The fastest path to change is removing what's already working against you, not adding something new.
When you want to change something, the instinct is to add. Join the gym. Hire the consultant. Launch the new product. It feels like progress because it looks like action. But that instinct may be exactly backwards.
The most effective first move is to figure out what to stop doing before you decide what to start. That one shift in thinking applies equally to personal goals and professional ones, and the logic holds in both cases: stopping costs nothing and can start immediately.
Take losing weight. The default response is to pile on new commitments: sign up for a gym membership, hire a trainer, start running every morning. Those things cost money, take time, and require sustained effort before they produce any results.
But there's a simpler question worth asking first: what got me here in the first place?
The fastest, cheapest path to change isn't adding something new. It's stopping what's already working against you.
If you're eating ice cream every day, stop. If you're going to bed with a full stomach because you eat late, stop that too and start eating earlier so your body can actually digest the food. These are zero-cost changes that take effect immediately. No gym membership, no trainer required, and your progress has already begun.
Companies chasing better profitability reach for the same kind of additive solutions: new initiatives, new markets, new products, new strategies. The boardroom equivalent of signing up for a gym.
The better question is the same one: what are we doing that's working against us?
Stop making unprofitable products. Stop wasting money on unnecessary business trips. Stop dealing with suppliers who are too expensive.
Each of those is a cut that can happen today. No budget approval needed, no offsite strategy meeting. Profits improve the moment you stop.
The answer is almost always obvious, almost always free, and almost always available right now. The work isn't discovering something new; it's being honest about what's already visible.
Clear out the junk, clean the house, rearrange the furniture — and then decide whether you actually need anything new. You may find you don't.
Only then look outwards and start thinking about what to add.
So before adding anything to your life or your business, sit with one question: what do I need to stop?
