Less but Better

I love “falling back”. It’s my favorite day of the year. My husband teases me mercilessly, but I can’t help it—that extra hour just feels like I’ve hit the jackpot. One more hour to sleep. One more hour to get more done. One more hour to tackle the never ending to-do list.

But while it’s great to enjoy a free hour, it’s also a sorry statement about our culture. Are we so over-extended and under-slept that one extra hour in a whole year feels like we’ve won the lottery?

Sadly, I think the answer is yes. So, as the euphoria of that extra hour wears off, I pass on to you a reading recommendation. The book Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a fantastic read about getting you off the rat wheel and into a more rested, productive and centered life.

Stress is such a huge contributor to unwellness and disease, and much of the stress in Western culture is self-induced. We feel we need to be more, do more have more. We say yes to every request and opportunity, and say no to sleep and time to rejuvenate. And the result? We become less healthy with each passing year.

As Greg McKeown says, over and over again, if we focus on “doing less, but better” we stop spinning our wheels, we focus on the most important things, and start to build lives of meaning and contribution, without mortgaging our health and relationships.