Why Having Too Many Interests Is Slowing You Down
This might be a bold statement…
Successful people only work on one thing.
Let me explain.
They don’t have multiple pursuits. At least, those that are pursuing multiple interests have built each skill or business by focusing on one goal at a time.
Usually no one has just one interest. You will have a couple of interests you like doing here and there, some more important to you than others.
So what am I trying to get across? It’s written in the title.
Pursuing multiple interests will take you longer to reach your goals.
To become an “expert” comes down to having a singular focus.
“But I want to be good at many things!”
It’s certainly possible, but you’ll be mediocre in all of those things.
Someone who’s successful will have complete focus on the one thing they’re working towards. I’ll bring in Lebron James for this example. Best player in the world without a doubt and in incredible condition at age 32.
He doesn’t have goals to become an NFL player nor is he training during weekends to become one. All his time is put towards winning an NBA championship—with lazer focus on the end goal.
If you’re struggling to pick one, hopefully I can help you achieve something today.
1. Determine Your Goals
Start by writing your goals down. There’s absolutely no use having your goals stored in your head.
Get them down on paper or your note-taking app so you can see the goals in front of you. Determine what you want to achieve. Do you want to become better at graphic design? Do you want to learn a new skill? Is becoming a better communicator a goal you want to achieve? Write them down.
2. Narrow Your Focus
Having a hard time picking one thing to be good at? Narrow your interests.
Being selective on what to focus on will bring you closer to your goal.
Start by choosing the area of interests that you enjoy most and cut away the ones that will not have an immediate effect on what you’re trying to achieve.
Listen to your gut too. If your first response is something like “Erm, I kind of like doing this—“ take it off the list.
Pick one, just one and focus on better at that one skill.
Narrowing your focus will give you a greater sense of clarity.
3. Prioritise
There’s no such thing as prioritising many things.
If you have many priorities, you have no priorities.
Imagine you had two people tugging your arms. Your left arm and your right arm. Each person is pulling you in opposite directions and your arms are about to tear from it’s joint (this got medieval real quick, I know)
Eventually and likely as soon as possible, you should make a decision to what direction you want to move towards. This is what having multiple “priorities” is like. You’re stuck, overwhelmed and stagnant.
When you prioritise, you’re saying this thing is important to me right now.
Prioritise. There’s only one priority, not several priorities.
I enjoy a bunch too from animating, to illustrating, to 3D modelling.
The truth is I can’t be an expert in everything with time I have.
Maybe I’m wrong, it could totally be possible to be a so-called “generalist”. The problem with that is people are going to have a hard time understanding what it is you do, especially if you want to be seen as an expert.
For now, your focus should be becoming better at one thing so that you can reach your version of success much more quickly.
If you want to accomplish something right now, realise you’re not able take on everything you would like to do.
As always, I want to thank you if you've been reading my articles this year. I've learned a lot from listening and hearing how my writing has helped you start your day right.
Hit me up and let me know what you're working on by tweeting me!
'Till next time.