Essentialism In 2020 by Book Talk Today

NOVEMBER 2020 | ISSUE 3

Book Talk Today

Essentialism in 2020

EDITORS LETTER

Don’t Undersell Your

Future Potential

When pursuing anything of meaning one of the hardest phases in the process is to find what to focus on. As humans we are biologically limited by our inability to maintain focus for extended periods of time. It then becomes imperative to decipher what to focus the bulk of our time and attention on. The question that arises is how do we acquire this ability? Two years ago after listening and reading around the subject of focus, I came across a resource called ‘The Future Authoring Program’. Created by the well-known author Jordan Peterson, it gives participants an exercise in mapping out what their ideal future looks like and also the reverse. What became evident to me when completing this exercise was we all know what we must do, but in many cases are unable to focus on the specific steps we have to take to put that vision into action. As a result my definition of focus began to change from the ability to maintain attention to having clarity of vision.

to which I exceeded my vision that I had written at that time. My joy in seeing my progress was quickly halted by an interesting thought. How often do we unknowingly undersell our future potential? Imagine I had written a vision of myself two years ago that was even grander. Would I have superseded that vision as I am writing this? This is obviously a hypothetical question and cannot be measured with any accuracy, but it is interesting to contemplate the power of defining a specific and ambitious vision. Over the next couple of weeks as we approach the new year, I am looking to approach this exercise again. One thing is for sure, I will not be underselling my future self. I look forward to telling you my findings in two years time.

Words by AUN ABDI

In the last week, I revisited what I had written. What amazed me was the level

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CON TEN TS

Essentialism in 2020

Replacing our Culture of More

Interview with Author Greg McKeown

Article by Ranya Nehmeh

Mindful Shopper

Article by Kristina Murati

What Magic Can Teach Us About Mastery

Quit the Rat Race

Ego Is The Enemy

Article by Nick Velasquez

Article by Pourya Hosseini

Book Review by Amit Bharti

The Dark Side of Ambition

52 Red Pills

Article by Aun Abdi

Book Review by Monica Ashwini

So Many Interesting Ideas to Explore, So Little Time

Nausea

Article by Adam Lowenstein

Book Review by Phoebe Worrell

CON TRIBU TORS Greg McKeown • Kristina Murati • Pourya Hosseini • Aun Abdi Adam Lowenstein • Ranya Nehmeh • Nick Velasquez • Amit Bharti Monica Ashwini • Phoebe Worrell

Essentialism in 2020 Interview with Author GREG MCKEOWN

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When defining what it means to live a meaningful life, we are often stumped to clearly define it. Some may define it as ‘being happy’, ‘having money’ or ‘doing what they love.’ But it is difficult to accurately define living a meaningful life as meaning itself is fluid.

But this practise extends to how we see our own time and life as a whole. How do we want to be spending our time? What activities give us the most joy? What activities are we actively choosing to do that are not necessary, and diminish our happiness? What does essentialism look like for me?

What someone may find meaningful now will change as their life develops and new responsibilities emerge. To achieve an accurate definition of meaning requires you to ask what is most meaningful to me at the moment. Enter the idea of ‘Essentialism’.

This level of introspection, although time consuming, provides a foundation for living on your own terms. By living on your own terms, there is no suggestion that you consciously ignore all your responsibilities and live a life solely for yourself. Rather, it is making conscious choices about how to live your life in all aspects to find purpose and meaning within it.

In his bestseller ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less’, Greg McKeown describes how we can all live a more meaningful life by constantly defining what is essential to us at every moment. On the surface level this means we analyse the possessions that we own and remove the items that we do not use in an attempt to recapture mental clarity.

We were excited to get an opportunity to speak with Greg to discuss these ideas further. We discussed what the ‘true’ definition of Essentialism is. How people can implement Essentialism into their lives and what Essentialism means in wider society.

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When you were writing the book were you thinking of making it accessible for different cultures or did you have one in mind?

I definitely wanted to write something that was cross-cultural, that would be as universal as possible. One of the ways I wanted to achieve this was to write something that was personal. You’ve heard the old phrase ‘that which is personal, is most universal’. I’ve been pleased to see Essentialism being translated into 25 languages and to hear from people around the world that it’s resonated with.

What has been your experience when talking to people about Essentialism?

There are levels or layers of Essentialism. At the surface level would be the stuff in your life. I use the actual metaphor of the ‘closet’ and how it can become overstuffed if you fall into the undisciplined pursuit of more. Then eventually you use all the space (literal and metaphorical) you have and start to have less enjoyment and fulfilment as it gets too cramped. You can’t find anything. It becomes a mess. Level one would be clearing out all that clutter. Selecting carefully these things that you actually want and are useful to you, that aid you in your life 8

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and are beneficial. If somebody starts to apply Essentialism in that way they will get an immediate payoff. They will feel the satisfaction of being more deliberate and having just those things that help them, they’ll feel less bullied by their stuff. Level two is schedule your time; what is on your calendar, how careful are you about what you put there? Are you allowing Zoom meetings to consume your every waking moment? Sometimes you get into those patterns. Essentialism at that level is saying, what and who matters to you, what things there should be, where you should be spending your precious resource of time? There is one more level. That is where you start to see it with its deeper spiritual undertones; it’s who do I serve in my life? What are those few things that I would commit my whole life to? The answer has to do with what people’s training, experiences, faith and background is. In the final chapter of the book, I write about what I think are the deeper principles behind a disciplined way of living. The word discipline and disciple come from the same root word. It’s a discipled way of living. Who are you serving? What are you a disciple to? Everyone’s a disciple to something. Who they serve and why they’re doing what they’re doing. Essentialism can operate at different levels depending who’s reading it and how prepared they are for those different levels.

