A business I loved.
A network of friends that partied hard.
A negative, useless mindset.

A set of rules that I didn’t create.
A routine of daily habits that made no sense.
Saying yes to stuff I didn’t care about.

Giving up stuff gives you focus to work on your goals.

If you want to achieve a big, audacious goal that makes us all sit back in our chairs – that will change the world – you have to learn to give up more. Sounds counter-intuitive but it’s not.

This is not about being a crybaby and giving up as soon as things get a little tough. This is about doing less so you can achieve more. It’s about focusing rather than letting your attention be played with like a set of marbles lying on the floor that have no home to go to and are fun to play with.

It’s about rejecting more and being okay to say “Enough is enough, I’m giving up so I can win more.”

Giving up is not the traditional self-help advice you’d read in any book produced by someone that has a top-ranking iTunes podcast. That’s because giving up is really hard and it can make you look ridiculous. How you look doesn’t matter so much anyway.

“No one is going to slap you in the face, throw iced water on you, and tell you to focus on fewer things. No one is going to tell you to stop doing what you don’t love and that’s why you must be the one to make the decision to give up”

I can’t make that decision for you. Instead, you have to be honest with yourself and decide to give up on a few things that no longer serve you. You have to get clear on what does matter, so you can give up on what it’s pointless, useless, not working and stealing your time.

This means you’ll have some short-term pain but you’ll get the longer-term benefits. Those benefits may take a while to surface and show their beautiful face though. Patience is needed.

People that follow me on social media think it’s about what I’ve achieved. What they don’t know is what I had to give up. They don’t know how challenging it was to be on my knees, with nothing, going for broke, being tired, emotional and worn out, and still believing that I had it within me to change the world in some significant way.

I get that no one knows your struggles quite like you do and that can be frustrating at times. Complaining won’t help you make progress or have more time; giving up will. Giving up will get you back in the game.

The battle your fighting is the same for every one of us too. Your problems are not unique. We all have to sacrifice stuff we love and things we like doing to get the time we need to focus. It’s so cliché but unless you put in the work, do less and do a few things really well, you’ll be forever scratching your head like a loser wondering why life is passing you by and you’re not feeling fulfilled.

You’ll be forever searching for motivation or external forces rather than understanding that it’s your fault that you didn’t give up X sooner.

Giving up is perfectly fine. It’s what I did to get where I am and it’s what you must do to live the life you’ve always dreamt of.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net