Come with me on an expiration of self-discovery. On this podcast we decipher what

really matters as we unravel the chaos of day-to-day work to learn how to build an essential life.

Welcome, welcome to the What's Essential podcast.

I am your host, Greg McKeown, and I am chuffed to bits to be with you, that

you're here, that you're listening, that you're opting to spend this time with me, investing in you, and in designing a life that really

matters. How are you today? Take a deep breath. I need to do that too. One of the casualties of the last couple of years has been the dismantling of whatever boundaries we had left from

before.

And with the loss of those boundaries have been many of our routines.

Am I exaggerating? I mean who hasn't felt some of this?

You get caught up in a Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat lifestyle. You start living

out of your inbox. You experience a relentless series of inputs of texts, notifications, clients

tapping on you, children tapping on you.

On my worst days I fall into the trap of trying to make all decisions by text.

It's an exhausting way to live.

Can you relate to that experience?

Can you relate to what it is that I'm struggling with

recently, where everything seems to be happening all at once now.

There's this pressure to do everything now.

Recently, my wife Anna said,

she thought that a word for this year should be...

Although, actually, before I get to that, have you chosen a word for the year for you?

Like if you could choose one word that's your touchstone word,

...