“Conservation of energy is why the ground bird who knows that a particular cat can jump only four feet off the ground will ascend to a branch five feet up, but not fifty feet up or even fifteen feet, which would be a waste of energy.” Jon Young
Where are the areas of your life where you could jump just 5 feet and achieve the same goals? Where are you overshooting to 50 feet? Where you are not putting enough thought into the design, and instead just shooting for the sky with very little direction? How can lessons from the natural world help us focus on what is truly important?
For me, designing my life around biking more, and using public transportation forces me to think more like a bird, more in the energy conservation terms. It is by no means about achieving less, but about designing in areas of efficiency, areas of stacking functions, so that we can nourish ourselves to do so much more. Have I piqued your interest yet?
This short article sums it up nicely:
http://gregmckeown.com/blog/the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less-harvard-business-review
And just for fun, a video that is sure to inspire: http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2013-03-06