Although success demands focus, determination and resilience, I challenge the notion that hard work is one of the requirements. If it were, we would have more success stories to celebrate.

There are two ways to achieve success in any project:

1. Through increase

2. Through decrease

INCREASING is the conventional wisdom that many so-called gurus and sales trainers offer in their books and seminars: You just do MORE. You just try HARDER.

• Knock on more doors.
• Make more phone calls.
• Add more hours to your work day.

I personally have taken a quite different approach to achieving success in my business (and life).

An approach which has me perpetually trying to do less every day:

• Knock on less doors.
• Make less phone calls.
• Clock less hours in my work days.

But call it coincidence (or call it something else)--there is no denying the fact that my approach (“the way of decrease”), which allowed me to stop working 60 hours per week, has had a similar or possibly better effect on my success than the approach recommended by the guys who bust their britches, work 80+ hour work weeks, and constantly try to do MORE.

My approach of “doing less” has launched my business forward, added to my quality of life, multiplied my earning, and done much more besides.

“But how?” you may be wondering.

Simple:

When you constantly push yourself to decrease--working less time per week and using less resources--you force yourself to focus on the activities, practices, habits, and decisions which REALLY matter.

Because think about it: There’s no time to waste time when you have the intention to work fewer hours and running a profitable business!

Out of necessity you HAVE to ask yourself, “what is the absolute most important thing I need to work on to keep my business afloat and growing” - and then you ONLY have time to focus on those few things that really make a difference in your life and business.

Which has the effect of:

• Constantly pushing you towards smarter and smarter decisions
• Cutting out the time-waste and resource-waste in your life and business
• Making your life, work, and business HYPER efficient

But let’s stop talking about this in the abstract shift to what it means for you practically.

Stop thinking about what you need to “add” to your life in order to be more successful.

Do you think that the likes of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet built their wealth by simply adding more work hours to their week?

No, the key to their success (and the success of the vast majority of highly wealthy and influential people) was in working smarter rather than harder.

They spent most of their time addressing the few things that really matter while procrastinating on the non-essentials. Most people busy themselves with the non-essentials and devote only a fraction of their time and attention to the things that really matter.

And the easiest way to find those activities that “really matter” for the growth and success of your business?

• It is by decreasing.
• By thinking about what you can cut out.
• How you can simplify?
• How you can slice away activities and things that keep you busy and then slice away some more until all you are left with is the glowing essence of what matters in your life and business?

Then focus (some of) the freed-up time you have on THOSE few things that really matter.

In her article, “Want to Be More Productive? Try Doing Less”,Kate Northrup lists a very simple exercise to helpyoudecide what activities onyourto-do list bring the most value and whichyoucan stop doing.  This exercise can also be used to determine where to do less in other areas of your life. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper, lengthwise.

Step 2: Decide on an area of your life or work where you’d like to have better results and less stress. For example, perhaps you want to expand your thought leadership.

Step 3: On the left-hand side, list the tasks or activities you do in that area of your work or life. As an aspiring thought leader, you might list attending conferences, pitching organizations for speaking opportunities, writing new articles, reading and researching, and so on.

Step 4: On the right-hand side, make a list of your biggest “wins” in that area, like a speaking gig, a presentation you really nailed at work, or a pitch that was accepted at a major publication. This can often be a difficult step for some people. We have not been culturally conditioned to celebrate ourselves, so often, folks will draw a blank when listing their “wins.” Any result you’ve gotten (either one time or repeatedly) that was positive can go on this list. Don’t get caught up in listing the “right” things. Just list what comes to you.

Step 5: Draw a line connecting each of your biggest wins to the activity or task that was most responsible for that result. Reading and researching, for instance, were essential to getting your pitch accepted for publication, so connect these two together.

Step 6: Circle all the activities and tasks on the left side of your paper that have been responsible for your big wins. Look at what’s left. Whatever isn’t circled is something that you need to either stop doing completely, significantly minimize, or delegate if it absolutely must be done. For instance, if you discover that traveling for conferences once a month isn’t directly contributing to any wins, it’s time to set that aside or at least cut back.

I think you will be amazed at how this mindset of “what can I decrease” will actually end up adding things to your life and business.

Not to mention, you'll also have far more free time to take walks, eat wonderful cuisine, travel, spend time with friends and actually SAVOR this glorious life you have been given.