Making the Essential Enjoyable & Easy
Making Monday
I've heard it said that how we feel on Mondays is one of the clearest indicators of life satisfaction. Here is a quick thought on how to make Monday—and every day—work better...
2 Universal Constraints
I previously wrote about the Theory of Constraints, which has broad application as a thinking model.
Constraints are the real-world bottlenecks, obstructions, and snags that hinder the function of any system.
Improving efficiency and efficacy typically comes down to remedying a handful of constraints, rather than some grand redesign of the whole system.
And if we think about our lives as a system, then addressing constraints is a path to making life work better.
In collaborating with clients, we look at both personal constraints—those unique to their lives—and the universal constraints we all experience.
Two major universal constraints are energy and commitments.
We are constrained in doing anything important by our amount of physical energy. When we're out of gas, we stop moving—plain and simple.
Here's the formula for optimizing energy: exercise daily, eat whole foods, avoid poisons and toxins, sleep enough, build stress resilience.
All of these are important, but as you know, I suggest exercise as the starting point of whole life transformation. Exercise is the quickest way to jumpstart energy and tends to influence better choices in all other areas.
We then invest our life energy into commitments to get the outputs of a meaningful life.
Our energy is therefore diluted proportionally across our number of commitments.
There is an obsession with time management and productivity in our culture. And while I study and use those tools, they often bypass the root constraint…
Too many commitments.
We stuff the proverbial 10 pounds into a 5-pound bag, then obsess about how to carry it better.
Dumping out 5 pounds may be a more reasonable and sustainable solution.
Especially considering that some of the pounds we carry are neither essential nor even important.
We 100% control our actions, our words, and what we agree to do.
Offloading commitments to things that are not essential to our health, happiness, and meaning frees up energy for the essential.
Reducing dilution of our life energy is thus the act of eliminating constraints.
As one of my wise friends said, “NO-PERIOD is a complete sentence.”
No.
Getting meaningful things done becomes easier when we say “no” to the non-essential.
Together, let's end the fight to change—
Delmar
