WTR: Effortless by Greg McKeown

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WTR (What’s Toby Reading)? provides unsolicited and unsponsored (I don’t get paid) opinions of books I have recently finished.

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The cover of Greg McKeown’s newest book, Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most, looked like something my 6 year-old would have drawn. So, what the hell, I picked up the book without having read (or had much knowledge about) McKeown’s “Million-Copy International Bestseller” Essentialism.

I may not have know what I was getting into, but I knew that parenting five children feels far from effortless. In fact, I tend to spend too much time and effort on tasks that I’d deem meaningless. Not that making lunches is unnecessary, just not getting me closer to writing a book or contributing to my efforts to raise good humans. Those goals are meaningful to me.

It’s true that parents expend monumental, daily efforts so is it possible to do so more effortlessly?

McKeown had me curious.

BIG Quotes

As I thought about summarizing the book, I began leafing through it’s pages, finding myself pausing to re-read several poignant quotes in large fonts.

I found that they describe the lessons and philosophies of Effortless well:

“What could happen in your life if the easy but pointless things became harder and the essential things became easier?”
“When we remove complexity, even the slightest effort can move what matters forward.”
“When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you get what you lack.”
“Past a certain point, more effort doesn’t produce better performance. It sabotages our performance.”
“Whatever has happened to you in life. Whatever hardship. Whatever pain….They pale in comparison to the power you have to choose what to do now.”
Greg McKeown, Author

Effortless State, Action, and Results

McKeown breaks Effortless into three parts: Effortless State, Effortless Action, and Effortless Results.

During the discussion of an Effortless State, McKeown discusses the idea of focusing on solutions by asking yourself, “What is the opposite were true?” Some of the titans of business and philosophy begin a simply analysis of complex issues from that angle, allowing their work to be buoyed by natural curiosity.

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Taking Effortless Action, then, attempts to make essential work easier to complete. For busy parents, like you and I, the mastery of this portion of the book might pay enormous dividends – we’d be able to sift through the mundane, daily fight to keep up without zapping our energy for the work that we garner personal achievement from. One of McKeown’s “hacks” for getting through tasks that you’d rather not, is completing these “have-to’s” in an environment you enjoy – returning phone calls from the hot tub or answering emails from your favorite café.

Lastly, McKeown wraps the Effortless Results – the promised land where parents reap the benefits of the essential foundations we’ve laid. The most concrete, parenting-based example of this is setting up a system of chores that kids must complete every day, week, or month. Such a system initiates residual benefits over time with no additional, marginal efforts – a repeating, effortless, daily, parenting win. Effortless, residual results are the cornerstone of setting up systems that yield benefits in the future without additional effort or energy.

Can Parenting be Effortless?

As I read Greg McKeown’s latest bestseller, I continually reflected: “Can parenting really be effortless?”

I mean, our lives are messy and chaotic. We’re thrown curveballs on a daily basis that require instant action – often that plan is painful, short-sided, and will only yield a one-time return. Parenting rarely feels effortless to me.

Closing the book, I still have that question. I feel better, though, that I can become more conscious of the disconnection between of what I’d like to be doing and the things that drain my time, energy, and ability to get to those things.

I’m left thinking that it may be ironic that Effortless parenting must begin with very intentional efforts – and that might feel like MORE work at first. Later, though, the seeds that we’ll plant with our kids will bare fruit – allowing all of us (parents and our children) to, effortlessly, accomplish what we feel is most important.

Next time parenting gets tough, I’ll reach for McKeown’s big quotes and sound advice – hoping that more Effortless parenting days are in the offing.