“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
So says Antoine de Saint-Exupery. And it got me thinking… so often we approach projects, events, relationships, life, as though our role is to be additive. Like we add value by doing. By “adding to” what is there. To many of us, it feels harder and less natural to think about subtracting, eliminating, holding back.
In our work at Just Say Glow we talk about getting lit up by your life. While that requires balancing obligations and desires, it seems like often what we desire gets closer to being achieved when we edit or delete things from life, especially the things that demand time and attention from us daily or frequently. To take a very concrete example, consider your closet. Is it easier to put together your perfect outfit when your shelves are jammed full of options and items, all competing for your attention? Or amidst a sparse array of limited choices? Do you feel more like the “perfect you” when you grab for the familiar, go-to items that you know exactly where they are and how they feel on your body? Or to you does “perfection” involve a complex process of adding in elements?
There are things we can’t stop doing because they support our larger goals and principles (for example we have to pay bills to have light and heat and we have to spend time driving and flying in order to get to places where we want to be!). But there are probably many things we add into our lives that do not enrich them (like when we spend time socializing with people who don’t really matter to us or purchase yet another dress or coat to add to that full closet!).
When you think about your life, how do you approach making things work? Do you tend to add or subtract and which seems easier to you? Do you think a more perfect life might be the one described by Saint-Exupery, that has had more taken away, as opposed to the one that has more added to it?
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