Making real progress in one direction is always better than making tiny progress in many. That’s the whole idea behind essentialism, which inspired this post.
I used to believe I could do everything, but the truth is, I just can’t, probably no one can, and that’s fine.
The reality is that success in any direction requires sacrifice, there is no other way around it, so the key is to know exactly what you want, and what you are willing to give up in order to obtain it.
QUOTE
“Purity of heart is to will one thing.” — Søren Kierkegaard
Clarity
In order to make real progress and focus on what is important, you must have a clear goal. What is it that you want to achieve? What is the one thing that will make it worth it?
Once you know what it is, you can start filtering things out. You can say “no” to distractions, more often and faster, and “yes” to what matters, more slowly and more strongly.
The focus should always be to make progress on what matters to you, and that means doing the right things, the right way, at the right time.
Without a clear goal and the habit of consciously choosing to pursue only what aligns with it, other people will make those choices for you—and you'll end up living a life that isn't yours.
If you worry about burning bridges by saying no, you’ll find that people actually respect your time and energy more when you start valuing them yourself.
QUOTE
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” — Seneca
Learning how to juggle
I came across this lecture where a Harvard professor explains how he thinks life is about juggling rather than balancing, and it made a lot of sense to me.
The idea is that, when you want to handle multiple things, you need to focus on one thing at a time in order to give it enough energy so you have room to move to the next thing without dropping the previous one.
If you want to succeed on multiple fronts — relationships, career, hobbies, etc. — these are all “balls” you need to learn how to juggle.
That’s why in juggling the most important ball is the falling ball, because that’s the one you need to put all your energy into before moving to something else.
The effort you put in your career is the effort that you are not putting somewhere else, it’s as simple as that.
One must always know what the most important thing is at any given moment, and focus on that until it is enough to move on to the next most important thing.
That’s why knowing what enough looks like, especially over time, is very important. How much is enough for today? What about for the whole year? Once you know, you can move to the next important thing without falling too much behind the other ones.
A timeless idea
I couldn’t help but notice how this idea of pursuing less through clarity is not new. It has been around for centuries. If we think about how Zen philosophy seeks peace and presence by removing physical and mental clutter, I can see a clear connection.
Other practices share this same principle—some rooted in Zen like mindfulness and minimalism, others like Stoicism that arrived at similar conclusions on their own. They all focus on what is essential and let go of the rest. They emphasize living intentionally, with focus and presence. These ideas have gained popularity in recent years, likely as a response to the overwhelming noise of modern life.
Speaking of modern times, Steve Jobs was deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism, which shaped his design philosophy at Apple. One could argue that much of Apple’s brand value comes from this focus on simplicity and clarity—an old idea resurfacing in a new context in the form of a trillion-dollar company. In other words, there is tangible value in doing less but better.
The pattern I keep seeing
When reflecting on this last part, the first thing that came to my mind was one of Unix Philosophy’s core principles:
“Make each program do one thing, and do it well.”
So I realized that you can apply this concept to anything, keeping things simple and focused on what is essential. This became my personal mantra when approaching any project, whether it’s coding, writing, or whatever else. It’s like a meditation exercise to keep asking myself: “What is essential here? What can I remove without losing the core value?”
I tried to do this in this very post, by keeping it short and to the point, focusing on the main idea without adding unnecessary fluff. I hope I succeeded.
Drop all the noise and extra things that don’t add up to the goal you are trying to achieve. It doesn’t matter what we are talking about—so far, for me, it seems that doing less but better and focusing on what is essential is a universal truth.