upgrading life
Did you know that there are ten different meanings for the word upgrade under the first entry at dictionary.com? Tonight I’m going to talk about number nine, which refers to improving or enhancing the quality or value of something. In this case, life.
There’s a lot of ways I could go with this, so many that thousands of books have been written on various aspects of it, and the subject has not been exhausted. I just want to write briefly on one aspect, the idea of addition by subtraction. We have more technology today than has ever existed in the past, and we are capable of doing significantly more work in less time than ever before. Despite this, Americans have less leisure time now than at any time during the last few decades. Stress is up, weight is up, and chronic health problems brought on by long term stress, poor diet, and little exercise have reached epidemic proportions. Pile on top of that commitments to family and friends, hobbies, and keeping up with pop culture, and you have a full time job outside your job, which women have been saying for a long time.
There is an answer to this. Do you really have to do everything you’re doing? When was the last time you stopped doing something because you felt like you had to and did something you wanted to do instead? Better yet, think about the people you admire in whatever field you may be interested in: Bobby Flay in cooking, Chuck Liddell in mixed martial arts, Doyle Brunson in poker - whomever you know is good in what interests you. Chances are these people got where they are because they focused on that one thing. Bobby Flay didn’t graduate culinary school and then open three restaurants over night.
That’s great you say, but what does that have to do with upgrading life? Simple - most people seem to have multiple interests, and never become very accomplished at any of them. They rush around all the time and never seem to get anything done. Maybe you’re one of them. What would happen if you decided to focus on just one thing instead of three or five? What would happen if you slowed down when you did that one thing and really paid attention to it? Sure, you might not have time to do everything then, but would you really want to?
My point is very simple - less is more. With less stuff in your life, be it actual things, hobbies, or whatever, there is more room and time to appreciate the things that are there. To me, simplicity is the ultimate expression of mastery. Elegant simplicity in anything requires that you have a deep understanding of it and you’ve learned to remove the excess that is unnecessary and distracting.
Upgrade your life by doing some spring cleaning on yourself, get rid of those things that don’t work for you or don’t interest you, and get on with the enjoyment of living.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:17 am
This is so true. Just listened to a lecture by business guru Jack Welch. The entire production was about the fact that people can only do one thing at a time with excellence; that to try to do more is foolish.