THE

MANIFESTO

by Aaron Mahnke

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INTRODUCTION
I know a secret about you. You think no one knows about it, but its clear as day to me. So lets talk about it. You are not completely satisfied with your life. Now, dont fight me on this. You know its true. Sure, you might be mostly satisfied with much of your day-to-day. But I know there are parts of your life that you wish you could change; improvements that you think could be made; obstacles that youd like to overcome.
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Its easy to think youre alone in feeling this way. Thats why you wont admit these issues out loud, right? You think youre the only one who feels this sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment. But thats a lie. The truth, if we dig deep enough, is quite the opposite. I have never met a person who is completely happy with every element of their life. Lets face it, we all feel frustration. We all carry regret. We all have those days where we climb into bed at the end of a long, difficult day and cover ourselves with a blanket of guilt. You do it. I do it. We all deal with this baggage. Trust me.

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We feel guilt because we didnt accomplish everything we had hoped we would on our list for the day. Frustration because a relationship seems to be withering before our eyes and we dont know why. Stress because a clients inability to communicate properly is sabotaging an important project. Most of these problems have a common root. Your frustrations, stress and guilt are born from a common source. Friction.

You think youre the only one who feels this sense of dissatisfaction. But thats a lie.

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FRICTION
Friction stops things. Friction breaks things. It wears them out. In a world where we all struggle to reach our goals, whether that means shipping the big project or getting the laundry folded, friction is the force that keeps us from getting there. There are many types of friction we can experience in the course of our life, including: Relational. One of our biggest desires as human beings is to exist in community
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Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

with other people. We have friends and family around us, and find enjoyment in the connections that we can make. Relationships bring us a sense of worth and belonging. But these relationships can also be one of the biggest sources of frustration in our lives. People can be offended, or offend. Our communication can be flawed, leading to misunderstandings and disagreements. All of these possibilities make relationships a breeding ground for friction. Environmental. Our physical surroundings can cause friction. The field of ergonomics
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Friction is anything that keeps us from reaching our goals.

Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

is built around the scientific notion that better posture and body position can protect from future injury. What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome but the result of friction in our wrists and hands? New studies are attempting to show the benefit that standing has over sitting. We even fit our homes with environmental safeguards such as HEPA filters and water purification to protect our bodies from the friction caused by toxins. Some people battle Seasonal Affective Disorder, and use special lights in their work environment to literally brighten their moods.

Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

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Your desk at work, and the way youve arranged it, and how you manage the physical ebb and flow of information can affect your productivity. And if it gets in the way of your goal, its friction. Organizational. Anyone who has worked on a team will understand the friction that one bad seed can cause. Whether they are protecting their egos or simply unwilling to contribute, these people can act like sand in the gears of a Swiss watch. The people we depend on at work can trip us up and cause much frustration. Maybe its your manager. Or those you manage. One former VP of a large tech
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Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

company tells the story of his monthly operational reviews, requiring figures and spreadsheets from every person in his team. Consistently, one of those people turned in their information so close to the deadline that this VP had grown to loath that monthly project. He experienced friction because of a teammate. Whoever it is, the behavior of the people we work with can halt our projects, reduce our motivation and drive away valuable employees. Friction is not good for business. Financial. How many times this week did you ask yourself the question, Can I
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Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

afford that? Or maybe you only managed to make the minimum payment on your credit card, resulting in a guilty feeling deep in your stomach. You, my friend, are experiencing financial friction. A messy financial situation can gum up important plans, such as vacations or retirement. And financial problems can also trickle into the other areas, causing frustration and stress in our relationships, our jobs and even our environment. Removing the friction from your finances is a good investment in more ways than one. Occupational. Maybe you write. Or design.
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Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

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Or do freelance video production. Or sell life insurance. If you hold down a job inside or outside of the home then you experience occupational friction all of the time. Managing your list of tasks can sometimes seem like herding kittens, I know. And because there is a plethora of levels that your tasks can attack you on paper, digital, mental, etc. this is possibly the most frustrating part of our lives to manage. Lost ideas, piles of paperwork and burgeoning inboxes all add to our friction if they arent managed properly.

Relational Environmental Organizational Financial Occupational

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THE DARK SIDE

A life filled with nothing but friction is a terrible place to be. Imagine having no control over your life, and wading through oceans of disappointment and stress each new day. It can be horrible. Without a system in place to manage tasks, a business owner can quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated. Every day will bring a new list of things that need done, and every new item makes it harder and harder to remember the ones from the day before.

