Episode Transcript
In the past, I ignored these kinds of inspirational phrases: Do less and achieve more. I thought they were BS. But I started experiencing the truth behind this in the last year and I want to share with you, how you can make the first step to experience it, too. I think we can all do with some fewer actions in our lives.
The opportunities for everyone have never been greater, we have the highest standard of living than ever before and we are not happy, satisfied or enjoying life to the fullest. Don´t get me wrong, most of us are grateful for what we have and we know how good we have it. But that does not result in feelings of fulfilment and joy to be alive. Well, it wasn’t for me for a long time.
※ DOING MORE, ACHIEVING MORE AND HAVING MORE DOES NOT MAKE US HAPPY IN THE END ※
We think it does, that’s why we keep striving for more and more. But if you remember back at something you worked for and finally achieved. Were you happy from that point onwards? Was that the goal you needed to achieve and then you were good? Or did you come up with the next goal a day, a week or at the latest a month later?
My whole life I have been somebody always striving for the next thing and never taking more than a moment to celebrate and enjoy the moment of achievement or success. If I look back at how I felt at these moments, it was not real joy or satisfaction. I thought I was feeling joy or satisfaction but I know now that these feelings were masked by my need to always go for the next thing and achieve more.
※ ALREADY WITH MY MIND ON THE NEXT GOAL ※
I was kind of a serial employee, I changed companies and jobs quite a lot in the past and as soon as I would get this next job, I would think about the next role that I could achieve in a few year’s time, given that I achieved this one now.
Do you feel like that sometimes? Are you somebody who is an overachiever to the detriment that your mind never stops and lets you celebrate and enjoy life?
I will always be somebody who has goals and wants to achieve things but I have learned various lessons over the last year and one of these lessons is the one I want to talk to you about today.
※ WHERE WILL IT END? WHICH ACHIEVEMENT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY? ※
Before we dive deeper, I want to talk about the consequences if you keep going like this. For a moment, think long-term: Do you want to keep running after the next promotion or job for the next 20, or 30 years? And never really being satisfied with what you already have?
After doing it for over 20 years my body, my mind and my spirit got tired. And with the tiredness came crankiness, bad moods and frustration – and not with any good reasons.
“BECAUSE LIFE IS GREAT, RIGHT? I NEVER FELT THAT I WAS ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT ME NOT REALLY BEING HAPPY OR HAVING THIS NAGGING FEELING THAT SOMEBODY IS NOT QUITE RIGHT.”
How can I be allowed to complain when I have a great job and career, earn enough money to have a nice life and get to go on beautiful holidays? You should be happy if you have all of that. So you better feel like it! That was what my inner voice kept telling me.
I kept going for years and years and got more stressed and less productive – not that I knew that I was less productive and working not very clever. When you are on this hamster wheel it is very hard to get off. And a big part of what was holding me back was the fear that you would ruin it all.
The final straw was my burnout last summer. (If you want to learn more about burnout, I have 3 full episodes on this topic: Episode 24, Episode 25 and Episode 26)
And even though I see it now as the best thing that has happened to me, I don´t want you to end up at this place or an even worse one. Take a minute to consider where you are going. And if this is what you truly want for the next decades to come. And if the answer is: Yes, please. Then feel free to stop listening to this episode. You are all good!
But if there are some niggling feelings or some doubt, then stay tuned for one of the lessons that gave me tons of energy back over the last year.
※ THE TITLE OF THIS LESSON IS THE LESS I DO, THE MORE I ACHIEVE! ※
Do less and achieve more! I know it sounds so simple and it kind of is. But for people like us, this is truly difficult. Stop doing something that we are already doing? Not taking on more projects that will help our career? Sounds insane, right?
And you might have seen quotes with a similar phrase before and thought to yourself: Yeah, right, whatever. That is just marketing BS and cannot be true.
Don´t get me wrong. It´s not like I just did it and it clicked for me from one day to another. No, I rather stumbled on this and bit by bit started to understand it and apply it.
This has nothing to do with shying away from your responsibilities or just not opening the laptop anymore – not at all. This one is about letting go!
※ FINALLY, I STARTED TO DO LESS AND IT WORKED! ※
When I came back from my burnout, I had the opportunity to NOT take certain tasks back from others. I knew I had to change how I worked to protect my health and therefore. So I semi-consciously assessed what I should be taking back and be responsible for. And what tasks could just stay with the person who was doing it for the last 6 weeks? That was the first step in the right direction. It was a delegation in an unusual way.
But it was more than just delegation – I started to prioritize my time and energy on topics. I did not try to do it all again like before thinking that all of it needed to get done. That way I was much more focused on 1 important project and they started to be more efficient and less problematic.
※ CONTEXT SWITCHING APPLIES AS WELL TO HUMANS ※
There is a principle called Context Switching that comes from the area of computing but it applies pretty much the same to us humans. A context switch is a process of storing the state of a process or project so that it can be stored and resumed at a later stage. Imagine you are saving a file on your computer and then you are opening a new file. The time and energy that is spent saving and opening aka restoring is context switching. The key reason this is bad for us humans is that it takes this additional energy to switch between tasks. It takes time and effort to get into focus on a new task or to pick up a task later again.
Each time we are interrupted mid-task or we interrupt ourselves, we pay a penalty on our time. We pay with our attention and that is pure energy that we are spending on Nothing.
※ PRIORITIZING ON ANOTHER LEVEL AND DOING LESS ※
So I started prioritizing my work and the work of my employees and I always just gave them one priority. I told them that everything else on their to-do list and in their email inbox will just not get done until they have completed what they can for the day or the week on the number one priority.
And I kid you not, what happened with all of the tasks that we would usually do on top of everything or try to fit into our day? They went away!
This really comes down to the law of attraction or quantum mechanics. If you take your attention off of something, it does not really exist or it stops being present. Before I would put my attention on 10 different projects. All of them kept demanding my time and effort because I gave them energy and kept them alive. When I stopped giving them my energy and started to behave like they dind’t exist, they either solved themselves or disappeared.
“SO IN A NUTSHELL THE SAYING: DO LESS AND ACHIEVE MORE! CAME TRUE FOR ME.”
I have started working with intent. Focusing on the right thing and not everything. And I try now to do less and achieve more.
You might feel resistant to trying this out for yourself. Start and choose something small, something that you already feel like its not your cup of tea and somebody else should really take care of it. See it as a game. And practise letting go.
It might feel weird at the beginning. When you come across these feelings, think about the possibilities that lie in front of you. Imagine having more energy and time in your day. Imagine getting praise for the job that you decided to actually focus on.
