Have you seen the site Unnecessary Quotes? It’s fabulously sarcastic, offering a collection of signs that have quotation marks in all the wrong places.
I started thinking about other unnecessary things after a few people asked about my language skills for traveling. You can’t be a world traveler without speaking six languages, right?
Surprise! I’m not a language ninja. I speak bad French and awful Spanish.
Otherwise, I’m definitely not the guy you want to have around as a translator. (Airport codes and frequent flyer info, yes; translation at the next U.N. meeting, no.)
It’s not that I think everyone should speak English, or that learning other languages is unimportant. If I had kids, I’d put them in Chinese school in the morning with a Spanish-speaking nanny in the afternoon.
But you know what? Even though I’d happily accept the gift of magic language skills, I also know that my inability to cross most language barriers doesn’t really hinder me from going anywhere or doing anything. You don’t need to be a language ninja to travel. Sometimes it will be awkward and sometimes it will be funny, but your chances of starving to death on the road are quite low.
If I Could Only…
Focusing on something you don’t have (but think you need) can be a dangerous, common pattern. The pattern is to identify something you lack and use that as an obstacle that prevents you from doing what you really want.
With an obstacle identified, we feel better. No harm done, right? No harm except that nagging sense in the back of our brain that we really should be doing something differently. Not to worry: most people come to terms with it over time.
Fortunately, many of the obstacles we perceive are not really obstacles. Many of the things we think we need are unnecessary.
I don’t mean to discount handicaps, social disadvantage, etc., but the way out of most challenges was best defined by Oprah:
“We are each responsible for our own life; no other person is or even can be.”
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a prison cell on Robbin Island. He got out and led South Africa on a path of forgiveness and transition. Viktor Frankl created a philosophy on finding personal meaning while imprisoned in a concentration camp.
When I think about people like that, I become less tolerant of other excuses. If you can emotionally thrive in prison, even more things become unnecessary. Let’s look at a few of them.
You don’t need experience. Experience can sometimes get you in the door, but what really matters is what you’re doing now. The past belongs on a resumé; the future is only partially in your hands. Today is the only day we are fully in control of.
You don’t need a mentor. No one will ever be as invested in your success as you. You can’t outsource the responsibility for planning the course of your life.
You don’t need paperwork. Paperwork includes degrees, certificates, endorsements, licenses, recommendations, referrals, and so on. Please note: it’s not that some of these things (or the other things) are unhelpful. It’s that they are unnecessary.
You don’t need to pay for access or information. I realize the irony: I sell information products on the right side of the screen. But if you want to break things down to the simplest level, almost all information is freely available. If you live in Iran or China, some information may be kept from your view – everywhere else, whatever it is you want to learn, go and learn it. If you have no money, go to the library. Go to the bookstore and read books in the cafe.
***
If you want to start a business…
The list of things you don’t need grows longer. You don’t need to move to Silicon Valley; you don’t need to pitch to venture capitalists; you don’t need to borrow money.
This part could go on for a while – you don’t need an office, you don’t need a MacBook Pro, you don’t need to outsource, you don’t need business cards.
From time to time I’ve been asked about my productivity habits. Here is my primary GTD workstation, pictured below for all posterity:
Technical Specs:
Spiral-bound
College-ruled
Three-sectioned
120-paged
No instructions are included, but it’s pretty basic. GTD is a great organization system because you don’t need much of anything to use it. The principles of GTD as I use it are:
1. Write stuff down
2. Do easy stuff quickly
3. Review big stuff periodically
As I said, basic but life-changing. But enough about notebooks and venture capital – let’s get serious. Are you ready? Here we go:
You don’t need other people’s permission.
If you’ve heard the one about forgiveness and permission – how it’s easier to say “Oops, sorry” than it is to get something cleared in advance – this is totally true. This principle helped me finish college in two years and sneak into graduate school without taking the GRE. (It certainly wasn’t high intelligence or aptitude for study.)
However, you also don’t need permission for much of anything. You don’t need permission to be happy, for example. Just be happy.
Where’s the line? The line is where your actions cause harm to someone else. My view is that as long if you stay behind that line, you don’t need permission. Thankfully, I don’t know many people who want to intentionally harm someone else. We just want freedom to pursue our own choices without being held back by anyone else.
***
What You Really Need
If you don’t need most of those things, what do you need?
You need passion. You need to be absolutely passionate about what you believe in. If you don’t feel passionate about something, chances are you haven’t discovered it yet. Keep looking.
You need a vision and a task. The vision tells you where you are going; the task tells you what to do next.
