Joy Journal

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Possible vs Plausible

The power of “No”

On one of my previous teams, we would regularly push ourselves and each other towards higher and higher levels of success. It was fun. It was exciting. We did well. Until we found ourselves exhausted.

At one of these points, we coined the phrase “Possible vs Plausible,” meaning just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s plausible. If the cost, effort, or toll on oneself or the team outweighs the benefits, then maybe we shouldn’t do it.

Steve Jobs regularly deployed this philosophy, as well, when he described focus as saying no to as many ideas to which you say yes. “You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.”

I deployed both of these concepts last week, and it has greatly improved my stress levels. I chose to focus on those ideas and activities that I was really excited about and let go of what I wasn’t. All were good ideas, e.g. possible, but not all were plausible.

I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for my decision-making last week. I made a major choice to focus on joy. How about you? Do you need to retune your focus? Are there some things that you are considering or working on that fall into the “not plausible” category that should be let go?