WASHINGTON — “Do more with less” is a phrase you may have heard from a boss or manager. But author Scott Sonenshein says having less is the secret to being successful.
Sonenshein, the author of “Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less — and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined,” said his book is about being resourceful and finding a way to be more creative to achieve goals.
It may seem counterintuitive to ask a boss for less money or fewer people to complete a project, but Sonenshein said in doing so, the mind can come up with “more creative solutions when under constraints.”
Sonenshein used the “frying pan test” as an example.
“Grab a frying pan and think of the many different ways you can use it,” he said on WTOP. “For a lot of children, for example, … they can come up with a lot of different ways: it’s an instrument, it’s a container, it’s a stool. For most of us, it’s a stir fry because we aren’t comfortable using resources in less-conventional ways.”
Forcing yourself to think in less-conventional ways can breed success and happiness, Sonenshein added.
“With stretching, you’re focused on achieving the goals you have, and not worrying about what other people have,” he said.
Living a life of “less” means backing away from the rat race and reevaluating the goals that make you happy, he added.
“We think we need the bigger house and the nicer car because that’s what our neighbors have, but if we really think about it, that’s not what most of our goals are,” he said. “So with stretching we learn to refocus our energy on the things that are most valuable to us, and we find out that a lot of the things we are doing aren’t bringing us satisfaction.”