You need the two answers. What do you really want to get out of life? How can you help others in a way that is unique to you?
You need commitment to stay the course. Most people give up at 5,000 hours; the winners continue to 10,000 and beyond. I liked what Seth said about the 3,000 posts he’s written: the first 2,500 were the hardest.
Very Important: What’s the difference between the things you need and the things you don’t need?
All of the things in the first category are up to you. Most of the things in the second category come from other people.
Mostly, you need enough. You need enough money, enough time, enough courage. What is enough? That’s for you to decide.
But don’t worry about what you don’t have. When you let go of all the things you don’t need, a lot of other things become much easier.
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Also Read:
A Short Collection of Unconventional Ideas
How to Be Awesome
Unnecessary Bubble Tea “Image” by Adam Kuban
June 23, 2009
soultravelers3
So true! “If there is a will there is a way” has always led me to go after exactly what I want.
It is true one does not need languages to travel ( especially if one has a dominant language as their primary language, more so if it is the most dominant at the moment…English).
However, I do think if one wants to immerse deeply in a culture while traveling, there is no better way than to learn the language. We did the work required to have 2 dominant languages and it has helped immensely in our open ended world travel.
Yes, we also speak a little high school French and bits and pieces of lots of languages, but we find a HUGE difference on how much more deeply we can connect in Spain ( our 2nd language) compared to other countries like France, as well as how much easier it is, than in countries where we are not fluent in the local language. It is like night and day. We’ve been to many countries ( including much of rural Europe) where no one speaks English.
I think if one has not had the experience of being fluent in two and how that affects travel, you can not fully understand the advantages and what is missed by not speaking the local language. One can experience things at a much deeper level when you know the language because it is the best way to know a culture and really connect with locals. Knowing Spanish also has helped us in Italy and Portugal. There have also been times where people in other countries could not talk to us in English, but could in Spanish.
Of course, the best way to learn a language it to immerse in it, thus slow travel can be a great advantage in adding a second language. It is also a great way to give your kids a second language & give them the important experience of being in an environment where their native tongue is not the dominant language. By attending a local school in Spain, our child is bilingual and even more importantly biliterate in a way we could never have given her any other way.
I’d also like to add to your list that one does not need to take planes to travel the world. They are extremely harmful to the environment, so something important to consider if we still want travel available to our children and their children.
We’ve traveled to 4 continents, 29 countries and over 86,000 miles – most of it over land and in a very green way. Slow travel is not only better for our environment, it is also much more enriching, than dashing here and there on a plane and frantic quick look at the “sites”.
Money seems to be the biggest excuse for not following a dream to travel. Strange that people do not realize that travel ( especially minus planes and hotels and done slowly) does not cost much at all. Over consuming and maintaining “stuff” is what costs. Living simply allows a life of so much more freedom.
We’ll soon start our 4th year of our open ended world tour as a family and we live large on much, much less than when we lived at home. I did not let my age, weight, young child, money or mobility challenges limit me. If there is a will, there is always a way.
June 23, 2009
Tony Grogan
Great post! I have a lot of work in my life to get rid of things I don’t need. I am a perfectionist to the core. I tend to make sure every last thing is in place before I take action. But after its over I find that 80% of what I prepared was not needed at all. I have already printed this post to hang on my office wall just as a reminder to focus only on what is needed.
June 23, 2009
Dillon
Great thoughts. I think this dovetails nicely with the sufficiency post. Hope you enjoy NY. safe travels
June 23, 2009
Benedict
Great post and a fantastic reminder that one already has all the tools one need to make things happen. So often the limitations we perceive are really self-imposed.
June 23, 2009
Victoria
A well written and inspirational post. In our current world, I see more and more people associating things that they “need” with things of convenience. A perfect example of this reality is a cell phone. For over a year now, I have not had a cell phone; in my opinion, cell phones are a manifestation of our fast-paced, “I want it now” consumer society. Why should people be able to know what I am doing or where I am at any second of the day? It’s not normal for a person to be that available. Albeit cell phones are very useful and convenient (especially in emergencies) they are not necessary. However, when I tell people that I don’t have a cell phone, they look at me with bewilderment and/or dismay. “Don’t have a cell phone!?! How is that possible, how do you function!?” They manage to blurt out between exasparated breaths of air. After convincing them that I still manage to thrive as a human being without a cell phone, I try to explain to them something along the lines of that which you have articulated in the above article. We do not need cell phones. Sometimes, they may be helpful in dire situations- but they can also be harmful, for they have transformed the way we interact with society at large (don’t worry I won’t delve into that). If we really want to live out our lives to the fullest degree and make the world a better place, we need to detatch convenience from necessity.