The book attributes the idea closely with a minimalist way of thinking. Did you have this in mind when writing this book?

My background is in leadership development and strategy. When I was working with Silicon Valley companies and the students of leadership, I came at Essentialism from a leadership perspective. What kind of leadership is required to break through to the next level of success? Once you’ve had success, what kind of leadership takes you to the next level? I studied that question and Essentialism is what came out of it. I used the word ‘essentialist’ to name the kind of leader you would need to be, to be able to not just become successful in the first place, but to not be caught in the trap of success. What is required to continue discovering a higher point of contribution? I found that in many instances, success became so consuming for people they didn’t have any time to work or invest in the next level. People want success and like having it, however it can become a catalyst for failure. I was familiar with minimalism, some of the examples I use are from selective designers like ‘less but better’ is sort of the essence of the essentialist approach. What surprised me when Essentialism came out was that people would say here are the top 20 minimalist books, that you should read, and Essentialism would be one

of them. I didn’t come at it from that angle. I didn’t realize that people would contrast it to those kinds of books. That’s how Amazon chose to put it! I’m part of that now, but I came to it from a leadership perspective. What dynamics are required to be able to lead our life or our team, in a way that we can actually make those breakthroughs.

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Where did you see the trappings of success in practice? Was it in material success or status?

At first I observed the phenomenon more at an organizational level. The pattern was that in the early days an organization would be focused. It would be small and focused on a few objectives. Not all organizations do this. They don’t all follow this pattern. A lot of companies fail immediately. They never get focused. They have three people in the company and they are trying to do 50 different things. If you do that and don’t learn fast enough which things to go after, you aren’t going to survive for long. I was intrigued by those that did find focus, whether by chance or deliberateness. They found an idea that they went for and said that ‘this is what we’re doing - we’re not doing those 10 things.

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We’re doing this one thing’. When they have that clarity, it correlates with success. It’s quite a logical idea. If you focus on the right idea, at the right time - and you’ve got a small team focused on it, you all know what each other are doing, what the goal is and you stop playing politics - you can all work together unified to achieve said objective. Clarity leads to success. So far I’m describing a pattern that sounds like the problem that you want to have, but it does in fact turn out to be a problem if it leads to a fourth phase. Jim Corn’s called the ‘Undisciplined Pursuit Of More’. Suddenly because you’re successful and you have these options coming to you, you aren’t thoughtful and careful. If you aren’t more thoughtful and more careful than you were a few months or years before, then you will plateau or fail

altogether. This has been true for an enormous number of companies that were once successful. They started to plateau or failed altogether. I was fascinated by that because it’s overly simplistic to just accuse them of making bad decisions or they must be bad managers and bad executives. These are the people that led and drove success in these companies. They were able to build tremendous momentum - think of Blackberry for example. The success itself becomes a driver for this disparate decision making, where you start to do too many things. These are perfectly reasonable decisions that you’re making, actually because you’re saying yes to things that you wanted to, two or three years before. These were your goals, so to not say yes to them is actually counterintuitive. This is what you’ve been waiting for, now it’s arrived, you have to say yes and that’s what people do. In fact, that actually leads them to make decisions that diffuse effort and start to make it very hard for them to be able to maintain or break through to the next level. That’s exactly what happened with Blackberry. I’ve mentioned that one example - there’s so many others. They were doing so many different things, they were unable to direct their attention to what became the iPhone threat. They just carried on doing everything they were doing. They were in a success trap and success traps are harder to get out of then failure traps.

the book you alluded to Q Inmaking time for thinking, ‘the

main thing is to keep the main thing’. Is this idea related to that quote?

One of my personal experiences while I was working at this organization and looking at the team level happened when I got an email from my manager saying that on Friday between 1- 2pm would be a bad time for your wife to have a baby. My wife and I went to the hospital Thursday night, my wife went into labour, my daughter was born in the early hours of Friday morning. Instead of being totally present and focused on that and knowing this is what matters, I felt torn and pulled. I’m on my email, I’m trying to keep everybody happy. To my shame I went to that meeting. After, I remember my manager said, ‘look the client will respect you for the choice you just made’ and maybe they did. Although, I don’t remember the look on their faces evincing that sort of respect. What I learned from that experience was

“IF YOU DON’T PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE SOMEONE ELSE WILL.” BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

That’s at the heart of Essentialism. Don’t just let prioritization happen by the forces around you. It is taking responsibility for prioritization, it’s because for so many people, especially in these times, people feel busy but not necessarily productive. People feel stretched too thin at work or at home. It’s all become one perpetual experience. For a lot of people their day is hijacked by other people’s agenda and so, Essentialism is trying to encourage people to see that experience and to recognize it doesn’t have to be that way. It may be a path less travelled but it doesn’t make it less valuable. This disciplined pursuit

of less is an alternative strategy for life and as it turns out, a much more fulfilling one. Once you take back control of your life, of your choices of your day, of what you’re doing and the sooner someone can do that the better. Somebody emailed me and they said, ‘I’d wished I had read it 50 years ago! 50 years ago! That’s not like a year ago, or five years ago - it’s 50 years. Somebody lost over a 50 year period of living by default - for other people’s agenda rather than by design.

How would you define ‘play’ in the realm of Essentialism?

There’s a whole chapter on play and it goes in a great amount of depth. People think as they become adults that any play is trivial. That anything close to play is nonessential.

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For lots of people, if somebody is a workaholic, if they’re not working, they think they’re wasting time, so it almost doesn’t matter what else it is. If it’s not building their business, it’s not answering work-related tasks, if it’s not trying to get ahead in the professional realm, then it’s just completely pointless.

