" Lack of clarity around who you are and what is truly important to you will lead to complexity and clutter."
Part of our challenge is that we want to do it all. We can do almost anything we want, but we just can’ t do everything we want.
Every“ No” needs to be rooted in a higher“ Yes.” The higher“ Yes” is your purpose, your values, your core talents and your replenishment cycle. It’ s the“ must do’ s” of your life:
• Saying no to watching Jimmy Fallon could be rooted in the higher yes of getting up early to exercise the next morning.
• Saying no to a business dinner could be rooted in the higher yes of being at your kid’ s soccer games.
• Saying no to a requested meeting could be rooted in the higher yes of needing“ think time.”
As Hans Hoffmann said,“ The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
When your values become clear, your decisions get simple.
Let me conclude by giving you an equation for simplicity, and note that the order is important:
Clarity + Courage + Calendar = Simplicity.
1. Clarity = what matters to you. What are the things you really value? What are the“ must do’ s” of your life?
2. Courage = the resolve to make change.
Will you have the resolve and discipline to recalibrate your life around that which is most important to you? It takes courage to eliminate the nonessential.
Here are some questions to help you think through changes you might need to make:
• Where are you overextended?
• What are you spending time and energy on that’ s not a core value or priority in your life?
• What are you doing simply because it is an expectation others have put on you?
• What do you sense you need to stop doing?
3. Calendar = the discipline to execute.
This is where your values and priorities get operationalized. Your calendar is far more than a tool to keep you organized and get you to meetings on time. It is the primary tool for helping you become who you want to become.
Your calendar can be a bit like a junk drawer. It can get filled with all sorts of random things that clutter your life.
Let me encourage you to find some time to get alone and reflect on this question: What would it take for me to move toward a life of greater simplicity?
Every leader functions on two stages-the front stage or public world and the back stage or private world. One cannot lead successfully front stage when one is completely depleted back stage.
Replenish helps leaders focus on the back stage, the interior life, in order to remain spiritually healthy.
2017 WINTER 15