Good communication has to do as much with what you don’t say as what you do say. I am a short preacher. I preach shorter for three reasons. One, it’s easy to maintain a strong devotion to our children’s ministry with shorter services. But our habits are to continue adding more and more features to our programs until we are cluttered and overloaded. Two, if you get a year’s worth of words in one week you aren’t likely to come back next week. Third, one good clear point is all people will remember anyway.

I think each of us have a capacity for a set number of words a day. Some people use up a lot of our words a day. A good communicator leaves people with a bit of a reserve. Just because I have some space for words in my brain doesn’t mean you should take more than your fair share. Some people have a higher capacity for words than others, Communicating means hitting the mark in terms of numbers of words your listeners can take.

A good song is whittled down to its simplest essence. Harry Nilsson had a multi-platinum hit record that only had one cord in it. I know the guitarist on the record and he said they worked days on the song with only an E cord. Simple is better. A bad song is a complex song. Who remembers many songs by Yes? Ok you don’t know who they are. That proves my point. I love Yes and have met some of the group. But their music was more complex than the untrained ear could hear.

Good songwriters know what to take out of a song. Knowing what to leave in is tough but that exercise is meaningless without the ability to slice and cut. One guitarist I know who is world class says if he could do a solo with just one note he would love it. “Every note you add,” he says. “You increase the possibility of not being heard.”

Now we are in our campaign season. And we are already getting promise after promise. New ideas and programs are thrust at us daily. I don’t think it takes much imagination to come up with something new to spend money on. I think the most creative politicians are those who know what to cut out. What can we live without is the best question? There is just too much stuff out there.

Quality of life is as much about what you leave out as what you let in. I made a list of the self-development steps I wanted to make over the next year. My list was long. I soon realized that to do my self-development projects I would need 80 hours a week. I saw something had to give. I had to decide what to cut out. And that is hard work. I had to find the things that brought the most joy, fulfillment and character development. My list has been limited to four things now. And I just might achieve them.

Skillful living requires editing your life to leave out the inexpedient. My friend Jamie Buckingham (noted writer) said the greatest strength a man possessed was the ability to say no. He was perpetually over-committed but he had a good idea even though he had trouble living it. I am looking at my whole life now and trying to discover what needs to go. I know saving my money requires leaving things out. Enjoying my relationship with my wife means saying no to competing commitments. And growing in Christ requires my saying no to many things before I usually get to the yes to Him.

I have mapped out ten possible things to leave out of your life:

1. Things that wear you out.
2. Things that cost more than you have.
3. Relationships that don’t promote health.
4. Late nights and long hours.
5. Hobbies that make you choose over loved ones.
6. Things that confuse you with their complexity.
7. Political speeches.
8. Anything that interrupts your sleep.
9. Bad habits that drain you or your resources.
10. Things that cost a great deal to keep up.