Mental Mastery #6: Lean vs. Bloated

Thanks so much to all of you who’ve emailed me and told me how much you look forward to reading these posts. Again, none of this would be possible without the amazing Robin Sharma, who has taught me all these A-player strategies. The next one is #6, lean vs. bloated, which is learned minimalism.

This is a really huge one, especially for me.

A lot of what we do every day focuses on filling our lives with more things, filling our schedules with more activities, filling up our relationships with more relationships. Even in our businesses, we try to do many things when what makes a great business is really the ability and the discipline to know when to say no and when to say yes.

Something I’ve had to learn how to do over the last sixty plus days is to say no, become a minimalist, be really lean, and get genius at being great at just a few things instead of being addicted to distraction and trying to be great at many things. As many of you are aware, I’ve lived this out just this past week, when one of my amazing fans kindly emailed me to say, “Oops, Lorhainne, one of the books you released way back in February is an unedited version.” This error came out of me taking on way too much instead of saying no and setting very clear boundaries with many of the people pulling at me.

Not only am I an author, writing and staying on top of the ever-changing market and publishing industry—where the only thing you can be sure about is that what worked to sell a book two months ago won’t work today—but I am also a single mother. Having a son with autism, I’m still having to navigate and advocate in the community, schools, and politics. I’m also part of a community recreational sports team, and my list of commitments goes on and on. You get the picture. Every one of you also has your own complex life. What I’m saying is that this spring, I had to learn to say no, to clearly remember my five big goals, and to focus on just those. I also remind myself to do things only if they’re fun and to surround myself with the right people, A players just like you and me, rather than negative complainers.

One of the most brilliant things I’ve done has been to scoop up an amazing personal assistant, who has been working with me since 2014. I’m not kidding when I say she has saved my bacon on more than one occasion. I’m also working with an amazing editor and industry professionals who are total A players, but balancing our personal lives and business is a tricky thing for all of us to manage.

The secret I’ve learned and am applying is simplicity: Strip out the complexity in your life, clear out the clutter, and focus on being completely, totally focused on just a few things so that you rise to world class. Remember the first 90 minutes of your day, where you deep dive into whatever big project it is you’re working on? Instead of doing everything and spreading yourself too thin, follow my lead, follow the leads of other A players, and learn to say no and focus on just those few things so that you become the best of the best.

So what can you do? This is what I’ve been doing over the last sixty days: The first step has been to ask myself, what can I remove from my life to be more lean and less bloated? The second step, and maybe you’ve heard people say this, is to be minimalistic. Review your goals and focus on the most crucial ones.

Again, a big thank-you to all my amazing fans for your kind, positive, supportive emails. I love you all! Have a great week.

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