My research suggests that it’s not true at all. Play can take different levels. Sometimes it’s overthinking it, to even talk about the different levels. If you have kids, go play with your kids. Go play a board game. Go read a book. Read fiction that’s helpful and inspiring to you. Turn off your phone - do something not on a screen. There’s lots of play on a screen and I’m not saying you can’t do anything on a screen but it’s a different feeling. My wife and I go on a walk, every other day on average for an hour. For me that’s play. We talk, we don’t have an agenda. It’s not like a meeting. We’re just out there talking and playing. I’m lucky enough to have a pool and through the COVID times I played with my kids in the pool. It doesn’t have to have a structure to it but if you could strap a person’s brain to a machine to notice what the brain waves are doing when you’re playing - it’s lighting up when you’re doing something else. If it’s numbing you and draining then that’s not play. Play is something that doesn’t have to be super structured but it’s something that makes you feel full of energy. The energy comes from not being structured. One of the most successful play experiments I had was on a family holiday. There wasn’t going to be Wi-Fi coverage. We could have got Wi-Fi, but we had no interest in trying to make that happen. For two and a half weeks, that was one of

the longest periods I can recall in my adult life, of not being one time online. Just off the grid. That was the most amazing experience. As you create time to play you actually have huge breakthroughs. Thinking big breakthroughs rarely happens when you’re sitting there intensely trying to solve a problem. It often happens when you’re letting your brain relax and in the relaxed phase you suddenly have discoveries. The most important breakthrough in my career over the last five years happened in that break for those two and a half weeks and it didn’t come because I had the intention. It’s just disconnecting, being allowed to play, recognizing that it is essential and valuable. This is key to making a higher contribution and how different it is from what we’ve been taught about always working 24/7, which I think is a con.

What are the issues that you have seen with the 24/7 culture?

The 24/7 culture has been sold to us for a long time. Back in the 80’s the idea that Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady had four hours of sleep a night that’s all she needed and that’s for 10 years. As if humans are machines and our job is to try and keep the lights on 24/7. If you can, productivity goes up. That is true in the factory system. It’s true in industrial engineering. If you can have a system that’s automated, on different shifts. The staff come BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

maximized. This is what Essentialism is. When you can get the masses to protect the asset of their mind, body, heart and spirit. When you really get past lip service. When you celebrate sleep, when you celebrate naps as a mechanism for higher performance. When you celebrate play as a necessary prerequisite for actually having breakthrough thinking. When you start to think about it that way that’s how we’ll get people to break through to the next level of contributions, not by having them work like they’re a machine in a factory, so they’re exhausted, stressed, tired and fatigued, and then burnt out. I was sent a photograph of a lady called Jo who I just interviewed. Peter Drucker threw down the She’ll be on the podcast at some gauntlet many years ago. He said point but she sent me a photograph in the industrial age we saw manaof her before she read Essentialism gement successfully increase prodand then after. The first is the image uctivity by 50 times. He said in the of someone who is instantly totally knowledge age it will happen again burned out, not just tired utterly burnt - we will increase it by 50 times out. She reads the book. She starts to again. We haven’t. There’s been be more deliberate and thoughtful. improvements but nothing like that Suddenly her health is better and level of breakthrough. We still have maintained the industrial age thinking. her contribution has gone up considerably. This is what it can do for You have to create space for people an individual. At the societal level we to be able to think and not to react have a tremendous opportunity, once and do. You have to help them have we get people to embrace a different sufficient sleep and rejuvenation so way of working. that the quality of their thinking is in for eight hours at a time and the productivity for that factory does go up. The throughput can be increased dramatically and that’s what the industrial revolution brought us. It was a 50x increase in productivity from the Agrarian age. All of that is true, what’s not true is trying to apply that to the way a human works. We think we need to treat our own bodies, our own minds like their machines and that’s not what we are. If you want to optimize human performance, you don’t do what you would do for a factory. This mismatch between factory type thinking, industrial age thinking and human performance is what really works. Compared to what management has taught us to think, work we haven’t yet taken advantage of the tremendous breakthroughs in the knowledge age that we had seen in the industrial age.

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I have seen a shift in spiritual thinking and mindfulness. There has been a resurgence of people asking themselves why am I doing this and for what purpose. Have you seen that?

Yes, I have. I think this will continue. Essentialism has become more successful over time and that’s happened not because it’s been written well. It just happens to be on a subject that is particularly timely and so people keep discovering it. I think that’s because of what’s happening in society. There is a growing acknowledgement that we’ve got to find a new way of working. The early adopters are convinced. I’m willing to be convinced by the idea that it’s not sustainable. I can’t really cope with that way of working so I want to find a new way of working. Those are your original people discovering yoga, mindfulness and meditation. In order to get them to the tipping point you have to make a different set of arguments.

subjects. I’ve been to Davos a few times, the World Economic Forum. The first time I went there was no mention of these themes. There was one small discussion somewhere, one thing on the calendar. By the second or third time I was there, but something like 20 percent of the programming was on these themes. That’s a huge shift in the agenda. I just think it’s going to increase. It is positive.

I think that it will take a variety of voices to attract different parts of the population until you get to a tipping point. There are some pretty interesting signals where you see the Royal Family embracing, a mindfulness mental health foundation. They want to talk about what was a very deliberate strategic decision to say we’re going to focus on these BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

How do you ask yourself, in the moment, what’s the most important thing to do? It’s difficult isn’t it?

