Start by subtracting

Dear readers,

I wish you a happy and prosperous new year, and thank you for giving me your attention by reading my posts. Many of you will be starting the year full of resolve and optimism that 2023 will be the best year yet - in whichever way you define that - and I hope to help you do just that with this newsletter.

There is a lot to be said for frameworks by which to create goals and objectives, and maximise the chance of sticking to plans. There is already an overwhelming amount of content on this currently circulating across traditional and social media.

However, instead of adding to this, I just ask you to first ponder one simple question;

What should I remove from my life in 2023?

Start by subtracting

The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary can simply come from what we remove.

We hear a lot about marginal gains and small consistent habits leading to big results. Similarly, it's the small things that we know aren't great for us but we continue to do (e.g. consume a few extra calories, spend too many minutes scrolling social media) which over time can have significant negative consequences.

The small but consistent over-eating can lead to a significant weight problem, the extra minutes on social media may lead to a significant amount of time taken away from more productive projects, and it is this latter point which is the focus here.

In many cases we don't even need to dedicate additional time and resources to doing something new like building a new habit for us to reach the goals we have for ourselves. Think about how simple it becomes if the first step to success this year is just removing something from your life.

Implementation idea

Perform an audit of your habits, identifying any which are generally unhelpful or directly affecting your ability to reach specific goals. An extremely straightforward and effective exercise is to pose this question to yourself:

If a film crew was filming a documentary on my life, which aspects of my day would I not want them to see?

You know what you need to remove.

In the same way that it can be overwhelming to try and start lots of new habits at once, the process of subtraction should also be kept simple. Removing one habit at a time will be the best approach for many, but if doing multiple I find that three is an optimal number.

Once we've subtracted bad habits, we create a better foundation for creating new ones. I'll continue this theme in the coming editions.

Best,

Alex Joshi.