Being a human is hard. I think that’s something we can all agree on. The thing is, though, that being a human doesn’t have to be so difficult. Most of the time, we make things way harder on ourselves than we need to.
Sometimes it’s easier for me to confess my mistakes out loud so I can help you avoid them in your life!
Back when I was first starting out as an entrepreneur, there were lots of things I did differently (and not as well) as I do now. One of those things that didn’t go particularly well was this:
I tried to do too many things at once and it caused me to fail at almost everything important that I wanted to accomplish in my business and in my personal life…
| Takeaways |
|---|
| Focusing the majority of your energy on a single task or goal can lead to greater efficiency and success. |
| Avoiding distractions and multitasking allows you to dedicate your full attention and effort to what truly matters. |
| Deep focus on one thing fosters skill development, expertise, and better outcomes in the long run. |
| Prioritizing and allocating resources effectively enhances your ability to achieve meaningful results. |
| Consistent dedication to one objective can lead to substantial progress and significant accomplishments. |
Do NOT Focus On Too Many Things
Focus on one thing. It’s really that simple, and it’s something I wish someone had told me years ago.
I’ve always been able to juggle many things at once whether it was schoolwork, internships, or extracurricular activities. But somehow, in my head, that meant I needed to be doing everything at once. And if I wasn’t? Well then something must be wrong with me!
When I was younger and didn’t know any better (or just had too much pride), I thought my life would end without having accomplished a bunch of things all at once: get good grades;
Go out every weekend; make lots of friends; volunteer every week; travel frequently… the list goes on forever!
But here’s what happened when I tried to do all those things: nothing got done well because there was too much going on in my mind at any given moment.
This led directly into stress-induced depression… which then led into self-sabotage because why am I even trying if nothing is working out anyway?
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Pick 1-3 Things And Invest Your Energy There
One of my favorite quotes is by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Archimedes: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” He was referring to physics, but his statement has implications for life as well.
Archimedes understood that if you have one thing in focus, you can accomplish more than if you’re trying to do multiple things at once.
A lot of people think that multitasking means doing more than one thing at once. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: it’s doing several things at once poorly instead of focusing on just one task and doing it well.
Many studies have shown that switching between tasks costs us time as we shift from one task to another a phenomenon known as “switching cost” and these costs add up over time (i.e., every minute spent switching between tasks is actually minutes lost).
What’s more? You end up making mistakes because your attention is divided among different activities or tasks rather than being focused on just one thing at hand or thought in mind.
Create Space To Allow Your Focus To Go Places You May Not Expect It To
When you focus 95% of your energy on one thing, it can be hard to see how it will work out. It’s easy to get caught up in the details and lose sight of the big picture.
But if you are persistent, focused, and patient with yourself, you’ll be able to see that everything is going according to plan.
It may not happen immediately, but if you trust yourself and keep working diligently towards your goal then eventually all loose ends will be tied up and everything will fall into place just as it should have been from the beginning. Don’t give up too soon!
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Say No To Everything Else
The opportunity cost of giving your energy to something less important is too great to ignore. It’s impossible to be a high performing, focused person if you’re distracted by other things.
I don’t know how many people have been confronted with this question in the past but there is only one correct answer: 100%. In order for me to focus on my primary business and not get distracted by all these other distractions I need 100% commitment from myself.
If an opportunity comes along that isn’t 100% aligned with what I’m trying to achieve then it’s out of the question because the risk of distraction is too high for someone like me who values focus so highly.
The Worst Part Of No… Is Over
The worst part of no is over. You said it, and you did it. That’s awesome! Now that you’ve done the thing that scares you most in life, what are you going to do next?
This is where things get fun. Because now we get to take all of our energy from focusing on one thing and use it on something else!
We can focus on having fun or creating something new or doing anything at all besides sleeping through work because we weren’t able to get our work done!
It’s Okay To Start Small, Really
One of the most important things to remember is that it’s okay to start small.
It’s true! We all have our own lives and situations, and it can be overwhelming to think about how far we really want to go with something. The best thing you can do is take baby steps toward a goal, no matter how big or small that goal may be.
If you’re interested in learning a new skill or pursuing an activity regularly.
Start with something you know will work for your life right now maybe it’s taking one yoga class every week or practicing mindfulness while brushing your teeth every morning and build from there as time goes on.
If you commit yourself wholeheartedly but don’t see immediate results, this can be discouraging and make it harder for you to keep going when things get tough but if we are patient enough (and realistic), we will see progress eventually.
Small Habits Lead To Big Changes
Small habits, like flossing or eating more vegetables, are easier to keep up than big ones. They don’t take much time or effort you can do them in the morning before you go to work or at night before bed, for example.
When you have a small habit and it becomes part of your routine, it’s really easy to stick with it because it doesn’t feel like such an imposition on your schedule. This is why so many people fail when they try to start a diet: It feels like too much work all at once!
But if you had one small change that took less than 10 minutes every day (like eating two servings of broccoli), then adding in another one wouldn’t be so bad either, and now that both are part of your routine, right?
Or how about this? What if instead of starting a new exercise regime where you try and fit in an hour-long workout every day after work (which sounds exhausting).
Rather than doing something drastic like that, what if instead, we focus on finding just 5 minutes during our lunch break each day where we can walk around outside?
Or even better: what if we find just 5 minutes during each night when we’re sitting at our desk watching TV (not working) where we’ll get up stand up and move around for 30 seconds before sitting back down again?