I was quite inspired by Jo when she reached out to me. I haven’t really given her backstory. She read Essentialism and then she started asking the question ‘what’s the most important thing I can do today?’ At first her answers were mostly workrelated but slowly they changed and they became more about, what can I do for self-care or protecting myself, my health or family. One day in an ongoing essentialist experiment her mother goes into hospital and her dad calls and tells her that her mum is in hospital again. She’d been there a couple of times. She said, ‘okay should I come? I’d like to come and support.’ Her father replied, ‘don’t be silly - you’ve got way too much on your plate.’ But because she had this practice in mind of every day asking her what’s most important to do today, she told me that she remembers exactly where she was, what the weather was - it was a vivid moment. She knew that the most important thing that she could do that day was to travel to the hospital. It was two hours away, just to be there for her mother. She went there, she did it and she has this moment, she’s able to say to her mother that she loves her and her mother says the same thing. They’re saying to each other, it’s going to be 16

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fine, this will be alright but actually within an hour of that conversation her mum suddenly has a bad reaction. It’s a case of sepsis and she dies within a week. She’s sharing this with me and it’s hard not to be touched by that. She says if I wasn’t an essentialist I wouldn’t have been there. I wouldn’t have gone that day. I would be encouraged not to go. Asking that question, day after day, had increased her discernment to the answer. I came away from that inspired to really ask that question every morning - just ask that question. It’s quite a realistic way to do it; it’s not an easy answer. It’s not always easy to get the answer but that way you’re not having to stress yourself out all day but at least

once a day you get clear. What really is the most important thing to do today and that just helps to create a guide post for the rest of the day. There’ll be emotional ups and downs, there’ll be all sorts of requests. There’s always things that are unexpected but through all of it you say, but the most important thing was X. I’ll just keep on steering around that and as long as I focus on that, other things will fit into their proper place or even fall out of my life altogether.

Do you believe that’s the best way to find that highest point of contribution?

It’s one of four or five things. I would recommend scheduling once a quarter, sitting down without your phone in your hand and writing out a review of the last quarter: what’s happened, what worked and what didn’t work. Setting clearly what are the less but better goals - the few goals that you think are going to be important and allowing generous time for that. I finished a big project - I’ve been working on a new book. It was tempting to just jump back into things that I’d put on hold because of being in monk mode. It was tempting to be positively reactive. What’s the next set of stuff. My wife suggested you probably ought to take a couple of weeks just to pause, just to think. I did that and it was like I became an essentialist again. I felt a bit like a

child just rediscovering it - I got my life back. I’ve removed many things off my schedule and I just completely committed to keeping on doing it because it’s such an advantage. So personal quarterly offsite is the second point. The third point, I’d recommend people to pause after a request - this allows you to have a conversation about it in your mind. A question pause allows you to negotiate. Pause doesn’t mean you have to say no. Just pause. I taught this to a group of educational leaders at university and one of those leaders emailed me afterwards. She said, ‘I wouldn’t even take a break for lunch. I even thought that was an unacceptable thing to

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do.’ It’s how workaholics feel. When the next request came in for her, she had somebody say that I want you to record our whole class this semester. She in the past would have said yes let’s go. I’ve got the team. We’re great, we’re efficient, we’ll make this happen. I’ll show you how good I am and how competent I am. This time she just paused to ask a question. She said okay can you tell me a little bit more about what you’re trying to achieve. Why are you trying to do that ? What is going on? In this simple discovery process she found that all that they were trying to do was accommodate one student who had

conflicted classes but they still needed to take this class. To help this student make it through, they came up, with ahalf an hour chat, that one of the other students would use their iPhone and record every session. That’s it! That’s how you can solve this. The internal client is really happy with that solution. They hadn’t quite thought through it themselves. This leader that was making these changes, she got all of that time back. You have a lot of choices if you pause and ask a question or push back a little bit. It allows you to better discern whether you really should be doing something or if there’s an easier solution.

Do you believe in identity driven goals rather than something that is more materialistic ?

Life has purpose and was designed with meaning. I believe in the universal brotherhood of man that we are part of one great family, children of God. I believe that we didn’t come here by chance and that our work therefore is not so much one of just creation but one of discernment. That we have to discern and discover what we came here to do. I’m highly conscious of that in my own 18

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goal setting. I’m deeply driven and motivated by the desire to discover those things and then to pursue them. Once you discover you’re at any given period of your life, your highest contribution, whether it’s professionally or personally, then you have a big burning yes inside of you that gives you courage to say no to other things. Mostly saying no to all sorts of distractions that could come your way or other shiny objects that could come along. Other people are doing it a certain way and for a moment you think that they’re doing that so successfully maybe I should be doing that. You straddle multiple strategies just because of the fear of missing out.

McKeown is the CEO of McKeown Inc. Clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!. His writing has appeared or been covered by The New York Times, 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.

I want so much to push those things away so that I can discern that quieter voice of conscience that can guide me in what goals to set and what to pursue and what not to pursue. To me this is the path towards much greater satisfaction, much more progress and a feeling that you are doing what you came here to do. What’s more satisfying than this? I know many things less satisfying and the non-essentialist path is full of those non-satisfying, busy, relentless motion sickness type experiences in life that don’t deliver on its promises. I rejoice in the idea that there’s this alternative path that I’m calling the essentialist path but of course has many different names.

