Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It’s easy to want more in life. In fact, we’re programmed that way. Give us a taste of sugar and next we’ll want doughnuts. Earn our first million and we’ll look for a billion.
The hedonic treadmill is real, and constantly running is not the path to happiness. If anything, it’ll probably highlight just how capable you are of crying in your Lamborghini.
Of course, I shouldn’t comment since I don’t have a Lamborghini, but I did win the lottery where authordom is concerned—a traditionally-published novel along with the subsequent press coverage.
But I found the resulting joy to be fleeting at best. Because soon it was time to return to my normal life. And my life is boring. That’s when I learned that my outlook wasn’t going to change, even if I earned a million dollars.
So looking inward was in order, and I figured that if I can learn to be happy with what I have now, I’ll be happy with whatever comes my way.
I took out my fine-toothed comb. Ran it through the frizzy hair that was my life. What was happening at the roots? Why was there lice on my figurative head? And where was the meaning in all of this?
That’s when I decided to go bald (again, figuratively). The result is the removal of things that I could totally live without.
1. A packed schedule
It’s good to have a journal. Because you get to ask yourself the same questions every day to look out for patterns. Or you can study your day. Sometimes, the most inane things make up the chunk of your waking moments without you realising it.
For instance, I found myself tinkering too much with my fountain pens, trying to find the perfect pen-ink-paper combo, only to wash the pen the very next day and repeat the same process all over again.
Sure, it’s a hobby, but I’m not getting any better at anything other than changing my mind. And my journal helped me realise that. So I put a pause to fountain pens and relegated myself to using ballpoints instead. The cheapest ones. There, I managed to save an hour a day, and that’s just the obvious ones.
Sometimes, we rush from point to point in our day, attending high teas and dinner appointments, then spending an hour replying emails that don’t matter, before re-seasoning our cast iron pan that’s been starting to rust.
It’s easy to do a lot. But does it mean anything in the grand scale of things?
2. Making excuses (and believing in them)
I always use this question to see if I’m making excuses (not running because I feel sore and tired) or if I really can’t do something (not running because I have a broken leg). And that question is: “Would I do this for a billion dollars?”
If the answer is yes, then I know I’m in The Land Of Excuses. Else, I probably have a legit reason and am not seeking the easy way out.
This might seem frivolous, but when compounded over days, months, and years, all my insignificant decisions could turn into a whole other life trajectory. That means my decision to eat doughnuts today could ripple into me snorting coke off somebody’s ass one year from now.
I kid, but I’ve always believed in the saying that all of us are just one bad decision away from homelessness.
So yes, while I may not feel like working on my novel—because it’s pointless, it sucks, and I’m stupid for choosing this path—I still do it because it’s a promise I made to myself.
And giving in to my excuses today might mean having a totally different life (that I don’t want) in the future.
3. Seeking only perfection
I start each writing project hoping it’d be my next magnum opus. I even have delusions that this blog post is going to be one that propels me to Ryan Holiday status.
You know what that does? It fills me with dread each time I sit down at the keyboard. Because how do you approach a project when your only goal is to produce perfection?
Thanks to my increased output over the years, however, I’ve begun to realise that creative work isn’t about producing ‘good’ work. It’s about getting your first million words out, or your first thousand pictures, or whatever amount you need to vomit your suck out into the world. Only then can you begin working on your craft.
So that’s how I look at my creative process now. I don’t set high expectations and wilt under the pressure.
Instead, I look at every project as my way of getting my first million words out (though I think I may have surpassed that already).
4. Wanting instant results
It’s so easy to want instant results in this era of instant gratification. We expect to lose 10 kilos by the end of the month just because we started eating salads. And we’re so hard on ourselves when we can’t perform in a sport we’d just picked up this year.
I’m one such person. Maybe that’s why I have so many hobbies. Because I get fed-up of searing a piece of steak into shoe leather, even though I’d only attempted it like five times my entire life. Then I hop onto the next shiny thing that promises me a funner time. Like baking. Or fountain pens.
It’s only after I’d taken my pursuits seriously that I learned how much effort goes into improving your craft. I’ve trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for seven years and am still just a blue belt. I’ve been writing for a living for ten years and have yet to land a job as an editor.
Maybe that’s a good lesson on how to prioritise lifelong growth over results.
5. Seeking distractions
I have a bunch of dreams I wish to achieve in life, but I have this knack for doing anything but the actual tasks that get me there.
I tried recording how I spend my days, and you wouldn’t believe how many hours I spend each day just mindlessly scrolling through social media. In fact, the entire internet is a time sink for me, because there’s just something I can do when I’m on a device.
I can check my emails, browse my friends’ updates, go down the YouTube rabbit hole, look up my next fountain pen purchase, scroll through Reddit, play chess, the list just never ends.
It’s not that I want to lead an ascetic life. I just want to live through a day having taken one step closer to realising my life’s dreams. And spending all those pointless hours swiping and clicking on gym fail videos only means having less time to do the important things.
Which is why I’ve learned that distractions aren’t an escape from boredom. It’s preventing me from the necessity that is boredom.
Do less, but better
You know what’s great about removing from your life? It’s that everybody has something they can cut out, but not everyone can readily add to their lives.
I believe we should always improve our lives in a holistic manner, adding as much as we remove, and attacking problems from multiple angles.
But sometimes less is more. And that’s all there is to it.
Here’s one thing you won’t have to remove from your life—exclusive content in your inbox! You’ll also get a free guide on how to grow your WordPress audience, for free! Did I mention it’s free?
Stuart Danker 
I’d love to hear your thoughts!