The common advice is “Know the things that matter to you and focus on them. Ignore the rest.”

While I like the directness of it, for some people it can be vague. So they tend to follow others.

But we all know that following others isn’t always the best approach. Eventually it will backfire.

Because what works for a group of people doesn’t mean will work for everyone.

Here’s an unconventional (yet interesting) way to know what truly matters: Be unapologetic about the things that don’t matter to you.

And the fastest way to expose those things is to look at your daily activities. What are the things that you never really care about? What are the things that you despise? If you can list all of them, better.

The goal is simple: Eliminate the inessential.

When you’re done, you’ll realize you only have a few things left in your life. These things are what truly matter to you.

Prune those few things into 1, 2, or 3 items.

There you have it.