Japanese sculpture at the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens | Photo by Jonathan Blundell
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Let’s do more with less” — especially in today’s rocky economic times.
But can we really do more with less?
Let’s think about the physics here.
If I have a 20×20′ room, with 10′ ceilings, it will take 2 cans of paint to cover the walls well.
If I have less — like one paint can — I might be able to stretch that paint can to cover the same walls but they’re going to look horrible in the end and you’ll be able to tell I didn’t do a great job.
There will be spots where the paint is missing, you’ll see where the paint didn’t cover the previous color well and so on.
The same holds true in business as well.
If your team is given a $50k budget one year and then it’s sliced to $25k the next, there’s no way you’ll be able to produce more results with half the money.
Before long you’ll be sending out recalls of your widgets and someone’s going to be out looking for a new job.
The fact is, you can only do more with more.
But…
We can always change the more.
This is what’s great about living simply.
Living simply forces you to refocus on what “the more” is and can be.
So when you’re told “We need to do more with less” approach it from a fresh set of eyes…
Refocus
Step back and ask yourself “What is the more we’re really trying to achieve?”
You may not have the same financial resources but you can add other talents and resources to remake the process.
Mix in some creativity/ ingenuity/ imagination
More than likely you have other resources at your disposal if you’ll step back and approach the situation differently.
If we’re holding onto 300 DVDs to entertain us and we get rid of 200 of them, we can’t entertain ourselves with the same way. However if we add a little creativity into the mix, we can find greater entertainment and joy in the process.
Rather than watching DVD movies by ourselves, we may find a few friends who also love watching movies who can come together once a week to share our collections and enjoy discussing the movies afterwards.
Or, when we lose the ability to watch our favorite movie on demand, we may find five other ways to entertain ourselves and our families that don’t involve the TV at all.
We may find ourselves always running to the pantry to grab a handful of chips, but when we decide to cut back on the processed food in our lives, we refocus and find the dozen or so snacks we can make with things we already have at our fingertips.
When we decide to cut back on our fuel consumption, we can refocus and find a dozen or so things that are right in our own neighborhood to enjoy, rather than driving clear across town to find.
Bring in other voices
When I was a kid I would often sit around and complain that there was “nothing to do.”
But my mom was always quick to point out 10 different things I could be doing instead of sitting around like a mope on the couch. When we bring other voices into the picture, they’re often able to see the bigger picture and point out other things we might be doing instead.
So today, let’s make the decision to start working with less and dream up some amazing ways to change that less into more.
Imagine what that would look like at your job, with your kids, with your spouse.
Now imagine if your changes made such a difference that your neighbors got interested and wanted in on your secret as well… and then their family and their neighbors… how would it impact your community?
Crazy!?
Help us all dream up another world — and share your dreams with us in the comments below.
The myth of doing more with less
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