Available from most book retailers and amazon.co.uk BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

Mindful Shopper Words by KRISTINA MURATI

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I’m starting this article with the premise that I’m not a minimalist by definition. As a matter of fact, you’d consider me a bad one and for good reason. I used to embody the perfect example of a maximalist, what would make Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s Creative Director proud. I can say now that I’m a reformed maximalist or a minimalist in the making. Here’s my brief story. Years back, I had a serious problem with my shopping addiction. I’d go shopping at least twice or thrice per month, save for the stand alone “unexpected” purchases. That was not the bad part of it, though. My bleeding bank account was not the bad part of it either. The craving, the constant feeling of void was the bad part. Could it be any worse? Sure. That I was completely oblivious and ignorant. That was the worst part.

from New York’s Fashion Week and the “next” you find the same looking items in some Fast Fashion retail shop, waiting for you. What can I say, perfectly aligned with my unhealthy shopping behavior and the timely frequency (as I said: every 2 weeks). That’s not all. We have the “price savvy, fast and convenient” narrative to factor in. Too good to be true, right? In truth, the price, speed and convenience come at a high cost, be it from the sustainability point of view but also from a work ethics one. These super affordable pret-a-porter clothing items, predominantly rely on cheap labor from Third World Countries. Cheap in other words means: severely underpaid factory workers who have no other means of providing for themselves and their families, forced to accept inhumane working conditions and wages.

“YEARS BACK I HAD A SERIOUS PROBLEM...”

As one day I was looking for videos on vintage clothing style, I accidentally stumbled upon a video explaining the impact of fast fashion. Fast Fashion retailers get the clothes from the design stage to the shelves in approximately 2 weeks. Hence, today you see the catwalk outfit straight

One of the most poignant examples highlighting how this industry operates is the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, Bangladesh: 1100 casualties, 2500 injured. Some of these workers were permanently maimed, losing limbs and therefore unable to keep working. BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

“COULD I KEEP LIVING IN DENIAL? COULD I PRETEND THAT NOTHING WAS GOING ON?”

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The Rana Plaza facility was part of some well-known Fast Fashion and a couple of High End brands production supply chain. The facility managers had been repeatedly warned about the imminent and obvious risk of the building not being safe and potentially collapsing. The concerns however had been either dismissed or completely ignored. Workers who failed to comply and go by the rules, were to face serious repercussions, verbal and physical abuse. So the veil was lifted and some questions had to be answered: Could I keep living in denial? Could I pretend that nothing was going on? These people were far away after all, I wouldn’t have to see them… would this suffice as an easy getaway? I’m still helping the economy, right? I fully and immediately committed to stop buying Fast Fashion clothes. Moreover, I stopped shopping altogether for at least a year. Now shopping has become a mindful and responsible activity: shop for essentials that need to be replaced, look for charity shops, thrift stores to purchase from. What a surprise! I started living way better, feeling happier and lighter. I had not foreseen the deep and cathartic effect this makeover would have on me. A huge relief, being able to recover

financially, but I finally regained the sense of control I had blindly given away with my addiction. Another fortunate outcome, at least that’s how I like to think of it, is that I would see consumerism through different lenses, thereafter. I’m not anti-consumerism. What I’m contrary to is careless consumption, overconsumption and over stuffocation. What I’m contrary to is manipulation and deception. What I’m contrary to is fueling and exploiting stereotypes to generate out of proportion revenue, when the only ones really profiting are the powerful, already wealthy corporate shareholders. In ‘The Gendered Brain’, author Gina Rippon dives deep into neuroscience with the major aim to shatter some of the brain-gender correlation myths. Among many things, she also addresses, how gender labelling, sex differences even when there are none to point out, gender stereotypes are constantly stimulated to fuel and increase consumption. “Messages about sex and gender are almost everywhere you look, from babies’ clothes and toys, through books, education, employment and the media, to everyday “casual sexism.” As stereotypes and sexism get deeply ingrained we’re busy shopping for what we’ve been persuaded, that will make us look better, live better, be BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

better and also “fit” exceptionally well into a gender construct framework. A similar pattern on gender consumption is also addressed in Andrew Brook’s book, ‘Clothing Poverty - The Hidden World of Fashion and Second-Hand Clothing’. Here’s an excerpt of Earl Puckett a leading clothing retailer in the 1950s talking to journalists: “Basic Utility cannot be the foundation of a prosperous apparel industry… We must accelerate obsolescence… It’s our job to make women unhappy with what they have… We must make them so unhappy that their husbands can find no happiness or peace in their excessive savings.” Equipped with consumer mindfulness means being able to tell the difference between something you need, something you want, something you want disguised as “need”. You ask yourself one or some of these questions: How is it made? Who is making the product? Where is it being made? Is this brand a responsible one? Ethical? Eco-friendly or sustainable? Why am I buying it? Does it align with my values? Which ones? Will it add more value to me or my life? My mind or mindset didn’t change overnight by reading some stranger’s 24

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article online. It took several weeks of obsessive research, before it started dawning on me. As I said in the beginning, I’m not a minimalist but I’m definitely a more mindful consumer, which is a decisive step ahead. What I hope for, dear reader, is you entertaining the ideas I shared, even if it’s just for a second. That would be more than enough. Lastly, in case you feel like exploring more on what I briefly mentioned above, I’d recommend:

‘Minimalism: A documentary about the Important Things’ on Netflix The Minimalists Podcast Also interested in fashion issues? Highly recommend: ‘The True Cost a BBC documentary Clothing Poverty : The Hidden World of Fashion’ and ‘Second-Hand Clothing’ a book written by Andrew Brooks. @whatchrismessyreads

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Quit the Rat Race Words by POURYA HOSSEINI

As people of the 21st century we are caught up with our daily tasks to an extent that we don’t question our purpose. Why am I doing the things that I do every day? Is it aligned with the meaning of my life? Ken Blanchard beautifully explained this bewilderment in his book ‘Managing by Values’. Although this book is about organizations and how managers can manage their companies by values and guide them to success, you can relate the concept to your daily life. To guide your life by your core values. We are in a state of confusion. We don’t know what we love, what is our purpose, and why we wake up every 26

