Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show I'm Greg McEwan and I'm your host for the What's Essential Podcast.

I'm also the author of Essentialism, the discipline pursuit of less and my goal is to decode exactly how to design a life that really matters because if you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.

If you're new to the show, take a deep breath. Almost everything is trivial.

Only a few things are essential and that's what this show is all about.

My job is to interview, get deep really with authors, entrepreneurs, psychologists and everyday people to help explore what's essential through a process of listening, unpacking and going deep with each guest we turn each episode into practical advice for intentionally planning and living in order to move forward.

If you don't do anything else, just ask what's essential and eliminate as much as possible everything else.

Carolina, are you there? Yes, I'm Greg.

It's so nice to be talking with you. How are you and where are you?

I'm good. I am in Beirut, Lebanon, in the Middle East.

I see that you send a photograph of yourself in the, how do you say it? The Lebanese show for mountain? Yes, that's correct.

It's a beautiful picture.

Thank you. Thank you for reaching out to me. Thank you for emailing me.

Thanks for having me. I am honored to be here.

It's a pleasure to have you on the What's the Central Podcast and in your email to me you said, I'm just going to read it.

I have the pleasure to write you from Beirut, Lebanon. I read your book a few years ago while I was on a visit to Montreal.

I got one also as a gift for a friend and recommended it to my daughter who got the book as well.

And would like you to know that even in far away devastated countries, your book is very much appreciated and helps us a lot.

I keep it next to my bed and refer to it very often. I have a dream, a mission which I would like to see happen someday working on it but need the gut to go completely for it as it is essential for me.

Thank you for the podcast for your book and you wish me all the best now.

I was really touched by you reaching out for two reasons. One, because of this description you have.

You said far away devastated countries. Could you describe the current experience of living in Beirut?

Yes, well recently we had a problem economically. There was the banks stopped providing foreign currency and also we had a big blast explosion at the Beirut port and destroyed a big part of Beirut.

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