Greg McKeown: Essentialism & The Pursuit of Less | E121

Be effortless!

In today’s episode, we are talking with Greg McKeown, best-selling author and CEO. Greg’s break-out book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. The book is frequently ranked as a #1 Time Management book on Amazon, and challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

Greg 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. McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR, NBC, and FOX. 

In this episode, we talk about Greg’s path from studying to be a lawyer to becoming a writer, the definition of Essentialism, and how we can decide what’s ‘essential.’ We’ll also discuss the three steps to being effortless, how to make essential work more fun, and how to achieve residual results with your work. If you’re a high-achiever and looking to step up your productivity without dedicating all your time, this is a must-listen!

 

Sponsored by - 

 

Credit Karma. Go to creditkarma.com/podcast to learn more and find offers tailored just for you. 

 

Olay Body. Fearless In My Skin.

 

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Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com

 

Timestamps:

 

00:37 - Greg’s Upbringing

02:12 - How Greg Strayed From Being a Lawyer and Became a Writer

08:30 - The Definition of Essentialism

09:45 - How Achieving Success Can Cause Failure

12:32 - The Way Essentialism Relates to Being Effortless

15:37 - How We Can Decide What’s Essential

21:17 - Why Greg Wrote Effortless

24:51 - 3 Steps for Being Effortless

29:05 - The Problem With Effort

31:41 - Strategies to Achieve the Effortless State

36:07 - Does Effort Equal Time? 

38:19 - How to Make Essential Work See More Fun

42:21 - Ways to Combat Complex Projects and Make It Simple

50:59 - Why Rest is Essential

58:35 - Difference Between Linear and Residual Results

1:04:32 - Greg’s Secret to Profiting in Life

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

 

Greg’s Website: https://gregmckeown.com/

The Essentialism Website: https://essentialism.com/

Greg’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregorymckeown?lang=en