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You’re In Control Of The Energy That You Give Out
You are in control of the energy that you give out. You can choose to be positive, or you can choose to be negative.
You choose how other people feel around you and how they experience your company and presence. Your attitude and behavior will dictate how everyone else responds to you and vice versa.
As a leader, it’s important to recognize this power because what happens in your life is far more likely to be a reflection of what you’re putting out into the world than something that just randomly happens without any rhyme or reason behind it.
You Don’t Have As Much Time As You Think
The truth is, time is a limited resource. You can’t get any of it back. And you can only spend it once. It’s finite.
This means that if you put all your energy into one thing and it doesn’t work out (which happens more often than we would like to admit), then all of that time has been wasted and can never be used again for anything else in the future.
That experience will always be there, but your chance at success with that particular activity is gone forever as well even if you learned valuable lessons along the way such as what didn’t work or how not to do something again in the future when trying new things!
In short: don’t spend 95% of your energy on one thing because it will scare away potential opportunities by sucking up so much attention that they never had a chance to begin with!
You Don’t Know When Your Time Is Up (And Neither Do I)
You don’t know when your time is up. You’re not going to live forever (no one is), but it’s entirely possible that you could have another 30, 40 or 50 years ahead of you.
You don’t know what will happen in the future. There are infinite possibilities for what your life could look like in 10 years some good and some bad.
You don’t know how long you have left. What if there’s something really important or amazing that happens between now and then? How do I know which things are worth spending my time on if I’m not sure how much time I’m going to be around for?
Soak Up The Life That You Have Right Now And Be Present In It!
You have a limited amount of time. You can’t go back to the past and you can’t go forward into the future, so why waste your time dwelling on either one?
Your thoughts are what create your reality. When you focus on something in your mind, that’s all you’re going to see in your life. If you want peace and happiness, then focus on that!
The best way to get unstuck is by taking action; take a step towards whatever it is that makes your heart sing (even if it scares the hell out of you).
Which Leads Me Directly Into My Next Point…
If we’re being honest with ourselves, the future is unpredictable. We don’t know what will happen, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. It just means that it’s important to focus on what matters most.
This might sound like a gloomy outlook, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. When you take time to reflect and think about how your life has been so far, you realize how fortunate you are and how much more fortunate you could be if only you made more of an effort in certain areas of your life.
There are many paths available to us, and we must choose wisely which one leads us toward happiness or fulfillment (or both).
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Things Don’t Always Work Out How You Expect Them To… But That’s A Good Thing!
You can’t control the outcome of everything. You can only control your reaction to things.
You can’t make other people do what you want them to do, but you can control how you react when they don’t.
That means even if your team loses their match tomorrow and that affects your performance rating for the year – so what? Your boss might not like the presentation idea you came up with, but it doesn’t mean he won’t like another one that comes up later – so what?
The guy who rejected your first date request is dating someone else now – so what? Your parents are disappointed in how long it took before graduating college – so what?
Make Sure You Are Spending Your Energy Focused On What Matters To You!
As we’ve seen, when you focus your energy on something, it has a much greater impact than if you spread that same amount of energy out across multiple things.
It also makes sense that spending all your time focusing on one thing would be more important than spreading it out to many things right?
If you are trying to build a business, wouldn’t it make sense to spend almost all of your time focused on the business rather than doing other things?
But what if there was another option? What if there were a way for someone who loved spending time with their kids and loved working on their business could do both at the same time? Wouldn’t that be awesome!
There are actually people who can do this and they have figured out how to successfully have multiple streams of income at once and still enjoy both areas without having any conflicts between them.
The key here is balance: While it’s true that having too many interests will distract from each individual interest (and therefore not allow those individual interests enough attention), it’s also true that having only one interest will cause burnout over time as well.
The trick then lies in finding balance between these two extremes so as not too overwhelm yourself while also not underutilizing yourself either.
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Conclusion
So, are you going to do it? One thing that drives you crazy enough to keep getting up every morning and doing it … again and again? That’s what’s going to make a difference. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about having the energy of 100 people.
It’s not even about finishing your list of projects (although that helps). It’s just about starting with one thing and then seeing where it takes you…
And if you want a little bit of help from me on figuring out what you should focus on next, check out my free guide: How To Create Your Own Unique Personal Brand
Further Reading
Expand your knowledge with these relevant articles on focusing energy and achieving success:
What You Focus Your Energy On Grows: Explore the concept of directing energy towards specific goals and its impact on growth.
Where Focus Goes, Energy Flows: Discover how directing your focus can influence the flow of your energy and productivity.
Why Success Comes from Focusing on One Thing: Learn about the connection between success and concentrating efforts on a single objective.
FAQs
How does focusing energy on one thing lead to success?
Focusing energy on one thing enables you to allocate your resources and attention more effectively, leading to deeper expertise and better results.
What happens when you spread your energy across multiple tasks?
Spreading energy across multiple tasks can lead to diluted efforts and reduced overall effectiveness, potentially hindering your progress.
Can focusing energy on one thing help with time management?
Yes, concentrating your energy on one task at a time can improve time management by reducing distractions and enhancing your ability to complete tasks efficiently.
Is it advisable to shift focus to different goals over time?
Shifting focus to different goals can be beneficial in certain situations, allowing you to explore new opportunities and adapt to changing circumstances.
How can I determine the right thing to focus my energy on?
Assess your priorities, strengths, and long-term goals to identify the most meaningful and impactful area to direct your energy and efforts.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.