Top 180 Greg McKeown Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.”

— Greg McKeown

2. “Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will.”

— Greg McKeown

3. “Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.”

— Greg McKeown

4. “If it isn’t a clear yes, then it’s a clear no.”

— Greg McKeown

5. “Discern the vital few from the trivial Many.”

— Greg McKeown

6. “I think we are in a non-essentialist bubble – everything seems important – so of course nothing is.”

— Greg McKeown

7. “Done right, a strategic intent is really one decision that makes 1,000 decisions.”

— Greg McKeown

8. “There should be no shame in admitting to a mistake; after all, we really are only admitting that we are now wiser than we once were.”

— Greg McKeown

9. “I think we’ve been oversold the value of more and undersold the value of less.”

— Greg McKeown

10. “The word priority was singular for 500 years – what does priorities mean – ‘many many first things.’”

— Greg McKeown

11. “The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away-it can only be forgotten.”

— Greg McKeown

12. “We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice – a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do.”

— Greg McKeown

13. “Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point of contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.”

— Greg McKeown

14. “I’d rather be honest and lose than be dishonest and win.”

— Greg McKeown

15. “Clarity equals success.”

— Greg McKeown

16. “Weniger aber besser.”

— Greg McKeown

17. “When you say yes to something nonessential, you are saying no to something essential.”

— Greg McKeown

18. “Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do.”

— Greg McKeown

19. “The way of the Essentialist is the relentless pursuit of less but better.”

— Greg McKeown

20. “If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?”

— Greg McKeown

21. “Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning and carefree, unbound exploration.”

— Greg McKeown

22. “Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.”

— Greg McKeown

23. “Research has shown that of all forms of human motivation the most effective one is progress. Why? Because a small, concrete win creates momentum and affirms our faith in our further success.”

— Greg McKeown

24. “We need to learn the slow ‘yes’ and the quick ’no.”

— Greg McKeown

25. “Routine is one of the most powerful tools for removing obstacles. Without routine, the pull of nonessential distractions will overpower us. But if we create a routine that enshrines the essentials, we will begin to execute them on autopilot.”

— Greg McKeown

26. “One of the best ways to seed an opportunity is to allow someone to discover the opportunity for him- or herself.”

— Greg McKeown

27. “The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities.”

— Greg McKeown

28. “The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default.”

— Greg McKeown

29. “Working hard is important. But more effort does not necessarily yield more results. “Less but better” does.”

— Greg McKeown

30. “Of course, the point is not to say no to all requests. The point is to say no to the nonessentials so we can say yes to the things that really matter.”

— Greg McKeown

31. “The Latin root of the word decision – cis or cid – literally means “to cut” or “to kill.”

— Greg McKeown

32. “When there is a lack of clarity, people waste time and energy on the trivial many. When they have sufficient levels of clarity, they are capable of greater breakthroughs and innovations – greater than people even realise they ought to have – in those areas that are truly vital.”

— Greg McKeown

33. “STRATEGY Nonessentialist Pursues a straddled strategy where everything is a priority. Essentialist Defines an essential intent by answering the question, “If we could only do one thing, what would it be?” Eliminates the nonessential distractions.”

— Greg McKeown

34. “To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.”

— Greg McKeown

35. “Remember that if you don’t prioritise your life someone else will. But if you are determined to prioritise your own life you can. The power is yours. It is within you.”

— Greg McKeown

36. “Today, technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be focusing on. It is not just information overload; it is opinion overload.”

— Greg McKeown

37. “While Nonessentialists tend to force execution, Essentialists invest the time they have saved by eliminating the nonessentials into designing a system to make execution almost effortless.”

— Greg McKeown

38. “To embrace the essence of Essentialism requires we replace these false assumptions with three core truths: “I choose to,” “Only a few things really matter,” and “I can do anything but not everything.” These simple truths awaken us from our non-essential stupor. They free us to pursue what really matters. They enable us to live at our highest level of contribution.”

— Greg McKeown

39. “It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?”

— Greg McKeown

40. “The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, and by that I mean our minds, our bodies, and our spirits, we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contribution. One.”

— Greg McKeown

41. “When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you get what you lack.”

— Greg McKeown

42. “When he says, “win,” he’s also referring to a single question, with its apt acronym, that guides what he expects from his players: “What’s important now?”

— Greg McKeown

43. “Essentialists spend as much time as possible exploring, listening, debating, questioning, and thinking. But their exploration is not an end in itself. The purpose of the exploration is to discern the vital few from the trivial many.”

— Greg McKeown

44. “Essentialists systematically explore and evaluate a broad set of options before committing to any.”

— Greg McKeown

45. “The key is to start small, encourage progress, and celebrate small wins. Here.”

— Greg McKeown

46. “Weniger aber besser. The English translation is: Less but better.”

— Greg McKeown

47. “There is a difference between losing and being beaten. Being beaten means they are better than you. They are faster, stronger, and more talented.” To Larry, losing means something else. It means you lost focus. It means you didn’t concentrate on what was essential. It is all based on a simple but powerful idea: to operate at your highest level of contribution requires that you deliberately tune in to what is important in the here and now.”

— Greg McKeown

48. “Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture. You.”

— Greg McKeown

49. “Without clarity and purpose, pursuing something because it is good is not good enough to make a high level of contribution. As.”

— Greg McKeown

50. “You can do anything but not everything.”

— Greg McKeown