242. you can’t do everything
You can do anything in this life, just not everything. Continually adding things to your plate isn’t going to help you establish a life where you can thrive. Spread too thin, you, like the multiple projects you take on are not able to focus and grow any of them optimally. You are getting C’s in 10 different things, unhappy with the results, when you could be getting A’s in 3 things.
There’s a ~200 page book called The One Thing written by Gary Keller which can be summarized in one sentence — You can only achieve great results by focusing on one thing at a time. (Leave a tip, I saved you $20 and 2 hours!) Sounds commonsensical, but the sentiment is lost on the majority of us.
Most of us have been led to believe multitasking is the best way to get things done. And while you may be right in that you can definitely get more things done, you’re wrong in thinking that those tasks were completed optimally. In one study from the University of Utah, an absurd but remarkably confident 70% of the participants thought they were above average in their ability to optimally complete multiple things at once. They weren’t, and most likely you aren’t either.
When people try to do several things at once — roughly 98%, according to the Utah study — gets worse at each individual task. The idea of answering emails, posting to social media, cooking dinner, hanging pictures on the wall, attending to the kids, while you listen to the news all at once is enticing, but also cognitively draining. Your mind simply isn’t set up to focus on multiple things at the same time. Even the 2% minority in the Utah study who didn’t get worse at execution, they also weren’t getting any better outcomes, they were just exceptionally efficient at switching tasks at a rapid rate.
So if multitasking isn’t the answer to getting things done, then what is? Prioritize what is most important. Delegate what can be better done by someone else. Determine what you will take on going forward. Execute on the things that matter. Obviously this is easier said than done, but with less multitasking and the more specific your attention, the more productive you’ll be because you will be getting A’s in all the things you care about, instead of C’s across the board.
220. what really matters
We’ve all had our share of conflict. “Should I do this? or Should I do that?” Most often, we base our decisions on the most familiar option, not because it’s what we’re truly after any longer, so much as it’s the option where we know what to expect. It’s a safe choice, but not necessarily the right one for us.
All choice comes with an element of uncertainty. There is difficulty in saying “yes” to one thing, because it means saying “no” to another. In other words, in choosing one thing, we lose out on another. If everything align perfectly, we would never find ourselves in such a perplexing situation, as the answers would always be obvious. Yet, when they aren’t, their conflict upon our narrative comes in full force.
So, how do we determine what actually matters, and make the right choice for ourselves? We have to think about what we currently know today. With that information we have to ask ourselves… “if I wasn’t already invested in this business/relationship/career, would I invest in it today?”
It’s easy to think about all the time and effort we’ve placed into a particular endeavor and equate switching directions or quitting to throwing it all away, but we can’t look at it like that. We’ve have to understand that our journey was never set in stone. The steps we took to arrive at this point in our lives were all necessary to create the person we are, but that doesn’t mean continuing down the same path will continue to serve us. Hence, the conflict.
Joseph Campbell once said that, “we must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so that we can accept the life that is waiting for us.” In a sense, what we hold on to, can sometimes be what is holding us back.
Conflict arrises for a reason. Pay attention. It brings awareness to what is and isn’t working to deliver us toward the life that is waiting for us. So, that brings us back to the question.. if you weren’t already invested in (insert the thing you are so conflicted over) , would you currently invest all your time and energy into it?
154. thinking & knowing
Some people spend so much time thinking about what is thought to be a good life, to actually create one for themselves. Others know what they want and go after it despite how it may be perceived.
Thinking is when you decide to pursue a career because you find the pay and benefits appealing.
Knowing is when you feel called to a profession because of an inner sense of purpose.
Thinking is when you decide to find a partner because it’s time to settle down.
Knowing is when you realize your destiny is inexorably linked with that of the person you love.
Thinking is rooted in fear. Fear of not making enough. Fear of being alone. Fear of creating your own path. Fear of failure.
Knowing comes from a place of freedom. A place in which you know there is no other choice you could make.
We’re never interested in the stories about those people who gave up on their dream to follow the rules and live an average life. We’re always enamored with stories of people who knew what they wanted and chased it down. This isn’t to say that you need to change the world to create a life worthy of a story, but that you need to stop thinking and go after what you know is right.