I want it... but without the extra effort!

"I’m not OK," — these were the exact words Greg McKeown’s wife heard from him one day. And this was said by the man millions know as the father of essentialism! A person who built his career on the ability to cut out all the noise and focus exclusively on priorities suddenly felt that he simply couldn't hack it anymore.

His energy was utterly depleted. It became hard to conduct business trainings, inspire audiences, be an engaged father, and support his seriously ill daughter, who was fading away before his eyes. McKeown was hit by imposter syndrome: his perfect, carefully nurtured concept was bursting at the seams. He had left only the most important things in his life, yet he still found himself on the brink of total burnout. It was this very breaking point that pushed him to seek a new approach — how to achieve things without breaking oneself.

I’ve read Greg McKeown’s book Effortless (he is also the author of the highly popular book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less). In short, I’ve taken away two main ideas for myself.

Idea #1: "Inversion." Instead of asking yourself, "How can I force myself to do this hard/heavy/unpleasant task?", ask: "What if this could be easy?". We often mentally overcomplicate our tasks due to, for instance, our own perfectionism, even though everything could be done much simpler. I’ll add my own spin to this: what can we do to make it easier?

Idea #2: "Protecting Yourself." The most valuable tool for achieving goals is ourselves. If we work to the point of exhaustion, nothing good will come of it — the "tool" will break. Rest must be a non-negotiable option to achieve results without horrific, dreadful effort.

What can you practice?

As soon as a complex task hangs over your head like a dark cloud, or a mental meat grinder starts replaying over and over "how hard/heavy/impossible it is to reach the desired goal," you need to take the minimum viable step.

Ask yourself: "What is the simplest, most obvious action I can take?" — and do it!

Need to make a huge and complicated report? Create a folder named "Report."

Need to save a seemingly overwhelming amount of money? Get an envelope and put any bill inside.

"The best way to make a difficult task possible is to break it down into steps so simple that completing them becomes a habit, not a heroic feat."

By the way, this is also a simple and effective technique to stop that nasty, heavy mental meat grinder from spinning heavy thoughts over and over in your head. Take one simple action — and you will feel lighter!