“If it is not making you happier, or healthier, or calmer, or having better relationships, or wealthier, then what good is it? It’s useless. You can safely discard it.” @naval
I love this. Advice like this is so simple that it’s deceptively “duh!”. Oftentimes complexity in life is made up. Just pare it down. Here’s the conditions for a great life – do stuff that makes you:
- Happy
- Healthy
- Calmer
- Have better relationships
- Richer
Just five things. Anything that you can count with one hand is simple. And anything that you do in your life that doesn’t contribute to the five things gets the boot. The key word here is “Safely discard”. Sometimes it almost feels like you need permission to let things go, doesn’t it? Out of fear that it might have some benefit to your life that you didn’t know about… But if it was really so mission-critical—trust me—it’ll find its way back to us soon enough. Like thirst to water.
I never had a life audit like that before, so maybe it’s well worth the time to do a quick one, to spark deeper thought and reflection.
Stuff I can safely discard that doesn’t make me:
- Happy - working with/for others, most things that I ‘should’ do out of obligation
- Healthy - fried foods, staying up late to ‘steal back your day’, sitting too long
- Calmer - TV, online discourse about anything of importance, toxic friends
- Have better relationships - working too much, not have rest days, not planning date nights
- Richer - selling my time, not believing that I should be rich
Food for thought……