{"id":137249,"date":"2021-06-14T11:49:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T16:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=137249"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T01:38:57","slug":"podcast-716-how-to-make-your-life-more-effortless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-716-how-to-make-your-life-more-effortless\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #716: How to Make Your Life More Effortless"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When we&#8217;re failing to do the things that are most important in our lives, the typical diagnosis of the problem is to&nbsp;believe&nbsp;we&#8217;re simply not working&nbsp;hard enough, and the typical&nbsp;solution to the problem is to put in more effort, apply more discipline, and&nbsp;grind&nbsp;it out.<\/p>\n<p>My guest would say that we&#8217;re thinking about both the root and the remedy of the issue in the wrong way. His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/gregmckeown.com\/about\/\">Greg McKeown<\/a>, and he&#8217;s the author of the bestseller&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00G1J1D28\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00G1J1D28&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Essentialism<\/em><\/a>, as well as his latest book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B08F4GGQ2K\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B08F4GGQ2K&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show, Greg shares how he came to realize that life isn&#8217;t just about focusing on the essentials, but making those essential things the easy things. We discuss why it is that we commonly&nbsp;make things&nbsp;harder than they need to be, and how while the right thing can be hard, just because something&nbsp;is hard, doesn&#8217;t make it the&nbsp;right thing. We then discuss the role that emotions like gratitude&nbsp;play in making things feel more effortless, why you need to have a clear vision of what being done looks like (including having a Done for the Day list), how to overcome the difficulty of getting started with things through microbursts of action, and how to keep going with them using a sustainable pace marked by upper and lower bounds. We end our conversation with how seeking an effortless state applies to one&#8217;s spiritual life. Along the way, Greg shares stories from history and his own life as to what it means to get to your goals using a more effortless path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we&#8217;re failing to do the things that are most important in our lives, the typical diagnosis of the problem is to&nbsp;believe&nbsp;we&#8217;re simply not working&nbsp;hard enough, and the typical&nbsp;solution to the problem is to put in more effort, apply more discipline, and&nbsp;grind&nbsp;it out. My guest would say that we&#8217;re thinking about both the root and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":195110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/716-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/716-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/716-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/716-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/716-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Podcast #716: How to Make Your Life More Effortless | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-716-how-to-make-your-life-more-effortless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #716: How to Make Your Life More Effortless | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we&#8217;re failing to do the things that are most important in our lives, the typical diagnosis of the problem is to&nbsp;believe&nbsp;we&#8217;re simply not working&nbsp;hard enough, and the typical&nbsp;solution to the problem is to put in more effort, apply more discipline, and&nbsp;grind&nbsp;it out. 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