Redefining Success: How to Achieve More by Doing Less

Why do we chase success?

I suppose there are a lot of reasons but off the top of my head, money, recognition, power, influence, and a sense of personal achievement tend to be pretty common themes.

But I don't think many of us chase it so we can work more. Not really.

I think what we're really chasing is the freedom to live our lives in ways that make us happy.

Because isn't a happy life what all humans are truly striving for?

So more success should bring us greater joy but people often find it brings them more stress and less freedom.

Why is that?

I think it's because a lot of people define success by how many hours they work and how many things they can juggle at one time. Using this formula, in order to continue leveling up your success, you'll have to keep working longer and longer hours, and taking on more and more things until you retire or give yourself a stress related heart attack.

And the reality is that, 20 years from now, the only people who will remember you worked late are the people you love that you prioritized second to work.

So what if we changed how we define success?

Better yet, how about we use this Warren Buffett quote to redefine success: "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

Real success is about your impact and it comes from laser focusing on the activities that deliver the greatest value (move the needle), and delegating or deleting the rest.

It requires getting comfortable with telling people no, setting effective boundaries, and not letting the urgent distract you from the important on a daily basis.

And it requires that you prioritize yourself because you know you can't perform at a high level when you're chronically sleep deprived, skipping lunch all the time, and working 65 hours per week.

Professional athletes understand the necessity of balancing hard work with resting and recharging if they want to perform at their best. The world of work needs to take a page out of their playbook because forcing people to do more with less is only worsening the burnout epidemic, and it's not worth it for anyone.