Did you ever receive an answer to question which you did not even realize you were asking?…
This happened to me today, when I was perusing our friend Aaron’s list of links at Todayisthatday.com. This led me to the discovery of a blog I had not read before called ‘Escape From Cubicle Nation’. You could not have picked a more magnetic title - to me – for a blog than this. Brilliant!
In beginning to read Pam’s insightful and very professional content, I came across something she herself mentions has been ‘smacking her in the forehead’ lately…that of the benefit of laser focus. As in, focus on what you are REALLY good at, and the world will beat a path to your door…not because you ASK them to, but because they cannot help themselves. People are drawn to seek out excellence in any particular field. In her article, Pam says ‘Dropping things that you are mediocre at and focusing on the things that you can be truly great at is the only path to mastery.’ So true, and an answer to a question that I was not aware I was asking…which is ‘which of the many things that I could be doing should I be focusing on?…’ I have many, many, internet opportunities, tasks, business ideas and projects on the go and calling to me. I feel as if something must give, and this is a good reminder that I should be narrowing my focus. I wrote an article recently entitled ‘You Can Do Anything, But You Can’t do Everything’, and I think it’s time I take my own advice!
Can this wisdom help you in any of your endeavours?…Perhaps you have been trying to keep many balls up in the air, or have been working hard at two or three jobs, whereas if you truly focused on just one thing, the payoff would be so significantly greater that it is apparent you are actually wasting your time with the current arrangement…? Remember, we cannot save time, we can only spend it. Spend yours wisely, and wring every ounce of potential out of each moment.
For more from Pam’s article, click here. The main blog can be found by clicking here. I look forward to reading more from Pam, and thanks to Aaron for passing this along. Enjoy!
June 9th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Shauna,
I’m a newbie on Pam’s site myself, but like you, I was immediately drawn to that title. I’m about as “anti-corporate” as they come (having already done my time there), so subscribing to her feed was a no-brainer for me.
Glad that you found the site through my link. Now you’ve been helped, and anyone who reads this will also be helped. I love the blogosphere!
June 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
First of all, thanks for the link to Pam’s blog entry. I ran across that a few days ago, read it then closed the window. A couple of days later, I wanted it again, and couldn’t find it. After reading your post, it turns out I was searching through the wrong bloggers!
Secondly, I feel uneasy when someone brings up ideas like laser-like focus. Felt this way too while reading Steven Covey’s books. I realize that many times it’s a good thing, for the reasons mentioned above, but it brings to mind someone who is “Johnny/Joan one note” – that focus becomes all they are. I know that when I’ve tried to implement such “focus” in my life, I cut myself off from so much that I become completely, totally, mind-numbingly bored and boring.
Regularly looking at all you’re doing and what you want/need to do is good, and cutting out the excess does help with clarity and focus, but like everything else, you can go too far.
This is where priorities and limits come in. I’m still enamored with and working on David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done” program, which includes noting down those “someday/maybe” projects, thus freeing up mental space and time for them (making limits on what you’re dealing with now/soon.) I also set limits that today, when I work on GTD, I will focus on processing instead of just gathering; I have been gathering for weeks and still have a backlog of thousands of emails that should have been processed as they came in over the past six months.
As for priorities, I find that the clearer I am, the more I know what my priorities should be. I don’t mess with ranking using 1′s and A’s and so forth. I can keep coming back to Priority 1(my definition of focusing on it), but I don’t always ditch everything just to work on it. Expecting to avoid all multitasking is unreasonable.
I feel like I’m talking in circles a bit – have had several interruptions this morning – but hopefully this isn’t too vague. My comments always format better in Word anyway
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Make it a fantastic day!
Theresa