Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it  (Rumi)

A few days ago I came across an interesting article about the Apple O.G. and Turtleneck King, Steve Jobs.

The article was packed to the rafters with principles & behaviours which explain why Jobs had the ungodly success that he did. 

One of these so-called “Steve-isms” jumped out at me above the rest. 

This unique Steve-ism isn't a tip or a mindset you’ll ever read in a book about personal development, leadership or entrepreneurism.

In fact, this Steve-ism flies totally under the radar but is one of the unsung secrets to living a life of happiness, fulfilment and success.

I’d go so far to say that if these are what you’re looking for, this Steve-ism is all you need.

Here’s an example of this Steve-ism in action:

In a meeting about a new Apple product called the iDVD, Steve got shown a bunch of clunky & messy navigation screens for burning videos onto a disk. 

Frustrated by what he saw, Steve jumped up and drew a rectangle on a whiteboard. 

“Here’s the new application,” Steve said.  “One window.  You drag your video to the window.  Then you click the button that says “Burn”.  That’s it”.

Perhaps you think this is an example of simplicity or of throwing out the rule book. 

But that’s not what I’m getting at.  The Steve-ism I’m referring to is a lot deeper and more nuanced.

Take, for example, Steve’s brainwave to remove the on/off button from Apple computers. 

Steve realised that any device left alone for a few minutes was capable of powering itself down.  It didn’t need an on/off button.

No-one had thought of that before Steve.

Maybe you’ve got an inkling of this secret Steve-ism now?

Here’s a final example to make it crystal clear:

When Steve was carted into hospital for a liver transplant, he didn’t put his feet up, check his emails or fire up Duran Duran on his iPod while he was waiting for his op.  Oh no. Instead, he spent his time hectoring the doctors about the over-elaborate design of the hospital’s medical kit.

Okay. Enough beating around the bush.

What’s this Steve-ism I’m hyping up so much?

It’s this:

Steve understood the primeval power of Subtraction.

Subtraction holds the key to a life of happiness, creativity, success and fulfilment.  And it stretches far beyond the sunny hills of Silicon Valley.  It spreads it’s sweeping wings into all corners of life.

In case you think otherwise:

Subtraction doesn’t mean selling your TV and toaster to live a simple, uncluttered life. 

It also doesn’t mean switching attention from what more you can do to what less you can do.

Subtraction means realising we’re made to be happy.  We’re made to create, to be at peace, to be content and to be fulfilled.

So when we subtract all the things which subtly & slyly get in the way of these, all that’s left is this default setting.

Or what Steve would’ve surely called our “factory setting”.

And this is why Subtraction is so powerful.

It points to the fact that everything we’re searching for is already here.

Which means it’s not a question of doing more or doing less.  Instead, it’s a question of getting a feel for the barriers which are standing in the way.  And our own mental barriers in particular.

This is why my coaching revels in a lack of checklists, action plans, tasks and to-do lists.

All these have been subtracted too.

And that’s because you can’t tick off your way to happiness, fulfilment or contentment.  You can only uncover these within yourself.

So what about you? 

Want to learn how to uncover more happiness, fulfilment and contentment without the pressure of always doing stuff?

Here’s where to go next if so:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

 - Tom