When Everything is Important, Nothing is Important
“When you are a person who always welcomes more, you have to be very aware of what matters most. Because when everything is important, nothing is important.” ~Kate Arends of House call.
I read this quote several months ago and it really spoke to me. I have always struggled with welcoming in too many new ideas, programs, plans, books, etc. then find myself in a place of overwhelm. Sound familiar? I have known and recognized this habitual tendency in myself for several years now and have been working on it.
My journey to pare down and discover what matters most started about 10 years ago when I read the book “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown. If you see this tendency in yourself, I HIGHLY recommend the book. I have read it twice! To be clear, I am not trying to squash my penchant for enthusiastically embracing new and exciting ideas BUT I am trying to approach things in a way that feels good, not burdensome and overwhelming. Make sense?
Here are some powerful quotes from the book:
1. Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; It's about how to get the right things done
2. The way of the essentialist means living by design, not by default.
3. If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.
4. Essentialism means pushing against social expectations. (OK Moms? 😉)
5. To become an essentialist requires a heightened awareness of our ability to choose. When we surrender our right to choose, we give others not just the power but also the explicit permission to choose for us.
So, what matters most to you? Have you ever taken the time to give this question some serious consideration? And more importantly, is the majority of your time and attention TRULY dedicated to what matters most? Check out this entertaining video to put these questions into perspective for you.
A simple and helpful tool that I recently discovered are Clarity Cards. I learned about them from Dan Blank who writes the Creative Shift on Substack. Since I am a visual person, it was really helpful for me to write out and clearly see what matters most to me. The clarity cards can serve as a north star for you too. When I feel lost and “all over the place”, I open up my daily notebook to see a sketch of them. If you want to learn the nuances of establishing your own clarity cards check out what Dan Blank has to say here.
My Clarity Cards (pictured here)
Let’s bring it all back to the Habit Loop. (after all, this is The Habit HUB ☺️) If you can relate to my article, there’s a pretty good chance that an “Everything is Important” Habit loop is lurking somewhere! The fact that you are aware of a possible habit is key to addressing and possibly changing it. The habit mapper is a wonderful tool to help you see and subsequently work with any habit.
If you want more personalized help, you can always reach out to me here for a complementary 20 minute phone call with no strings attached. I love to speak with my readers!
Have a wonderful weekend and see you soon for some Sunday Snippets.