– = +

In my last post regarding the perception of threats I talked about how thinking less of myself, regarding the Ego, can actually help me become more where it really counts. It’s addition by subtraction. A few days later I heard a Hidden Brain podcast titled Do Less https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/do-less/. It discusses how actually having or doing less can be an improvement and why that usually goes against human nature.

It reminded me of coaching basketball. I started each season with an example for my players. My assistant coach pulled a foot long cord tight between her hands. I would try to cut it with the wide side of a knife. When it didn’t work I asked the players why. They said I needed to turn the knife blade ninety degrees so I would be using the sharp edge. It cut the cord immediately with the same amount of worse because, the all the energy was focused on one spot. They got the message.

During the season I coached with focus. I only tracked two statistics, rebounds and turnovers. If we won those two battles we took more shots. If we took more shots we had a better chance of making more baskets than the other team. That’s how you win. It kept the game very simple for the players and me. We couldn’t directly control if we won the game, but we had lots of control over taking more shots than the other teams.

Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, “The chief task in life is simply this: to identify matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to choices that are my own.” He’s talking about making life better by removing his attention from things beyond his control.

My life works better when I follow that advice and keep things simple by disregarding things that aren’t under my control. That naturally helps me focus on things I can control. Less becomes more, of what I want.

May you have enough today, one moment at a time.