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All of those loose, un-captured tasks will build up and create friction in the business. The frustration bleeds out into communication. Clients are pushed away. Deadlines get missed. A business can quickly fall apart and suffer lose that is difficult to recover from. This might seem an extreme case, but how many people do you know who struggle with this? Perhaps the broken system is financial. Imagine the single woman who works 60 hours every week and barely has time to take care of the essential tasks at home. The bills go into a pile, and the pile gets attention once a month at the most. There is no budget, no plan, and no system for managing the finances.
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These unmanaged pieces create plenty of friction in her life. Without planning or organization, her financial situation can easily drift closer to debt, delinquency or default. That is friction that needs removed immediately. Lastly, think of that couple you know who everyone thinks is perfect for each other. But even a simple evening at dinner has the tendency to melt down into an argument over seemingly mundane topics. They never agree, never listen to each other, and always seem to air pentup frustrations out the blue. Frankly, their communication is a mess.

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Without removing the friction between them, things will only get worse. Fighting will be replaced with silence, and ultimately the relationship ends. The tragedy is that by getting to the root of their frustrations, many relationships could find a new lease and a better tomorrow. Sadly, these arent fringe cases. Friction is a reality we all need to accept. Its not fun, or fair, but its real and always around us. But I truly believe that living with friction is our choice, and I subscribe to the assumption that you would rather not do that. You know what you need to do, right?

Friction is a reality we all need to accept. Its not fun, or fair, but its real and always around us.

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REMOVE YOUR FRICTION

Sure, there are exceptions to every rule. If your boss is a monster and the source of every ounce of frustration and anger you feel, thats a tricky situation. You cant just remove your boss from the picture. Hiring a hit-man to have him whacked is not a legalor moraloption, to say the least. But these are extreme cases. On the whole, much of the friction we experience falls into one of the categories above, and real solutions exist to alleviate the symptoms. Most of the time the friction
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is within our control. The key, of course, is sticking it out and putting the effort into making it work. I can completely understand if there are times in your life when you just want to give up. But you dont truly think thats the best choice, do you? You dont want to give up. You dont want to resign yourself to a life of frustration. Youve thought about it, but you just cant allow yourself to do it. You know, deep down inside, that theres a better way to do things. You know in the heart of your heart that the stress and disappointment and miscommunication
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can all be expelled. I am absolutely certain that we human beings can live a frictionless life. Its a possibility. And I cling to that hope like my daughter grips her favorite blanket. Why? Because frustration, stress and broken relationships are not fun, and they suck the joy out of life. Its like smelling spoilt milk; you just know when its gone bad. We know a frictionless life is possible and so we yearn for it. But it is going to take work. Are you ready for that? Many people arent. They feel that the level of disappointment that they feel at the end of each day is something
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Most of the time the friction is within our control. The key is sticking it out and putting the effort into making it work.

they can live with. They grow thicker skin and become numb to the world around them. They exist, but they dont live. My guess, though, is that you would prefer to live a full and enriching life, wouldnt you? But this is going to take some serious effort on your part. A commitment to make sacrifices. A drive to better yourself. And most of all the willingness to step aside and view your life from a distance with a critical eye. Daily. You need to learn to walk the path.

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THE PATH
Like pledging your allegiance to an organization or religion, the path to a frictionless life requires a readjustment of our attitude and priorities. No transformation is easy, and there is a price to pay to acquire a life without friction. This is a price you will pay by making massive changes to your view of the world and yourself. Frictionless living means noticing problems and caring enough to fix them. Frictionless living means spending more
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time understanding why systems break down and less time complaining when they do. Frictionless living means working today toward a smoother tomorrow. It is important to note that frictionless living does not come naturally. The Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches that every system left to its own devices will always move away from order and toward disorder. Everything breaks down and falls apart. My living room is a perfect example of this (children are great agents of friction!). This is important to remember.
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Your life will not become frictionless through apathy and laziness.

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Your life will not become frictionless through apathy and laziness. In other words, we have some work to do. Its not enough to want it. Michelangelo once said that every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. We will have to carve our future out of the rough stone that is our current life.

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PACKINg FOR THE JOURNEY

If you are going to discover a new frontier of frictionless relationships or smoother occupational lives or whatever your goal might be, you need to equip yourself with the right tools. Packing for a trip usually involves some basics that we take everywhere: fresh clothing, food, toiletries and cash. You can get by fairly well with those essentials, and the money can buy whatever else you might need. This journey toward frictionless living will require packing some essentials as well. Lets cover them briefly.
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Observe. You feel the pain from a splinter before you ever see it. The pain tells you to go looking for the source, and when you find it, you remove it. Friction works a lot like that. Your frustration and stress are symptoms of a larger issue that requires some skills of observation. Learn to observe your behavior, interactions and processes. Look for patterns and mistakes. The closer you look, the more likely it is that you will notice something that had escaped your attention before. And the results might surprise you. I used to spend most of my work day
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frantically running from project to project, hopping between email, design, phone calls and print management. I would react to incoming emails immediately, and never kept my attention on something for more than 10 minutes. But the end of the day always brought the same mix of disappointment and regret. I hadnt accomplished nearly as much as I had hoped, and that stressed me out to no end. And then I started to watch myself and notice how I was behaving. I noticed the delays between projects. I saw myself leave the design application I was in to check email. And I became highly aware
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Without a moment to step back and observe your current status, you have no hope of finding the rough spots. And rough spots create friction.

