Add it up

And forget about "clearing space" / Issue 1,135

Oh, hi friends!

This is my last newsletter.

……

Now, what if that was actually true?

One day, I could decide to simply…stop.

So could you. 

You could stop the side project, say "no" an itchy request, abandon a work-in-progress.

But why?

We often think subtraction is the answer to the question of our busy lives.

If I stopped writing the newsletter, what might I gain?

Maybe five extra hours per week. Some additional brainspace. (Less curating = more creating?) A bit of quiet.

But what I would lose is less quantifiable: unseen connections and ripples, a foundation for creativity, new friendships and seeds of opportunity.

Also, we’re all aware of the saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

Which brings me to the point.

What if addition is the answer?

What if I added a new side gig?

What if I added a pottery class?

What if I added the weird thing, the doesn’t-quite-fit thing to my days?

(These are hypotheticals.)

Anything new would feed into what I already have.

Let's talk about you.

What if you added the weird thing to your already-full dinner plate? Start with a tiny experiment. Pile the mashed potatoes higher and don't worry about what it looks like. Commit to a two-week streak. Say “yes” to the intriguing class or the meeting or the invite even if you “don’t know how you’re going to do it all.” If you need to nudge aside the stale bread roll in a few months, that's fine. You probably wanted to ditch the stale bread roll anyway and now you have a good excuse. Your plate is full of things you want and chose.

But if you keep waiting for the Gods of Subtraction to visit and remove something from your life, to round off the edges and make your days nice and smooth, you'll be waiting a long time. 

Change happens when you bring in the new.

What do you want to add?

What will you add?

I’d love to hear about it.