“With the limited time we have you can’t be and do everything”

“The least focused people I know aren’t those that are uninspired. The least focused people I know are those that are inspired too easily.

If every new piece of information makes you change direction you’ll never make real progress – with the limited time we have you can’t be and do everything.

The most focused people I know are those that are able to let inspiration come and go.”

–Steven Barlett, Founder of Social Chain

I saw this on Linkedin recently and immediately thought this is such a great piece of advice.

Of course it relates to business, I know a lot of PTs read my blog and I know how tempting it can be to want to jump on every trend, be involved in every ‘next big thing’ and I think Social Media makes it harder to resist that urge. The downside to trying to be involved in everything is that you can end up spreading yourself too thin. Instead of doing one thing well you can end up jus doing lots of things ineffectively, confusing your client base and moving further away from your niche. It does take self control to get over that FOMO and not worry that you might be missing out, but focusing on one really good idea and not getting distracted to the detriment of that needs to be balanced with knowing when a good opportunity comes along.

Beyond business this sentiment is exactly what many people trying to find the perfect diet or fitness regime for them need to remember.

How often do you read about the current new training craze, see a new diet or new ‘rule’ that people claim has transformed them (think Peter Kay ‘I lost fifteen stone in A DAY’) and been tempted? Because right now you don’t feel great and really want to feel more in control. I think honestly, even those of us who KNOW these things are fads sometimes feel that little bit of temptation on a low confidence day where you feel like you just need to do something drastic and logic has to compete with pure blind wishful thinking. When that moment passes of course you know that the calorie tracking and sensible plan that’s bringing steady results is what you should stick with, but the advertising on that shake is appealing or the image of that fitness transformation is enticing. Sticking with something when new things come along is tough, but is what will provide better results than constantly jumping from programme to programme, PT to PT, gym to gym.

Equally another thing people in fitness are guilty of is trying to be EVERYTHING. Super lean, whilst lifting really heavy and training for a marathon and the Crossfit Open and attending twenty five classes a week whilst training to be a Yoga instructor and maintaining three full time jobs. Now there’s a few super human people out there who can probably do all this and still have time to knit hats for orphans but for most of us we are literally setting ourselves up to feel like utter failures by taking on too many things. Again the key here is accepting we can’t jump on every bandwagon. Sometimes you’ll see people posting about an achievement you may love to emulate one day but right now it’s not practical, or something you really admire but really know you don’t desire enough to commit to what would be required. That’s ok – even if you are a success in you field you don’t have to be able to do everything. The saying about Jack of all Trades, Master of None and all that. Most people who are a success in their field are a success in their field are so precisely because they have specialised in a specific area.

“With the limited time we have you can’t be and do everything“

Pick what you want, work out the best way for you to achieve that and focus on that thing until you have, then you can move onto the next goal with confidence.