This episode distinguishes essentialism from minimalism through Marcus Aurelius’s “do less, better” framework. Minimalism restricts consumption potentially limiting contribution capacity, while essentialism eliminates only what’s non-essential for operating at peak capacity—the difference between ascetic restriction and strategic consolidation around maximum self-fulfillment and societal contribution.
Key Takeaways:
- Injury reduction through movement consolidation Two years of minimal injury at age 36 versus 15 years of chronic problems resulted from eliminating diverse training for focused jumping and basketball work—doing less movement patterns better outperforms attempting comprehensive athletic capability.
- Seasonal friendships require acknowledgment Distancing from long-term connections without animosity recognizes life trajectory divergence—maintaining a smaller circle of ambitious, growth-focused individuals who align with current direction improves relationship quality over maintaining historical breadth.
- Business focus demands investment extraction Removing capital from okay or poor-performing investments with less control eliminates distraction from the core land business where world-class performance becomes achievable through decades of concentrated effort.
The essentialism principle applies across physical training, business strategy, and relationships—reducing inputs while improving remaining elements compounds performance gains impossible through broader diffusion.
(Podcast transcript below)
Welcome to Get Serious for this Mindset Sunday podcast. I know I spoke about last time reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. About halfway through that, still continues to be a much more joyful read than expected. I think it depends on the translation that you’re looking at, but kind of the raw and crude language.
Has just made me laugh out loud a number of times amidst all of like the deeper philosophy and so forth here. So something I’ve thought about a lot about is essentialism. So I think I also commented on reading, what is it? Looking behind me, The Wealth Money Cannot Buy from Robin Sharma and famous for the 5 a.m. club, really famous speaker.
as well and He’s saying like a number of his, you know, super successful or you know worldly success the clients that he has You know, they’re they’re essentialists rather than minimalists because like we think about minimalism You’re kind of a Cedic lifestyle. Perhaps it’s just you know, so many, you know limited material possessions Or maybe even going out of your way to
not do as much even if it’s
might, you might be trading a lot more time for money. For instance, by going too far in the direction of minimalism, I mean, there’s some overlap, but to me, I like that piece of essentialism that Robin was talking about better, just, you know, okay, these more successful folks, they really center in on what
is absolutely necessary for me to live my life at the best possible capacity for my own self-fulfillment as well as contributing to society as a whole. And so that might eliminate a number of other distractions or various hobbies and so forth, but it’s a little bit different than like minimalism, which is kind of going out of its way to
restrict as much as possible that might also restrict your ability to contribute both to yourself and society as a whole, whereas I think this essentialism is just getting right to the core, okay, what is required for me to operate at my absolute best for my own sake and those around me. So I really like that thought because it’s just something to try to get better at year after year after year. And it’s also realizing like, you know, it could always be better, like,
Each year that passes, mean, sure, like we get busier, the business is growing, you know, parent at the moment as well too of a young toddler, like that just naturally decreases, you know, what you can focus on. And so like it’s really had to kind of consolidate what do I, what is, you know, critical within my life and, know, it’s certain physical.
training, eating well, and just really kind of focusing on the business. And then I’ll be reading certain key books. Like there’s just so many other things that were part of my life in the past that either only come up maybe a handful of days per year. Like I might watch a couple movies per year, for instance. I really enjoy them when the ones like actually kind of break through my normal routine. But you know, it’s just not like something that…
is in, you know, a central piece of my life anymore. it’s just, you know, the sacrifice in order to be, uh, or, make more, more progress in the most critical areas within, within my life to stay consistent with. Um, and then to jump back to meditations or Marcus Aurelius, I just love the phrasing for this essentialism, um, where he was saying effectively, you know, to be essential.
or to focus on essentialism, it’s do less, comma better, do less, better. so I just, you know, even that phrasing is, indicative of what essential essentialism really means. And I just, I, I love the core, meaning behind that, behind that phrasing because, you know, minimalism might just be like doing less, or consuming less as a whole.
but not necessarily like the better part of it. Like that to me is a core piece from my understanding of what essentialism would be. It’s just like, okay, reduce everything that is just not necessary for you to live your best life and help others live their best lives. if you’re doing less, you’re just able to do all of those other things that remain a part of your…
Day-to-day or part of your routine just able to practice that more and get better and better at it So it’s just you know do less better and that’s what I think has contributed to a lot of the growth within my own life You even physical training I used to try to just do too much and I would like we’ve really just boiled down the key, know with my trainer everything that has just worked so well for me After kind of years of working together and where I used to be like a very injury prone
athlete just tweaking this tweaking that you know longer periods of time where I just had to like sit out and lose a lot of the progress that was made just because I was trying to do so much at once and not kind of sticking with a better pattern and listening to my body more and now like you know I’m 36 and probably the least injury prone I’ve been over the last two years than I have been in like the past 15 years just because like I’ve boiled down okay what is really essential here
and I might not have as much diverse movements. It’s not like I can go play every sport out there. It’s just like try to work on jumping and basketball. And, but like that’s, that’s okay for me. Like I can make that sacrifice across other parts of my life. You know, I’ll try to get some skiing in every year as well. But you can’t, you can’t do everything. And so it’s like, okay, boil it down. What, what is essential to you? What’s going to give you the most joy, the most satisfaction? This is it. Stick with it. Be consistent.
saying within the business, just saying no to so many other FOMO things, I’ve been extricating myself from other investments that were okay or not that good, that I had less control over. It was just distracting me from the main real estate and land business where it’s like, okay, this is what we can be one of the world’s best at if we just really stay focused over the coming years and decades, doing less, doing better. And…
similar for certain friendships and relationships within my life. I’ve been okay, especially over the last year of just starting to distance myself, not out of any animosity or anything, but just realizing, you know what, some of these folks that was maintaining friendships with, that might have been more seasonal. it was a long season, a long season for some of these folks, some folks I grew up with.
or went to school with, you have a certain history with people like that. I’m sure you can all relate. But at some point, okay, you know, we’re kind of on different tracks at the moment. Maybe we intersect again in the future. Life is long, right? But, you know, I don’t necessarily need to go out of my way and kind stress myself out to maintain a number of other connections that just aren’t as helpful to me where I’m going at the moment. And so…
just kind of consolidated, okay, to a smaller circle of folks who especially are in areas of life that I’m trying to reach to, or just also are like very, more ambitious and just progressive in terms of, not progressive from like a political sense, but from wanting to make progress within their own life and contributing to those around them to make that.
Make that distinction clear here. but you know, who knows that political beliefs could overlap. It’s not something I’m overly concerned about. but yeah, more, more in the sense of like ambition and growth and contribution. So that is what I’ve stayed focused on a lot more, especially over the last year. And it’s just, again, doing less, being involved with less people, but, have, have better relationships with them.
Um as well and that’s you know within my own family, uh, too so, um, I I really really resonate with that, uh particular Um phrasing and mindset and just want to do even more of that. So with that, There isn’t anything else to add so serious land dot capital for any of your funding needs land daily diligence facebook groups your cost review land deals and landpricer.ai for
The most reliable land pricing tool on the market. Subscribe and share. Do what is essential. Do less, better. Take care everybody. Bye.
