My last couple of years have been full of less.

I have cut out the unnecessary in so many areas. I gave up hobbies, I gave away possessions, I stopped all things that I could think of that didn’t serve my goals. My goals in the areas of family, career, knowledge, and fitness.

If an activity or opportunity doesn’t move me forward towards my end goals I try my best to say no. Of course I am not perfect and I fail but I acknowledge  my failure and begin again.

After trying my best to eliminate the unnecessary I have discovered something I did not expect. I thought my life would be boring. It was the complete opposite.

Having a decreased social life, or participating in less hobbies seem like actions that would rip the joy out of my life, but it didn’t. It is actually very satisfying doing fewer things because you can give more attention at a deeper level to the things that really matter to you.

When you are working only on things that are meaningful to your identity it is always fulfilling.

To be honest, boredom does find a way to sneak in and set up shop in your plans. If it does it usually isn’t during the completion of the tasks that bring you closer to the goal. No, the boring part can be the slow methodical progress. Success doesn’t happen quickly. It takes intentional effort applied consistently over time, and the gains are slow. Once in a while it is hard to execute without a loss of energy.

The good news is that it doesn’t matter. Enthusiasm is irrelevant to success. You don’t have to be enthusiastic to achieve your goals, or even make progress. What matters is the time you put in. Enthusiasm is nice when you have it, but it should under no circumstances be relied upon in the long term.