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day and do the same thing over and over again. We are in a rat race. In the book ‘Managing by Values’, the best friend of our fictional character turns to his friend and says, “The problem with you, Tom, is that you are in a rat race. Remember even if you win the race, you are still a rat.” The problem stems from the inability to identify your essentials - in other words, your values - in life. Even if you have been successful with this in the past, it is an iterative exercise. Ask yourself what is the most valuable thing in my life? Do I progress toward my values or am I heading somewhere else? Practicing the philosophy of essentialism would help you to achieve the answers to

the aforementioned questions. As an essentialist, you have an obligation to prioritise your life based on your values. “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will do it for you”. Greg Mckeown says in this book, ‘Essentialism’. But why practice this philosophy in life? Why do we have to limit ourselves to just a few things? After all, there are a lot of things that are exciting to do. But we are finite. We have a limited amount of years in life and it’s focus must be intense while it lasts. Essentialism is the philosophy of achieving more by doing less. To not get distracted in the world of distractions. To not be among the 61% of people who check their phones within 5 minutes of waking up. To not get distracted by the news, whether it is politics, celebrities or something else. To have the ability to say no to things that we don’t necessarily need. “To perform professional activities in a state of distraction-free concentration” as Cal Newport the author of ‘Deep Work’ says. In the world of social media, celebrity news, politics, entertainment, successful people keep their options as low as possible and practice essentialism in their lives. Remember that we are not coal miners who want to get as much as coal as possible out of the mine. We are GOLD miners who want to dig out the most value in our lives. Be the gold miner of your life.

@pouryalifestyle @Pourya___hg BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

The Dark Side of Ambition Words by AUN ABDI

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We all believe ambition to be a necessary determinant of success. Without ambition, many of the worlds most influential businesses and individuals would not have pursued their chosen fields to the lengths they did. But when does positive ambition turn into harmful obsession? Over the past couple of weeks I have been musing on this question. I have been dealing with my own experience of harmful obsession. Starting a new venture is a lonely and solitary endeavour as anyone will tell you. There is no one pushing you to complete certain tasks and no specific time for you to ‘clock out’ and return to other activities. Your work

embodies everything you do, not the other way around. The distinction between the working ‘self’ and just ‘self’ becomes amalgamated to such a degree that they become inseparable. Often we convince ourselves that this obsession will lead us to success later on down the line. As much as this might be true, we may also be sacrificing joy in the present. The joy I define here is not hedonistic desire but rather the joy of the appreciating the present. Is this a bad thing though? We all know that sacrificing the joy of the present leads to the potential for success in the future. If this weren’t the case none of us would read, study,

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exercise or do anything positive in the present to see benefit in the future. This then becomes a trade-off in delayed gratification. Delayed gratification is defined as “resisting the temptation of an immediate reward in preference for a later reward.” There is no doubt that the most ambitious people I know almost always sacrifice the immediate joy of the present for success later on down the line. Delayed gratification as described in the book, The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel, then becomes the necessary bedrock for success and the cure to your obsessive ambitious qualities. The conclusion I came to (this isn’t a final conclusion) is that ambition is necessary for success and the negative qualities that are associated with this are part of the process of achieving your goal. In an ideal world you wouldn’t have to trade your immediate pleasure for long-term success and ambition wouldn’t have any negative connotations. But this is the necessary trade-off you must make in order to foster the right type of ambition. Understanding that success comes from delayed gratification changes your perspective on how you see your ambitious qualities in the present. They may perhaps be necessary to your success in the future if you’re willing to make that trade-off. 30

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So Many Interesting Ideas to Explore, So Little Time Awareness, appreciation, gratitude, presence â&#x20AC;&#x201D; now those are some interesting ideas. Words by ADAM LOWENSTEIN

Making time for interesting ideas One evening a couple weeks ago, I was washing dishes and listening to Ezra Klein’s podcast, as I do many evenings. On this particular evening, instead of thinking about the interesting ideas that Ezra and his guest were discussing, I was thinking a meta-thought about how enjoyable it is to listen to interesting people discuss interesting ideas. Or read about interesting ideas. Or attempt to write about interesting ideas. Then I had something resembling an interesting idea. Theoretically, one of the privileges of being a college student is that one is encouraged to explore interesting ideas for the sake of exploring interesting ideas. This is, of course, a dramatically oversimplified view of higher education that doesn’t take into account the biases and inequities of the actual experience, from who gets the chance to attend, to how you’re treated while you’re there, to why it costs so much, to how you’re supposed to pay for it. Despite the asterisks and the systemic shortcomings it embodies, the appealing notion of the university as a space for ideas persists. In this mostly hypothetical universe, once you leave the world of ideas, an interesting idea becomes more of a means to an end — something to be consumed, packaged, monetized, turned into “useful” information, or otherwise utilized for a socially BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

days, meanwhile, much of the time I spend sending emails and deploying productivity hacks and powering through to-do lists, I now wish I could instead spend reading and writing and pontificating about ideas. To be clear: This isn’t a lament about the passage of time, or a complaint about my present circumstances, or a thinly veiled hint at an impending career shift. I’m immensely fortunate to have a lot of time to read, write, and explore interesting ideas. But it is, I Anyway, the interesting idea I had while washing dishes was this: During think, an example of the paradoxes of life. my college years, when I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to It’s also an example of the constant explore the world of ideas, I was tension between present us and mainly interested in the world of future us. When this realization first work. The time I might have spent reading and writing and pontificating, entered my mind the other night, I immediately thought, I need to go I instead spent sending emails and back to grad school! I’ll get a master’s deploying productivity hacks and in… writing? History? Literature? working my way through to-do lists I’m not sure, but I must take action! for my college radio station. These accepted reason (i.e. it helps you achieve a goal or produce something that some sort of marketplace considers valuable). In this world of work, ideas are either a means to an end, or they’re just a bonus — something that entertains you during your commute or that you get to enjoy at the end of the day when you’ve finally gotten through everything you have to do.

