When people are overwhelmed with too much in their head to focus on, there’s a simple exercise to help them focus on the essential few ideas that really matter and get rid of the trivial many items that don’t lead to real progress over time. The exercise is to apply the MOLO principle (More Of, Less Of) from Tony Jeary. It definitely boils things down to a level anyone can understand and apply.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Get a blank sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side write ‘More Of’ at the top. On the right side write ‘Less Of’ at the top. Now write down what you want more of and less of in your business. This could apply to your life outside of work as well.
  2. The next step is to enter into a period of reflection with your list. How you can start rearranging things to do ‘More Of’ what you want while shedding those activities you want to reduce. Pay close attention to excuses that pop up in your head such as:
  • I’ve always done this.
  • No one else can do this.
  • I should do this.
  • I can’t imagine really letting this go.

The author, Nassim Taleb, once said that the greatest predictor of what you’ll be doing five years from now is what you’re doing today. We often fall into patterns of doing things that no longer make sense for us, but we stay with them.

Until we see the list side by side of what we want more of and less of, we won’t be spurred to take real action to bring more of what we want into our business.

This is a simple exercise that may reveal what you truly want. And maybe, a way to get there.

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