The Power of Focus

Single-minded purpose. It's amazing to me how much someone can accomplish when they set their mind on it.

I was talking to my brother-in-law tonight about a business he is starting. He's been working on this business idea for over a year now; every time I talk to him or visit, it seems like he's always working on it. He comes home from work and spends hours working on it at night.

Now, a year later, it's becoming a reality. (Sorry, I had to sign an NDA when he finally told me the details about the business, so I can't actually include any details.) But he showed me some of what he's been spending his time doing, and the amount of time and effort he's put into it is amazing.

It makes me wonder about me. I've been thinking about my life a lot this year, actually, and one of the things I've been thinking about is whether I can really be effective at something without focusing on just one thing. I'm involved in a lot of different things right now, and often I feel like I'm not as effective as I could be at any of those things.

Now, I think some of it is personality. I love having a lot going on. I love juggling stuff. And because of that, my life is usually full of a lot of different activities and projects that I'm working on. For instance, in college I simultaneously studied engineering, led our BASIC group, worked part-time, played on worship team at church, and dated my future wife (along with a bunch of other stuff). And I loved it! I have no problem saying no if I don't think I should take on something new; when I say yes to something, it's because I want to be involved in it.

But at the same time, I don't think I give things as much focused attention as I should. Of course, part of the problem is probably just a lack of discipline. I'm quite capable of doing more than I do; I just often need some sort of urgent deadline or external stimulus to get me working on something. But maybe having just one thing to focus on changes that. Maybe it makes it easier to know what to work on. Or maybe in order to have one thing, you have to find the right thing that captivates you enough to make you actually want to only work on it.

I don't know what the answer is. Part of me wants to have that one main thing to be passionate about; but part of me would also miss being able to be involved in so many other worthwhile things.