The Best Personal Growth Hack Is Cutting It Out

The best personal growth hack is removing things from your life.

Removing a bad habit will always improve your life faster than continuing it. Gary Keller, author of The One Thing, wrote, “The path to more is through less.”

You could apply this philosophy to other areas of your life. For example, there’s no better method to lose weight than to remove calories.

This is not to say you can’t trim down by going for daily walks or morning jogs. But the truth about weight loss is it won’t happen until you cut out what you put into your body.

Often, people make a mistake in their personal growth by asking, “What do I need to start doing more?” 

The same occurs with young men or women in their careers and personal finances. Frustrated by results, they reach for more.

Yet, how often does improvement appear after eliminating poor work habits or poor spending habits?

More is rarely the answer.

So it’s worth asking first, “What can I eliminate?” 

Today, I will show you a simple method to guarantee improvement in 2024.

We put our focus on ‘more’ because it’s a relevant part of our daily living. It’s supposed to be the answer to everything.

Aiming for ‘more’ has become part of our DNA. We're convinced our problems are solved with more. Earn more money. Add more to our to-do list. Buy more items. Fill out more of our calendar. Earn more clients.

For these reasons, in our personal growth, we apply the same flawed thinking.

But what if, by elimination, we saved ourselves from unnecessary future actions? 

By looking at life a bit deeper, we could prevent so much that is standing in our way.

The truth about why we are so quick to reach for more is simple. 

Removing first and thinking deeper about quality and necessity requires upfront energy. It’s much easier to throw many low-quality ideas at the problem and hope it works out.

But would you want your financial advisor to do that? 

So why are we doing that with our lives?

Instead, in 2024, why not have a high-quality plan, even if it requires a little planning up front?

Here’s a simple method that will enhance your 2024, even if it’s the only thing you focus on.

Double Down and Reverse Method

I recently learned about this method from a New Year’s challenge I’m participating in.

It forces you to focus on eliminating the worst habit. So you have more energy for your best habit.

I find this method more useful than listing a dozen New Year's resolutions that leave me frustrated by February 15th.

Here’s how the 2-step method works:

1. Pick one positive change you made in 2023 or habit you want to commit to investing more time, energy, or money into pushing it further.

   Think: What single habit serves my life better than all the others?

2. Pick one negative habit you formed in 2023 (or before) and eliminate it.

   Think: What single habit is the bottleneck in my personal growth?

Perhaps you started taking daily walks and have never felt better. Go a step further and try joining a gym. Or you started reading and have enjoyed it—try investing a little more time in reading. Or maybe you developed a strong morning routine that set you up for success. Try adding ten more minutes.

And, of course, remove the bad. If you spend too much time scrolling your phone in the evenings, place it in another room. If that after-work drink starts turning into two or three, cut it out. If you feel like you started staying up too late, try going to bed 1 hour earlier.

(The habit you cut out should hurt a little. Otherwise, this isn’t nearly as effective.)

Yes, I’m suggesting you add to your life—by eliminating that which is stealing energy.

In removing the worst habit in your life, you create space to double down on the best habit in your life.

The net positive on that is unmeasurable and has infinite benefits in the long run.

I hope you'll give this method a try. I know I am.

Let me know if you do and how it’s working. I'd love to hear from you!

See you next Wednesday!