I've been asked the same question on a couple of coaching calls recently:

I've seen you talk about The Subtraction Method in some of your emails Tom. What exactly is The Subtraction Method?

To answer it, I'm going to borrow a format I came across somewhere but can't for the life of me remember where. It's a format with five levels where each level becomes a more & more complex explanation. The physicist Richard Feynman once said that you don't really understand something unless you can explain it to a child. Well, this format tests that theory and then asks if you could explain it to a teenager, an undergrad and a grad student too!

That might be as clear as mud. 

But I expect it will become clearer as we get into it.

So let's find out what The Subtraction Method is all about using these five levels...

Explaining it to a child: Imagine you're the sun. You're always shining. Sometimes clouds appear in the sky and you can't see the sun anymore. But that doesn't mean the sun has gone anywhere. It just means it's hidden for the time being. The Subtraction Method is a way to let the clouds float away so you're shining brightly all over again

Explaining it to a teenager: You know how your phone gets slow and laggy when you've got a hundred apps running? You know how YOU get slow and laggy too? Well, if you want to find your spark again, you don't need to add memory to your phone or buy a new phone. All you need to do is close down some of your apps. The Subtraction Method shows you how to switch off your own mental apps (especially the apps you didn't even know were running)

Explaining it to an undergrad: You think your stress comes from the deadline you have on that tricky dissertation you're writing? But you're actually experiencing your thinking about your deadline rather than the deadline itself. The Subtraction Method helps you subtract the habit of treating every thought like important data. As you subtract your unnecessary thoughts, you'll notice your feelings about that deadline change, even if the deadline doesn't

Explaining it to a grad student: Most self-development works on the basis of addition (better beliefs, more habits, new frameworks and so on). The Subtraction Method starts with the assumption that nothing fundamental is missing. So there's nothing to add. All that's left is to subtract whatever interference is getting in the way. As Lao Tzu said 2,500 years ago: "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day"

Explaining it to a peer: What we're really doing is separating the first-person experience from the story the ego constructs around it. So there's the raw experience of what's actually happening right now and then there's the voice that narrates, judges and compares on top of that. Most people experience that voice as reality. The Subtraction Method helps you see that your mental chatter is never as important as it appears. When that insight lands, it's like meeting yourself again for the first time in years 

Perhaps this sounds a bit abstract.  

But it's not like I'm setting exams at the end of my coaching sessions. The Subtraction Method is more like the secret sauce that pulls the strings behind the scenes.  

If you'd like to find out what The Subtraction Method looks like in practice: 

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

To fulfilment,

Tom