A few years ago my wife and I went through the exciting process of buying our first house. We ended up on a 2-acre lot in a neighborhood where the nearest houses are within range of a rifle shot, but not reachable by a shotgun, not that we’ve tested out either :). If you need to find me on a summer evening, it’s a safe bet that I’ll be out cutting the 2 hours’ worth of grass that lies all across this property. Over the course of a year, this becomes a real chore week after week.

Addition by subtraction

A quote that I love that I strive to make decisions in light of says that “Most of the problems we have come from having too much”. This has not been the case throughout human history. And it still is not an issue in many parts of our world today. But in modern America we possess much more than any civilization in the history of the world, and with this comes unexpected issues, much like what I deal with across my 2-acre property.

Surface area

Shane Parrish from the Farnam Street Company describes this concept as “surface area”. Each person/family has a surface area to their existence of one size or another. Things like money, properties, friends, commitments, and much more all combine to make up our surface area. When someone’s surface area gets too large, they become stressed and anxious, even to the point of feeling that the 24 hours available to them in a day are simply not enough. This can even lead to paying and managing others to manage portions of the surface area, and doing this brings even more challenges. Bit by bit, extra time and energy are required to take care of the ever-increasing responsibilities.

Parrish argues that “The way to maximize your enjoyment in life is to keep your surface area small”. I fully agree. With every next new thing added on, the extra plate to spin only causes MORE problems and never quite seems to alleviate the issue that it was originally meant to help. This is perhaps one reason why the Bible says that “It is more blessed to give than to receive”.

Impact by subtraction

What if we used this strategy of keeping a smaller surface area to then in some way funnel the excess that we have to assist those in our country/world who do not even have basics of survival like consistent food, water, shelter? The impact of this would be incalculable!

One tangible action:

Think through and write down on paper what your target surface area is. How does this compare to your actual surface area? The easiest way to navigate a S.A. problem is simply to avoid it from the beginning. If yours is already too large, it’s time to start removing things!

Pro tip:

Learn the difference between a want and a need. For all intents and purposes, the only things that you and I need are food, water, clothing, relationships, and shelter. Everything that goes beyond these might be helpful or desired, but they are almost certainly wants and not needs.