There is such a thing as a non-essentialist who is just driven, capable, successful, but has plateaued in their progress because they're trying to do everything.

Welcome to The Art of Charm. I'm your host, Jordan Harmanger. Today we're talking with my friend, Greg McEwan, author of Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

You should listen to this show if you want to learn how you can ensure you prioritize your life effectively so that other people don't do it for you. In other words, how to live by design, not by default. Also, how to say no effectively without getting into trouble at home or getting fired, setting hard boundaries between work and play or non-work, and why folks who are originally very good at Essentialism can end up ruining their career and their sanity by letting these boundaries slip over time. Enjoy this one with Greg McEwan. And by the way, if you're new to the show, we'd love to send you a message.

We'd love to send you some top episodes and The Art of Charm Toolbox where we discuss concepts like body language, nonverbal communication, persuasion, networking, negotiation, mentorship, and everything else we teach here at The Art of Charm. In the US, just text CharmD to 33444 that's CHARMED to 33444.

Everywhere else, go to TheArtOfCharm.com. Also at TheArtOfCharm.com, slash podcast, you can find the full show notes for this and all previous episodes. All right, here's Greg McEwan.

First of all, what is Essentialism and then how is it different from just being a minimalist?

What it is, it's a book about the antidote to the problem.

The problem. The problem is that we are full of the undisciplined pursuit of more.

People everywhere can feel this. So it's a cultural phenomenon. It is feeling busy but not productive. It's feeling stretched to thin at work at home.

It's feeling like other people's agenda kind of hijack your own on a daily basis. That's the experience people are having. And the reason that they're having it is probably a broader conversation.

But that's like the challenge. The undisciplined pursuit more. Everybody's just being pulled up into this cultural norm.

Essentialism is the antidote to that.

Right. The disincharming. The discipline pursuit of less. As the subtitle indicate.

It's discipline pursuit of less but better. It's about quantity versus quality. Instead of just trying to always more, more, more of everything.

Like the key to success in fact is doing more and fitting more in. Essentialism says, no, it's about doing less but better. Few of things done better. But this is really the way to break it.

And this is different from minimalism because minimalism sort of has a connotation that has to do with possessions, physical items. Whereas essentialism is about your working life or about your day to day, your calendar. Not intangibles.

So I mean, I use the metaphor of the closet to explain the process of essentialism. Your closet's overloaded right and eventually you say I'm going to tidy it out and you have to become more selective thoughtful about what you really want and what you don't want.

You have to get more extreme criteria of the things you love versus the things that you just live or you might use eventually. And then you eliminate you get rid of the stuff that you don't isn't as high on your criteria list.

There's a question that's been put by Marie Kondo, which is does it spark joy? I mean, you should ask if he tries and does it spark joy if it doesn't pass it on. So that's a metaphor for essentialism. But the whole idea is essentialism is doing for your life, what Marie Kondo's whole approach does for your closet.

Right. So essentially, instead of saying no pun intended, I'm sure that happens all the time. Now I've taken things out of your closet or out of your house. You're trying to do the minimalist thing. And it's like, okay, is this something I'm really interested in? Is there something in me that loves this and just can't be in part with it or is it just the anxiety of like, but I might need that serial case.

Okay, right. Some point fear of missing out. Fomo right is really real and both with minimalism and now with essentialism, we have to discover the joy of missing out right or Jomo Jomo right. Right. Exactly.

I'm not going to use another phrase and there really is joy in it. Right. There really is value in less.

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