the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure. Put another way, success can distract us from focusing on the essential things that produce suc… - Greg McKeown

To eliminate non-essentials means saying no to someone. Often. It means pushing against social expectations. To do it well takes courage and compassion. So eliminating the non-essentials isn’t just about mental discipline. It’s about the emotional discipline necessary to say no to social pressure.

Holding back when you still have steam in you might seem like a counterintuitive approach to getting important things done, but in fact, this kind of restraint is key to breakthrough productivity.

The point I wish to emphasize is not an economic one, but a human one: if you try to say too many things, you don’t say anything at all.