What Are You Willing to Give Up?

🫖 What Are You Willing to Give Up?

Ever notice how everyone’s got a bucket list, but no one’s got a bin list?

We’re all very clear about what we want to do: write a book, launch a business, become an amateur sourdough influencer. But ask someone what they’re going to stop doing to make room for it — well, that’s when things get quiet enough to hear their eyelids blinking.

This isn’t just a time management problem. It’s a life clutter problem. And most of us are drowning in well-meaning rubbish.

Let me tell you a little story.

A few years ago, just before I retired, I thought I’d start learning the saxophone.
A noble ambition for a man who hadn’t read sheet music since the Queen had black hair. I bought the books, watched the videos, even cleared space in the spare room for a shiny second-hand alto sax that smelled faintly of ambition and disinfectant.

I imagined myself blasting out a bit of Coltrane with the patio doors open, neighbours leaning out to applaud my rendition of “Summertime.”

But here’s what I didn’t do: I didn’t give anything else up.
I still spent every evening watching crime dramas where no one ever turns the lights on. Still checked the news sixteen times a day. Still scrolled social media like I was waiting for someone to announce the meaning of life in a meme.

Result? No saxophone skills. No jazz career. Just guilt. The sax became an expensive ornament, leaning in the corner like a disappointed uncle.

Here’s the lesson: New doesn’t arrive without sacrifice.

You want a fresh start? Grand. But something old’s got to make room. And that “something” is usually a habit you’ve quietly let squat in your schedule for years — eating your time, your energy, and your focus.

We’re not taught to think this way. We’re told to add, accumulate, hustle. Productivity porn in every corner of the internet. More goals! More systems! More morning routines involving journaling by candlelight and kale smoothies!

But you know what’s truly productive? Stopping.
Stopping the five apps you check before you’ve even got your socks on.
Stopping the phone calls with people who leave you more knackered than when you started.
Stopping the idea that “just one more episode” is harmless.

Real change doesn’t start with motivation. It starts with deletion.

So here’s your objective this week:

Don’t write a to-do list. Write a “To Stop” list.

Find three things you’re willing to give up — just for a week — to make space for the thing you say you care about. Don’t overthink it. Just clear the decks and see what flows in.

You might be surprised what rises up when you finally shut the noise out.

I never did master the sax. But I did eventually master something harder: the art of letting go.

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