Daily Truth Apr. 15, 2022

You may not always know what works, but you know what doesn't.

Michelangelo was asked by the pope about his creative genius while he was carving the statue of David. He replied, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that isn’t David.”

Creating our best self is a lot like this. It’s more about removing what doesn’t work than adding what does. We are a solid piece of flesh and bones that needs to be stripped away of what doesn’t belong. Just as Michelangelo uncovered David living inside a massive piece of Carrera marble, your true self is waiting to be uncovered.

Yet we tend to focus our time and attention on what we need to add to be better, rather than what we need to subtract. This is the basic premise of most “self-help” books. They pander to our incessant need to do more; “how to” - create new habits, lose weight, be a better leader, eat for better health, not be such a jerk. In actuality, if we want to accomplish any of these things, we need to be removing things from our life, not adding to it.

Instead of focusing so much on what we need to do more of, it is much simpler to focus on what we should not do. It is simpler because we know a lot more about what we shouldn’t do than what we should. Most of our knowledge consists of what we know to be wrong, not what we have proven to be right.

The focus on what not to do is defined as via negativa. A Latin phrase used in early Christianity to describe God by describing what he is not. I first came across this term in reading Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, where he uses it in more general terms. Adding to our selves by subtracting what we know to be wrong.

Most highly successful people don’t do a great deal more than anyone else, they do less of the things that hold people back. Fit people eat less junk and do less couch surfing. Financially secure people do less frivolous spending. Well read, knowledgable people do less TV watching. People who are at peace spend less time engaging in pointless argument and conflict.

This approach to bettering yourself is much simpler because it is easy to spot what doesn’t work.

You may not know exactly what diet is best for you but you know eating a ton of sugar, baked goods and greasy food isn’t the answer. Start removing the junk.

If you want more financial security, you don’t need to take an economics class. Spend less time at TJ Maxx and Target buying things you don’t need.

If you want to be more authentic, tell fewer lies. If you want to be more productive, do less sleeping in. If you want to be smarter, stop watching The View.

We don’t need extensive research studies to prove to us what is right. We already have an extensive knowledge of what is wrong.

Be better by removing what isn’t you.