and has concluded that play has the power to significantly improve everything from personal health to relationships to education to organizations’ ability to innovate. “Play,” he says, “leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity.”