A few years ago, Matt D’Avella posted an interview with Gregg McKeown. Gregg wrote a book about Essentialism which I remember is concept related to Minimalism. But instead of focusing on material things, it’s main topic are life activities. I have not even read this book to date, but this interview stuck with me.

This year has been one of the most hectic ones of my life. I feel like this is not an exaggeration like most person’s 2022 has been the most hectic, because it was a stark contrast to prior calm covid years. Since starting my studies at KIT, so many great opportunities on personal but also on a career-related level have presented themselves to me. In cases you wonder what:

  • I have started a job as a software developer,
  • had seminars on Communication and Norwegian politics,
  • applied for foreign semesters,
  • joined a triathlon club of like-minded athletes,
  • started writing science papers and training for my first long-distance triathlon,
  • moved to Karlsruhe for a semester in a temporary lease,
  • made a ton of friends in the new city,
  • finished my first long distance triathlon,
  • improved my PB in the olympic distance to under 2:30h
  • wrote exams for university
  • deployed my first web application as a dev for my job
  • cycled up bucket-list alpine passes
  • explore the country of my dreams in a 3 week road-trip sleeping in a rooftop tent,
  • began the Digital Leadership Academy,
  • successfully applied for the Service Design Thinking module (SDT)
  • traveled to Switzerland to visit the top of europe with my dad
  • traveled to Dublin to meet the project partner for SDT
  • traveled to Porto and got to know the other SDT project members
  • did a lot of work on the SDT project, only to completely reset the topic during christmas time

I don’t even think i’ve listed all major activities from the first half of the year. This is an incredibly luxurious position to be in, having all those incredible things to do. But guess what, I didn’t get to fully enjoy at least half of them. I’ve felt anxious and stressed for extended periods throughout this year.

In his book about essentialism, Gregg McKeown describes this concept, The Power of No. It entails no more than it’s name suggests. But for me this a hard lesson to learn. The past year I have been particularly bad at this.

All of this makes me wonder how to reshape my thinking about those opportunities moving forward. When should I say no? How do I clarify what is a worthy opportunity? Can I manage myself better to feel less stressed despite doing many cool things? Let’s find out in 2025.