The Curse of Efficiency
So my laptop decided to die just a few weeks ago and living on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean has meant I’ve had to accept Island time… and it’s perhaps another week of doing what I can with my iPad it is…
Which is very inefficient… and exactly what I needed!
I am now seeing, efficiency is a blessing and a curse.
Think about it…
The rise of the productivity tools, hacks and gurus (me included) and apps that allow you to have anything within minutes has meant the number of things we can get done in a day has skyrocketed.
But for what…
Does living efficiently really result in a more fulfilled life?
Does doing more lead to a fully engaged life?
Sure both increase our output and allow us to make more money, and buy more things…
But they only add to the list of things to maintain and upgrade.
They only add to the problem of busy-ness.
It’s a trap!
Because the more efficient we become, the more things we think we can get done, so we commit to more… and the busier we become. Which leads to us valuing our time less, saying yes more and seeking new ways to become even more efficient… It’s a vicious circle.
Now I’m not suggesting don’t work smart…
Nor am I suggesting saying no to everything…
I’m suggesting that you need to accept you can’t do everything. To acknowledge your limitations.
And what a wonderful thing that is!
As it allows you to appreciate the true value of your time, energy and attention! (The only true currency we have… right!?)
It reminds us we have a choice.
It helps us live with intention.
It leads to a fully engaged life.
Which… personally is my goal for life.
To live like my daughter… not ever trying to multitask, or to be caught in my head thinking about what I need to do later… but to fully engage in the present moment.
As that’s how to live an extraordinary life.
It’s not about how many things you can do in a day, but how few things you can do with full engagement, presence and love.
The juice of life is not squeezed from quantity of engagements, but from the quality of your engagement.
How to live like that…?
Well I think it is a personal quest… a rhythm you need to find yourself.
And that is the journey I am on… and what I will be documenting in this newsletter!
What works well for me currently is the system I use in 63 Days to Personal Power, as it gives me a system from which to make tough decisions. It gives me the tool to decide what not to do, and what few things I am going all in on.
That’s the goal for me…
To go all in on less. To fully engage. To be great in every moment. To embrace the finitude of life. To do everything with love and passion.
And I hope you can feel that love and passion with these words… as I am all in right now… no care of what I need to do later, what emails I have to answer, what WhatsApp I haven’t replied to for days, what bills need paying… NO… I AM ALL HERE AND IT’S F*CKING DELICIOUS!
So here’s to playing all out in 2022. To living with intention, love and passion. To saying no more and HELL YES to less. To swapping the Fear Of Missing Out for the Joy Of Missing Out. To going all in and immersing yourself in the present moment.
Have a wonderful day all.
Big love,
Joel
P.S. I am now at my capacity for 1–2–1 coaching, but click here if you want to apply and join my waitlist.