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that I could not maintain focus on what needed to be done. Without a moment to step back and observe your current status, you have no hope of finding the rough spots. And rough spots create friction. Reflect. Observing is only part of the battle. Once you have your notes or ideas in hand regarding what you observed, you then need to stop everything and think. Seriously. Turn off the music, close the door, tell your coworkers or family to leave you alone for a bit, and just think. It is imperative that you spend time
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reflecting on what you noticed. When I sat down one evening a few years ago and reflected on the confusion that I observed within my work day, I was finally free to explore the issues. Why was I so erratic in my workflow? Why did I follow my mood rather than a plan? How much time was I wasting in between projects while I tried to decide what to do next. Reflect upon what you see. And then, in the center of that quiet reflection, you will see possibilities. Options. Ideas will flow and soon you will have half a dozen plans to implement. Not all are winners, and some might actually add
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to the friction you are experiencing. But in order to know for sure, youll need to experiment. Experiment. Make adjustments and observe how it helps. This is the dialturning phase; you turn the dial a notch and see if it makes a difference. If it does, but the difference is minimal, then turn it more. If it actually makes things worse, then turn the dial the other direction. I knew I needed a better way to focus. After observing my lack of focus I was inspired to turn off my music during work hours. I thought that maybe getting rid of audible elements in the office would
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clear my head and help me focus better. But the opposite was true. Another idea was to buy a notebook and plan my day the night before. By listing out the things I needed to accomplish and budgeting specific times for email and phone calls, I gave my day purpose. I would still reach the end tired, but I found myself to also be deeply satisfied. I was finally making progress.
If you are going to discover a new frontier of frictionless living, you need to equip yourself with the right tools.

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THE NExT STEP

This next part of the journey is up to you. You know what friction is. And you know how deeply it can impact you, your productivity, your relationships, your job, and even your health. I grew up in the 1980s with the G.I. Joe cartoons, and due to the power of repetition I can no longer hear the phrase And now you know without thinking, in response, but knowing is half the battle. Knowledge without action is dead. Its fluff. Its swag. Knowledge is the roadmap. To
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get to the destination you need action. So what will it be? A life of frustration and stress? Daily disappointments? A business that gets by but never explodes? A relationship thats safe but full of so many land-mines that its impossible to enjoy life together? Or would you rather move toward a frictionless life? A life that takes hard work but offers up so many rewards in return. A life where problems find solutions, where stress isnt acceptable, and where disappointment has a hard time taking root.

Knowledge is the roadmap. To get to the destination you need action.

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This isnt the choice that most people make (though mostly due to a lack of understanding), but its the better choice. You know the way. Youve packed your bags. All you have to do is start the journey. Take the path.

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RESOURCES
Lets go deeper, shall we?

The Frictionless Website Visit GetFrictionless.com today to tap into the resources available there. The articles and tools will soon be joined by ebooks and free PDF resources. Grow with the site by getting started today. Practically Frictionless Our email newsletter provides a regular dose of advice and ideas for those who want to actively seek to remove more and more of the friction in their life. The signup is painless, and your email address will never be spammed or sold to another company. Spam is friction, right? Get on the list today: www.GetFrictionless.com/newsletter Frictionless Tools One of the best ways to stay on top of your tasks, and to catch ideas and observations as they happen, is to always have a stack of index cards near by. The Frictionless Capture Cards are a great resource, helping you organize your thoughts without forcing you into a specific system. Find them here: www.GetFrictionless.com/tools

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THE REST

Acknowledgements Many thanks must go out to all the people who guided and encouraged me on the path to crafting this manifesto. Specifically, Brett Kelly, Stephen Hackett, Randy Murray, Shawn Blanc, Dave Caolo, Patrick Rhone and Andy Parkinson. These fine folks proofread and polished my words and ideas. There are more of you as well, but not nearly enough space to list you out. Just know that Im thankful for a vast community of friends who have been more than generous with their time and attention. Share This Book Spread the word about friction. Seriously. The less often friction occurs out there in the real world, the less often it will come back to affect you and I. If you use twitter, heres a helpful tweet, all typed out for you: If youre serious about reaching your goals, you should be serious about removing friction: http://www.getfrictionless.com/manifesto #getfrictionless

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