118: Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Discipline Of Saying No

Episode 118: Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Discipline Of Saying No

I’ve been a big fan of Greg McKeown’s message and his writing since his best-selling book, “Essentialism” came out.  Greg has mastered the art and science behind optimizing his day, creating routines, and always asking the question, “Is this the absolute best use of my time?”  This is a very important and helpful conversation that we all can learn from.  How can we say no more often and eliminate everything that is not essential?

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t. The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s latest project: the instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

Episode 118: Greg McKeown – Essentialism: The Discipline Of Saying No

Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio

The Learning Leader Show

“Very Successful People Say No To Almost Everything.” -  Greg McKeown

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Saying “No” to almost everything leads to sustained excellence
• Essentialism is defined as “The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”
• What would you do if you could do anything?
• Success creates an increase in options and opportunities which can actually create failure
• Ronda Rousey – Her success led to an abundance of opportunities which may have caused her loss to Holly Holm
• Always think, “Is this the very best use for me?”
• The word priority initially meant “the one thing.”  For some reason it’s evolved to now priorities.
• There is no such thing as having 20 priorities
• Explore, Eliminate, Create a Routine
• Learn to say No gracefully
• Set up systems to optimize your work
• Learning Leader as a noun = Focus
• Learning Leader as a verb = Constantly adjusting to maintain clarity, reflecting, asking, “What’s the most important thing I can be doing right now?”

 “What Would You Do If You Could Do Anything?

Continue Learning:

• Go To: GregMcKeown.com
• Follow Greg on Twitter: @GregoryMcKeown
• Read: Essentialism
• To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12

You may also like these episodes:

Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector W/ Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks

Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon

Episode 082: Dan Pink – The Science of Motivation, Legendary Writer & Ted Talk

Episode 086: Seth Godin – How To Become Indispensable & Build Your Tribe

Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why

Did you enjoy the podcast?

If you enjoyed hearing Greg McKeown on the show, please don’t hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me.

Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell

Bio From GregMcKeown.com

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t. The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s latest project: the instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success. McKeown is the CEO of THIS Inc, a company whose mission is to assist people and companies to spend 80 percent of their time on the vital few rather than the trivial many. Clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!. His writing has appeared or been covered by Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month. McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and NBC’s Press: Here. Entrepreneur Magazine voted his interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.