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A younger me might have followed this passing thought much further, interpreting it to mean that it’s time to make some radical changes to my life to better align how I think I want to spend my time with how I’m currently spending it. But that’s the difference — or at least a difference — between 23-year-old Adam and 33-year-old Adam. Instead of acting impulsively on this grassis-always-greener restlessness that flares up in most of us from time to time, I can simply notice it. I can be aware of it. I can acknowledge it as one of life’s weird little ironies. I can recognize that it’s not necessarily a profound insight but more likely just a random passing thought. I can see it as a reflection of my/our/humanity’s compulsion to (re)assure ourselves that “once I do X or have Y or achieve Z, then I’ll be happy and content.” I can do all of that, and then - perhaps after writing it down as an interesting idea to start a newsletter with — I can let it pass. I can pivot to gratitude and appreciation for the present moment, for the life I have right now, for the opportunity to to read interesting books and listen to interesting podcasts and have interesting conversations and share interesting ideas on platforms like this.

Adam Lowenstein, author of Reframe the Day: Embracing the Craft of Life, One Day at a Time. A version of this article was previously published on Medium and in Adam’s email newsletter, ‘Reframe Your Inbox.’at adaml.blog/newsletter. Adam M. Lowenstein is the author of the new book, Reframe the Day: Embracing the Craft of Life, One Day at a Time. He spent eight years working in American government and politics, most recently as a speechwriter and strategic communications advisor in the U.S. Senate. Today, Adam lives in London with his partner, Erin, and writes frequently about politics, work, and life. Visit his website, see his latest work, and subscribe to his newsletter, “Reframe Your Inbox,” at www.adaml.blog

Awareness. Appreciation. Gratitude. Presence. Those are some interesting ideas. BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

Replacing Our Culture of More Words by RANYA NEHMEH

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The changes we have been confronted with in 2020 have been life altering. Not only have we lost a sense of freedom that we previously took for granted – the freedom to plan ahead, to move from country to country, from home to office, and the freedom to interact with people and objects. We have moved through months of uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, and hope. As a result, we have collectively, and personally begun to rethink the way we live our lives. I believe that there is a silver lining in terms of what this pandemic has taught us, on both a professional and personal level. We are realizing that this culture that demands more can actually function quite well with less. One of the positive developments I am hearing from my colleagues and friends at work over the last months, is how their workload has been compressed as a result of working from home. This doesn’t mean they are working less; on the contrary, many are accomplishing more than when they were in the office, but they are working in a smarter way. There are fewer distractions, less meetings, and small talk by the water cooler. Also, with travel restrictions, a lot of business trips have been curbed, highlighting that much of what we thought were “crucial trips” could have very well been replaced by a virtual videoconference. A sifting process has occurred that

highlights priorities. We have begun to ask ourselves, is that meeting, or that trip absolutely necessary? As a result, we are experiencing a shift in mind-set to where the focus now lies less on doing more, and more on prioritizing efforts that will yield meaningful results. This is the concept of Essentialism defined as “less but better” (McKeown). As the author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, McKeown further elaborates, “It’s about how to get the right things done…. about the wisest possible investment of your time and energy”. Leaders should therefore focus their teams on exploring the critical projects to be pursued, prioritize these and work in the most effective and efficient way to achieve these goals, instead of getting bogged down in working long hours, and wasting time on trivial tasks and unnecessary meetings. It is no longer about how to get the most out of your workforce but rather how to narrow your efforts and focus only on the most useful of tasks to get the best out of them. The current pandemic is providing a timely opportunity to build or enhance a culture of trust. With remote working, employers have no choice but to empower their employees and to believe that work responsibilities and deadlines will be met. This is the ideal time for leaders to embrace Essentialism, and develop ways to work smarter, to reduce BOOK TALK TODAY MAGAZINE

‘tasks’, and stay in touch with the essence of the project at hand. Asking the question, ‘Is this Essential?’ will reframe and redirect the path forward. Beyond work, this pandemic has also made us reflect on our personal needs and discover what is really important to us. We are constantly surrounded by shops and advertisements pushing the latest brands, gadgets, cars, etc, Consumerism is at an all time high. If that’s not overwhelming enough, we also have social media to reinforce this culture of bombardment. It can get exhausting and make our minds feel messy. But when the pandemic shuts us down, forces our movements to a standstill, and dictates the terms of our interactions we have no choice but re-evaluate and adjust to this simpler version of our life. This concept of Essentialism has resurfaced organically as a result of a world crisis that has left us reeling and without control. Essentialism is something that can provide comfort by reminding us what is important and what we are able to let go of.

Dr. Ranya Nehmeh is a third culture kid whose roots embrace the chaotic passion of the East from her Lebanese parents, the geometric symmetry of the West through her Austrian upbringing, blended together by a British education. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Swiss Management University and a Masters in Human Resources from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She has over fifteen years of work experience in the areas of external relations and human resource management. Ranya lives in Vienna, Austria. The CHAMELEON Leader is her debut book.

