Less is the way to have more and be more

Three days ago, I came across a post shared by a former executive at AIA Vietnam. His name is L?u K? Nam. In his beautiful post, he asked others what the keywords in 2022 they will bring to 2023. I asked him what was his and “stay open” to keep experiment different things was the answer. At first, I picked my word to bring to 2023 is curiosity. However, my decision changed on that evening.?

That night, we practice picking new initiatives & priorities for 2023 together as family. It was a wonderful exercise and we decided rather to bring what was from 2022 to 2023, it is better to create something new in the new year so all of us can learn something completely new. Does it mean curiosity is not important? No. We just want 2023 to be a different year. The Greek philosopher Epicurus once said: “Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” So, our word of the new year is “less”. While many of us want more things to happen in our life, let’s practice something in the opposite direction and see how it will change our world.

Here are some examples of creating “less”:

• Spending less on things we don’t need so we can give more.
• Thinking less of ourselves and more for others.
• Wasting less time on things that holding us from growing.
• Meeting people that drain out our energy less.
• Involving with drama less. Reducing noises.
• Participating with activities outside of home less so we can have more time for those who are inside circle of love.
• Having less people in our circle of influence so we can have more time to help them think, learn, and grow.
• Meeting online less so we can have more face-to-face conversations.
• Saying less Yes to things that we really don’t want to do.
• Doubting our capabilities less and believing more on what we can become. Stopping it is hard but learning to having less of this kind of thinking is doable.
• Feeling bad for the mistakes that we’ve been making over the years less. No one is perfect.
• Letting our thought leading our feelings less. Learn how to take the driver seat instead.
• Planning less but doing more.
• Following orders from others less so we can be more independent and more creative.
• Talking less so we can listen more.
• Comparing less so we can appreciate and be grateful more.

The list goes on. For anything that we less focusing on, there will be other and better things we can work on. What we choose to focus on will grow. Our question for you: “What are the things you will do less in 2023?”