What Can You Stop Doing?

I once worked with a naturopathic doctor who solved an issue for me by asking me to stop doing something. My face had been reacting to something by breaking out and, after tests, the solution was to stop eating eggs and almonds.

It’s a great example of how, sometimes, solving problems is not what you think it needs to be.

Sometimes, to fix a problem you just need to stop the input that’s messing it up.

In the great book Necessary Endings: The Employees, Business and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward, Dr. Henry Cloud talks about the benefit of proactively ending things in order to make our professional and personal lives better.

After all, we only have so much time and so much energy. And when you look through this window, you think about what you are doing and why – and then contemplate what to stop doing to free up the system and move forward faster and better.

For example, from a personal perspective, some people stopped drinking alcohol because they didn’t like how it made them feel – and some people started because they liked how it made them feel.

From a work perspective, some people decided to stop producing reports that create no value or to eliminate key parts of a process that are only done out of habit.

The Challenge

  • What one or two things might you stop, in each area of Work, Self and Life – no matter how risky or uncomfortable for you or someone else – that causes you stress or drag?
  • How can you remove that friction so that you can feel better?

More about this on this episode of The Growth Whisperers podcast where we also talk about the Stop Doing List.


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