@thechameleonleader

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What Magic Can Teach Us About Mastery Words by NICK VELASQUEZ

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Think of a magic illusion. A magician vanishes a card and makes it reappear in an impossible location. As spectators, we see the effect and are amazed by it. What we don’t see is the method behind it. If we could learn the mechanics that made the illusion possible, we would realize that the magician’s “powers” are also within our reach. Just like with magic illusions, our unawareness of what happens behind great performances of the people we admire makes us think their results are beyond our capabilities. But there is a process behind every impressive feat—in sports, arts, or any other field. A process that we could follow too. Many times the process is not what we think. It’s rarely glamorous or exciting. In magic, sometimes an elegant effect requires that the magician inelegantly strap a magnet to his thigh under his pants. And some card effects need hours upon hours of practice in front of a mirror to eliminate any “flashing” and conceal the inner workings of the effect. Methods are not often as satisfying to watch as end results. We like to see the finished product, the competition, the illusion, not how it came to be. It’s the reason we watch sports games and not sports practices. We don’t want to see our favorite players running through drills again and again. We want to see them compete, executing

their skills at their best—and preferably, under high-stake conditions. This obsession with the end result and the grand scale performances make us feel incapable of great feats. We think that those we admire were born with “gifts” that allow them to master their craft with ease. But we believe so because we are not looking at the process that took them there. The early mornings and late nights. The struggle, the frustration, the discouragement, and in many crafts, the physical toll on the body. When we finally see the process behind greatness, we get to humanize our idols. It reveals that they, too, have to work hard to build their skills. That they also make mistakes and fail. That it doesn’t come easily to them. But more importantly, we get to see that the path to greatness is also open to us if we wish to follow it. @velznick

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Book Review Ego Is The Enemy Ryan Holiday Penguin Random House USA (14 Jun. 2016)

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This book has helped me to identify the ego characteristics and to not fall prey to egoist behaviour by giving feedback and results. The book is divided into three parts: 1) Aspire 2) Success 3) Failure The author unveils what goes wrong when ego takes control of your actions. Ego becomes the downfall of those that pursue their goals without tempering its effect. Often when we reach a position of success we are quick to forget the steps we have taken in order to attain that position. This creates a problem of ignorance. At that point a person will rarely listen to anyone or give their time for anyone who is of less perceived importance. Failure teaches us how we can leave our ego and face the reality of life. Ego kills every skill and paralyzes creativity. This book provides a solution for getting rid of your ego and how to identify it. The book has made me realise that overconfidence is another level of ego that people possess and they even don’t realise it. As Epictetus says, “you can’t learn if you think you already know.” The language in the book is difficult. The analogies are moderate to difficult, which make this book quite 42

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tough for readers to relate. This book is not going to entertain you, it will teach you. Amit Bharti @amitgenre

Book Review 52 Red Pills

Eika and Siddharth Banerjee Pan Macmillan India (12 Dec. 2019)

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‘If we are constantly consuming, then we are not creating.’ Thumb Rule of Minimalism. As has been rightly said by ‘The Minimalists’ – a community of reformers who promote an austere and a simplistic lifestyle: Minimalism is not a radical lifestyle; It is simply a way to bring balance to our lives. Happiness is ephemeral, and if you’re always chasing ephemeral things, you’re always going to feel the pang of discontent. 52 Red Pills is a new age playbook consisting of 52 integrated nuggets to instill the discipline of self-learning. It travels through a corporate Indian couple’s hyper learning journey over 52 weeks. The pills range from inculcating healthy habits such as the importance of power mornings, building mental resilience, reflecting and turbocharging oneself, building a ‘real’ social network and seeking spirituality as a superpower, among many others. One of the pills that I really resonated with, was the minutiae of decluttering oneself. Our clutter isn’t relegated only to material things. We clutter our lives with obligations, rituals, news, media, politics, gossip, drama, relationships etc. that lead to a state of bedlam, chaos and disorder in our lives. What matters most in this fastchanging world, is the way one grows and contributes that would lead to a meaningful and an enriching life. 44

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The book also touches upon diverse topics such as, how to prevent a heart attack, decoding the multiple facets of Homeopathy and the beautiful concept of Ikigai. The book calls out for jotting down thoughts, experiences, learnings and challenges at the end of every nugget of information. This is an amazing way to look back and streamline one’s learnings. Read this book for achieving tranquility, increasing overall well being and drifting away from our brimming lives of existential clutter. Monica Ashwini @monica_ashwini

Book Review Nausea

Jean-Paul Sartre Publisher : Penguin Books Ltd (30 Nov. 2000)

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Jean-Paul Sartre (JPS) is one of those philosophers that everyone has heard of. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and work has also influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to influence these disciplines. So in short, the man is a genius. His first novel Nausea published in 1938, was in his own opinion, one of his best works. The book was originally titled Melacholia, based on a German Renaissance engraving by Albrecht Dürer, with the publisher later suggesting the title was changed to La Nausée (Nausea). This relatively short work of fiction centers around the life of Antoine Roquentin, a retired adventurer who is living alone in a provincial French town to finish researching the life of an 18th century political figure, based on JPS’s real life period of living in La Havre. Antoine is lonely. He has no friends and to occupy himself often resorts to eavesdropping on the conversations of the other residents of the town. This book is a great introduction into existentialist fiction if you are looking to dip your toe in. If I have convinced you to give it a go then great, but if not read on. However, spoilers may abound in the next paragraph, you have been warned. In the winter of 1932, he begins to 46

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experience a “sweetish sickness” which envelopes him and everything he does or enjoys. He is bored and disinterested when conversing with those around him. This detachment from the world causes him to doubt his own existence. Although his later works set out his ideas in much clearer detail, I cannot recommend this enough as a stepping stone into the mind of this great man. Phoebe Worrell @p.f.worrell

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