But a semester in, he couldn’t ignore a sense of misalignment hiding in the back of his mind. After serving a mission in Toronto, Canada, McKeown returned to England for law school-which McKeown considered a safe plan that kept his options open. The ideas behind essentialism had been percolating in McKeown’s mind long before the birth of his daughter. Essentialism, though primarily a business book, has broad applications to the office, the home, and life in between. To be an essentialist, you first have to determine your priority-in the singular-and be willing to make trade-offs to stay true to what’s most important to you. “The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s, and it was singular,” says McKeown. It begins with prioritization and elimination.

And if helping others means exposing all that is nonessential in his own life, he’s okay with that.Īccording to McKeown, the essence of essentialism is doing less, but better. on encouraging people to design a life that really matters,” says McKeown. In his writing (including his follow-up New York Times bestseller, Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most), a popular podcast, and trainings, McKeown is helping people figure out what is most essential in their lives and learn to say no to everything else. “Greg is so good at explaining and talking about essentialism because it’s a challenge. whereas those who had to study or work through problems over a period of time, those are the best teachers,” she says. “Those who were naturally born with talent don’t necessarily know how to teach it because it comes so naturally. His wife, Anna, says that very struggle just might make McKeown essentialism’s best teacher. McKeown may be the expert, but that expertise was won through a lot of trial and error.Įven when they don’t cast him in the best light, McKeown is happy to harvest his failures to communicate the concepts of essentialism-ideas that, in many ways, grew out of McKeown’s own struggle to live a more purpose-driven life. It turns out that the New York Times bestselling author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less struggles along with the rest of us in the frenzied modern pursuit of it all-wanting to do everything, please everyone, and multitask his way to success. Greg McKeown would be a fraud if he weren’t so upfront about his failings. “It’s clear I made a bad trade-off,” he says.“I violated something essential for nonessential.” The painful lesson he learned that day-“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will”-is something he’s shared with millions. After the work meeting ended, McKeown’s manager said, “The client will respect you for the choice you just made.”

Essentialism by Greg McKeown