How to Avoid the Paradox of Success

Dear Essentialists,?

Many intelligent, ambitious people struggle to figure out what the priority is for them at this moment - and for a perfectly good reason.

It's a reason I call?the paradox of success, and it can be summed up in four predictable phases.?

• Phase one.?We have clarity of purpose, enabling us to succeed in our endeavor.?
• Phase two.?When we succeed, we gain a reputation as a go-to person, and we are presented with increased?options and opportunities.?
• Phase three.?When we have increased options and opportunities,?it leads to diffused efforts as we get spread thinner and thinner.?
• Phase four.?We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution.?

The effect of our success has been to undermine the clarity that led to success in the first place.?

One easy way to combat this cycle is to start a "said no to" list.?

It's simple to do. Just write down the things that you've said no to.??

This will have a couple of benefits.

First, it will be empowering to discover you can say no.

Second, as your list accumulates, you'll be able to evaluate whether you are pleased with that decision.?

The idea isn't to say no to everything. As always, your goal is to say yes to the essentials and no to the nonessentials. Then you can reinvest your time, attention, and energy into the most important things.

A 1-Minute Strategy for Avoiding the Paradox of Success

1. Make a "said no to" list.?
2. As the list grows, evaluate how you feel about saying no.

"?When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself."

-??Paulo Coelho

In gratitude,?

Greg

Do you want to become better at negotiating and achieving what's essential in your life?

Join me for a live session where we will explore and practice negotiation and conflict resolution skills. It's not quite ready yet, but joining the list ensures you'll be the first to know when we're ready to go live. Space is limited.?

Be the first to know - Join the waitlist

Don't miss the latest episode of?The Greg McKeown Podcast

You can listen to every episode and access all the transcripts and show notes?here.?