All the most significant breakthroughs I’ve made started with removing things from my life, not adding them.
Saying no to things that don’t add any, or enough, value to my life has allowed room for the truly valuable things to rise to the surface and grow. Ignoring everything that is not relevant to things important to me, no matter how popular they are with other people, frees me to focus completely on my priorities.
The simple skill of saying no or ignoring is blocking out tempting low-value noise that doesn’t serve your chosen purpose, bring value, or create joy.
As with any skill, you can misuse and abuse this, so be intentional about your decisions, learn from them, and adjust as you go.
Self-awareness
Marketing is designed to get your attention, convince you of it’s value, and hold your attention for as long as possible. Then trigger you again to repeat the process. Everything is marketing. Ev-ery-thing. Every social media post, every co-worker complaining, every news headline, every motivational speaker quote. Marketing is 24/7/365 in every corner of your life.
Everything wants you to believe it’s valuable, necessary, scarce, important, or popular. If you are not self-aware and vigilant about saying no to things that aren’t in complete alignment with your true priorities, it will win without you knowing. You’ll think you’re making your own decisions, but in reality it’s just the cumulative impact of marketing you chose not to ignore.
Self-discipline
Set your priorities. Focus your attention. Ignore as much as you have to, say no as many times as you need to. Make decisive choices. Act with confidence. Do not hesitate. Learn from consequences. Adjust your choices. Act with confidence. Do not hesitate.
Self-confidence
Here’s something you can confidently count on: given the amount of things you’re exposed to in a given day in conversations, social media, TV, workplace rumors, community gossip, and just driving your car . . . you can reliably ignore 99% of it without experiencing any negative impact. You can even, if you choose, cut out 70%-80% of it completely from your experience by not looking, reading, or listening to it. If you ignore 99% of what you see and hear in those arenas, your quality of life has a significant chance of improving just from the absence of low-value noise. What takes their place is now up to you and your priorities.
Do the work.
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