Have you ever been on your iPhone when this happens? You wanna open your camera real quick and snap a picture of something. But before the camera can focus, you get hit with the pop-up window of death…..Not enough space!Unfortunately this often happens to me. I can’t go through the day without recording all the funny or interesting things, so my choice is simple: either upgrade my HD or start deleting stuff!
Recently i was watching an interview with one of my favorite dudes (that i've yet to meet), Bob Goff. If you aren’t familiar with Bob, he is a lawyer/writer/speaker that does substantial community development work around the world through law.In the interview, he mentioned a discussion he had been having with himself about how he could be a better version of Bob. He decided that he was going to "try out” something new. Every Thursday, he would just quit something.If you’re not familiar with Bob, he's....enthusiastic. He was almost bubbling out of his chair as he said, “Yea, i just started quitting stuff!” And with a magnificent grin he added, “ISN’T THAT FANTASTIC?? Last week i just closed the LAW FIRM i started 25 years ago.” (He made it clear that the decision was not made on a whim or irresponsibly, and he was actually able to find everyone that worked for him a new job).Then, he challenged the viewers to think about things in their life they could get rid of.
My Start
I was encouraged, so I decided to follow in Bob’s footsteps. I thought there was some things in my life i could “pull-the-chocks” on too.If you know me, you know i have a small (or gigantic and distracting) tick....I play with my hair. Not because i think it’s cute or because want to look like i walked off a hollywood set, but because it’s a BAD habit. But a few thursdays ago, i just decided to quit.* The following Thursday, i decided i was also wasting too much valuable time watching Netflix. So i quit watching.Bob wasn't saying that we should just quit stuff so we can have less to do. He was saying if we start to get rid of some of the stuff that is crowding our lives, there will be much more room for new opportunities, new growth, and new achievements. I’ve decided if we don’t start eliminating excess, we’ll constantly get a “Cannot Take Photo” screen that blocks us from awesome new things in our path.*In the process of quitting. It's not so easy.
Here are few short examples of what “pulling the chocks” on a few things in our life can free us up to do.
1. Maintain Sanity
Sometimes we let ourselves get so crowded that we don’t have space to breath. This takes a toll on our mind, body, and soul. If these types of situations are prolonged, they can even severely affect your health. When there is too much going on, our thoughts are cloudy and productivity decreases dramatically. It’s not just my opinion, it’s like…science and stuff.
2. Get deeper instead of wider
When we run from place to place, jump from task to task, and are only able to allocate a small portion of time to many different things, it stretches us. We may learn a little about a lot, but we are spreading ourselves thin and likely wasting energy. This is when stuff begins to fall through the cracks. Instead, we can choose fewer things to focus on, spending all of our time and energy diving deeper into those things.
3. Make margin for new things.
When we box ourselves in with commitments and obligations, there is only so much margin in our lives for free time...much less space to recognize great new opportunity when it comes along. Do you have a passion you want to exercise, a hobby you’d like to take up, or a relationship you want to pursue? Quitting stuff in your life can allow you to more clearly see and analyze opportunities, and decide when and where you should be putting your attention.Maybe you feel like you should quit a hobby, commitment, or job? Maybe it’s a relationship? DO IT.As for me, I’m not sure what i’m going to quit today. But maybe i’ll let you know soon.