June 23, 2009
Dan Krikorian
Great post Chris…to go along with this, here’s a great quote from Derek Sivers’ blog:
“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut tells his friend, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.
Heller said, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.’ “
June 23, 2009
Stacy
Thanks, great post. It’s true. When we focus on what we want to DO, the things we need become clear. So many of us are so good at getting in our own way.
And thanks for the reminder about not needing permission! We each have our deep passion; and letting go of the excuses that others need to “get it,” “accept it,” “give us the green light” can hold people back for years. It did me. Realizing that the only permission I needed was my own was a big step to moving into service in a way that not many around me “got.” Uh-o, too many quotation marks?!
June 24, 2009
Tamia
I love this post! Simple, straight to the point, and most of all, TRUE. Very inspirational!
I think I need to hear more about this “skipping the GRE” strategy…
June 24, 2009
Merklen Li
Awesome awesome post. At the begging I wasn’t sure where you were going with the language thing but it kept getting better and better and got me completely absorbed by it.
Could not agree more.
June 24, 2009
Matt
This was a needed kick in the ass! Thanks!
June 25, 2009
Charles
Wow, I actually thought I needed those things you said I don’t need. But now I realized that I have created unnecessary obstacles for myself. Thanks for helping me discover that!
June 26, 2009
Bea (Baya)
Great article! I also think you don’t need to do it all at once. Perfection is part of the journey not just the end result. If you understand that you have a better chance at being a winner. Thanks for your thought provoking acuteness.
June 27, 2009
Andrew Lightheart @alightheart
Just when I was starting to believe my story about getting a degree/MSc/becoming Dr Lightheart – you remind me that it’s about deciding and doing.
Phew- glad we got that straight.
Though being Dr Lightheart would be cool…
June 27, 2009
Bob
Best article I’ve read this week. Thanks for the inspiration.
June 27, 2009
emily-sarah
Awesome x infinity. It would seem we are hardwired to strive to make things more complicated than they are — or have a bad of excuses ready to use as needed. Thanks so much for this!
June 28, 2009
hilory
As expected, another insightful, timely and honest post, Chris. I agree with almost everything that you have said…the one exception is that I do think a good mentor (admittedly an endangered species, despite the hype/hysteria of the ‘self-proclaimed’ gurus) can truly provide value. Is it essential? No, but it is helping me to avoid needless expenditures of the latest ‘it’ product, avoid information overload – a significant concern when beginning an online business, and save time by avoiding ‘newbie’ mistakes. Success will still require vision, focus, hard work, persistence and patience, but I wouldn’t totally rule out the concept of mentors.
Thank you again for an excellent post.
July 8, 2009
Sandra Dupont MFT
Each of us has our own unique expression. My job as a Teen Therapist to support the clients I see in finding theirs. Too often, parents, peers and society want to inform teens about how they should behave and what they should do with their lives. Obviously, there are safety issues that need to be considered. Obviously, there are guidelines that can help teens to live cooperatively within their families and society. But not all teens are meant to go to college, and not all teens will thrive in traditional school settings. Not all teens are meant to be doctors or lawyers.
Too often, parents have a fantasy of who they want their child to be when they grow up. Clashes arise when the child begins to assert their independence and veer away from their parent’s. In this fast changing world, jobs that today’s youth may be holding may not as yet exist. Thus, isn’t their educational process better served by teaching them how to think, as opposed to how to be? If teens are not forced into some mold of their parent’s or society’s design, then I believe their natural inclinations towards exploration and resourcefulness will be maintained.
The world actually needs more non-comformists like Chris!
August 24, 2009
Rose
Your words have quite literally been a lifesaver. Thank you.
September 15, 2009
Tonya
Along the lines of skipping the GRE, my father was a U.S.citizen and an M.D., who graduated from a foreign medical school, did the Fifth Pathway program and practiced medicine in the U.S. Nothing unusual about that, but he never graduated from university. He had no undergrad degree, but he didn’t let that stop him. He’s still my hero. One of my favorite of his expressions was “Where’s the back door?”, meaning for me to look for a way around whatever excuses I was trying to give him. Thanks for the further inspiration, Chris!
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January 10, 2010
Christopher
This is so liberating… its like a weight lifted from off your shoulders… thanks chris!
December 12, 2011
Jeff Goins
Excellent. I have a similar work station. Always felt weird for being low-tech. Thanks for the affirmation, Chris.