Discard What Doesn't Serve

A renowned management consultant whose theories formed the basis of modern business and leadership techniques, Peter Drucker was a proponent of the inversion method when it came to asking questions. Instead of asking, for example, “What makes a good life?” we could start from a place of elimination by asking, “What makes a bad life?” Marcus Aurelius offers a similar evaluative exercise when he implores us to ask ourselves whether death would be something terrible if we were deprived of a certain thing. Living well then becomes the active discarding of what does not serve us. Asking such a question requires that we be prepared for the answer, and for the discomfort that may accompany the hard decisions the answer demands.

There’s a tendency to interpret something like this as a directive to act rashly, dropping everything in pursuit of an unclear yet grand adventure. While life is short—or more accurately put, fast—its "shortness" doesn’t inherently encourage frivolity. What it encourages is intention—making decisions deliberately as one who is palpably aware of the finiteness of things.

A productive response to our finiteness includes limiting (or where possible, eliminating) that which hinders our best in the time allotted to us. Further, it requires an intimate understanding of what our own "best" is, emotionally, mentally, and so forth. Does it help me to overthink this? Am I who I want to be when engaging in this? Will I be glad that I did or did not do this thing?

Freely discard what doesn't serve; freely be free.

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