The Art of Doing Less Better

Enough is enough. But what IS enough?  And who gets to define it?

I am a big fan of podcasts & inspirational social media accounts.  But lately I feel like so much of what I see has me anxious about not having more.  More money. More business. More adventures. Just MORE.

This morning I found myself getting annoyed as I saw yet another take on why I need to rewrite my money story.  Like if I don’t want more...something MUST be wrong with me.

But I don’t want more.  Well, I do (if I didn’t I’d probably be ready for death & that is definitely not the case)...but the more I want has little to do with money & a whole lot to do with time.  Time to create. Time to be with people I love. Time to go on long walks. Time to sit quietly & reflect on how much of my life is going just the way I had always hoped (even if I do complain to my poor hubby nightly about the things I want to change).

What I actually crave right now is LESS.  Fewer places to be & things to do. A reduction of what is expected of me...and even what I expect of myself.  From taking my morning vitamins to my nightly face washing routine, I am not sure anymore which of it I actually want to do & what items I am doing because some guru somewhere said that was the magic key.  

One of my brilliant commanders in the army proclaimed to our company one day that we were going to “do less better.”  This ruffled some feathers at first, because what he meant was we were going to get really, REALLY good at the 3 main missions our aircraft was asked to fly.  He was going to let all the other missions go to our sister company. The sexy, one-of-a-kind missions that may never come around again. The drool worthy experiences every pilot dreamed of having.  Our job was to just focus on the 3 most basic mission types and get good at them. Actually, he wanted us to be GREAT at them.

Despite all the grumbling & complaining, we did what he said.  For months we watched our sister company do all the cool things while we did the same old thing...AGAIN. 

And boy...was it was painful.

But then something happened.  We actually got great at the 3 basic missions.  So great, in fact, our commander added a 4th mission type.  And once we were great at that he added a 5th. And then a 6th.  And so on.

Eventually, we were better than our sister company in ALL the mission types.  And one day we realized WE were the ones people started coming to for the fun, sexy missions.

It wasn’t fun to let go of all the cool missions and do less.  But the doing it better part actually WAS fun & a great source of pride in ourselves.  Especially when simplifying in the short term led to some pretty amazing opportunities in the long term.

At least that is how I remember it going down.  And ever since then, “do less better” has always had a nice ring to it.

So today I am making a list of (at least) 20 things I WILL NOT be doing by the time I finish the mastermind experience I am embarking on next month.  And I feel pretty excited about it. My to do list has me uninspired lately. But this NOT to do list...well, that has me curious. Who will I be when I remove the “to do” items that crept onto my list because someone else thought they were important?  

Nothing is sacred.  Everything is up for review.  And I, for one, cannot wait to see what gets kicked to the curb as I redefine MY enough.  I feel lighter just thinking about it!

Anyone else ready to let go of a “to do” that’s not serving you anymore?  What’s on your NOT TO DO list?!