This is the Word I’m Trying to Live By This Year

The past year has been all about LESS for me.

At the end of 2022, my wife and I picked a word we were going to use as our lodestar for the year. We picked ‘less’ because we felt like we were too busy, too overwhelmed, too stressed, too frustrated. I was just exhausted as December ended and I felt like my health, my family, and my quality of life could not face another year of the same.

My goal was:

Less. Less commitments. Less drama. Less busyness. Less screen time. Just less. Part of the reason I want less is so I have room for more. More stillness. More presence.

Looking back, I think we did a pretty good job. I was strict about passing on stuff I didn’t want to do. I asked my assistant not to schedule appointments or interviews or calls on Fridays. I pushed ​my book​ back a year — which required some serious negotiations with my publisher and facing a lot of ideas in myself about what it meant to not be so busy and always being doing, doing, doing.

What did this ‘less’ translate to? Certainly not a lot of ‘nothing,’ which is what I think we suspect we’ll turn into if we start saying that powerful word ‘no’ or if we start slowing down. Instead, what happened is that I did a lot more. I did more school lunches and school drop offs. We went on more trips…