Get good at something, before you suck at Everything.
It’s a simple phrase that is probably unoriginal and not coined by me but I’m staking my claim right now. This occurred to me this morning when I was:
- Learning Ruby on Rails
- Creating my brilliant Facebook application
- Working on my company’s Craiglist ads and SEO
- …and other things.
Not only did I realize how unfocused I was early in the morning but I had no goals, no motive, ambition for an idea but not a resolution or a result. I was passionate as ever about my craft and my abilities. However passionate or excited I was still swimming in the ocean changing directions every fourth mile. I couldn’t seem to get anywhere and it’s obvious to me. I have ADHD. Just kidding (although I probably do, but who cares).
I wanted to get good at everything. I’m usually able to focus for a solid 3-4 hours and get a lot accomplished in any given day but not this morning. It was like I had a goal to do a bunch of things with no clear ending in sight, no vision or groundbreaking revelations occurred, I just realized I was sucking at time. I was trying to get good at everything at the same time when in fact I was starting to suck at all of the above.
A long time friend of mine said once “You can’t be everywhere at one time, but you can be smart all the time.” and that’s always stuck with me.
My mantra this year is to get good at something before I start to suck at everything. I have what some would call a very impressive resume, a very impressive track record, I’m “very smart” all of that crap but when it comes down to it you can be a genius but if you never get good at anything, you’ll suck at everything. You’ll begin to measure your success by previous failures that you might have called successes. The line will begin to blend between start and finish in this almost constant “pending” phase. Everything in your life will bleed into a funnel and before you know it you only have a few things that trickle through.
Just something I’ve been thinking about.
