The Subtraction Toolkit
Reading about subtraction is easy. These are the tools for the actual practice.
Addition is seductive. (And we've been rewarded handsomely for doing it all our lives.) More effort, more mindfulness, more protein 🙄 It feels like progress... until it doesn't.
Subtraction is the counterintuitive move that actually works. For ambitious, big-hearted leaders who are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or exhausted, subtraction offers what you need to build a life that feels as good as it looks: relief, clarity, and alignment.
In these 12 bite-size videos, I'll share the personal story that led me to Systematic Subtraction (including a car crash involved), and its theoretical foundations:
- how the ME/WE/WORLD dimensions work,
- why addition is our cultural and cognitive default, and
- how Stop, Drop, and Roll gives you a repeatable method for choosing less on purpose.
This is the thinking behind the practice: the gym set you need to build your subtraction muscle. By the end, you'll understand subtraction, and more importantly, you'll trust it enough to use it.
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You don't need another challenge. You don't need better systems, a taller stack of habits, more willpower, or a new app. (You've tried those, remember?! And you're still here.)
What you need is a shift in *how* you try. At work, at home, with the people you love. This 100-day practice is a daily invitation to resist the default of more, and experiment with something more intentional, strategic, and interconnected.
Each week follows the Stop, Drop, and Roll rhythm: a Monday scenario to consider, a Tuesday pause to notice, a Wednesday experiment in letting go, a Thursday reconnection to what matters, and a Friday moment to celebrate what you're building. Weekends are lighter, and every day gets a song.
No gold stars for doing it all. Read what helps, skip what doesn't, miss a day without guilt. Like a candle, we're adding one layer of wax at a time.
By Day 100, you won't have tried harder, or more. You'll have learned to choose less, on purpose.
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Getting to the gym isn't the hard part. And it's not what builds muscle. The trick is intentional practice: doing the exercises you might not think of or love, but that will actually change you. This tracker is how you know which reps you're getting in (and which ones you keep skipping).
It's the week-by-week companion to the 100-Day Practice, pre-filled with themes from the original 100 days, to make it easy to follow along.
Each week, log what you noticed (STOP), what you actually let go of (DROP), and what happened as a result (ROLL). A quick energy and impact check give a [numerical] snapshot to track over time and correlate with your experiments.
There's a column for a win AND one for what you didn't drop. Because half this practice is learning to notice without judging yourself. And after the 100 days, the tracker keeps going. Pick your own themes or borrow from mine on Subtract to Succeed.
There's also a real example filled in, so you know what you're aiming for.
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If I'm going to preach subtraction, I have to practice it. So I kept asking myself: what's the most essential form this could take?
My surprising (even to myself) answer: music. Not another essay. Not a worksheet. A soundtrack for my walks with Rip and Reilly, Supermarket Sweep–style races through Whole Foods, or cooking (or really just assembling) dinner. The carefully curated and sequenced lyrics are enough to rearrange things in my head. That's the whole practice, some days.
This is the soundtrack to the 100-Day Practice. One song a day, chosen with real care for the arc across the weeks (yes, the order is intentional). Play it on your walk, your commute, your third run through the deck or the model.
I didn't expect a playlist to be the most subtraction-provoking thing I made all year. But it might be! Let me know what you think.
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