Choose the 1.5 Things You’ll Become Ridiculously Good At
There is no such thing as talent.
That day, I understood the true meaning of the words “commitment” and “focus.”
There is no such thing as talent. There is no such thing as luck. There is only work — efforts, gathered in one direction. And before that, a strong commitment to make.
I remember a conversation I had almost a year ago with my mother. My mother is the person I will talk to whenever I have something on my mind that I can’t unblock on my own. She has the power to think outside the box and provide solutions.
I had just spent a whole day working on several projects and ended up feeling frustrated. I had already done a lot, but I felt that there was still a mountain of things to be done.
I felt misaligned. Overwhelmed. Totally scattered. I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere.
I asked my mother: “There are only 24 hours in a day, and so many different things I want to work on. What’s the solution?”.
She didn’t come up with a solution. Instead, she asked more questions and made me self-analyze my problem. As a result, I found my own solution.
That day, I began to learn the true meaning of the words “commitment” and “focus”. Here’s how.
Tough truth: days don’t have 24 hours
Yes, I was fooled too. But that’s a lie. Days don’t have 24 hours. Let’s do some quick maths:
From a base of 24 hours, subtract 8 hours of sleep, because that’s the average need of a human being. 24–8, we have 16 hours left.
Then, 16–2 hours to satisfy your basic needs, which are mainly food and hygiene, we have 14 hours left.
You will have things to do during these 14 hours. Whether it is cleaning, taking care of someone, or doing groceries. Let’s say, 1 hour a day. Now we have 13.
You need to rest your mind and maintain general well-being. This can include taking a walk, doing sports — 1 hour a day — and taking some time to read, watch Netflix, or whatever you like to do in your free time — 2 hours a day. We now have 10 hours free.
That’s basically the hours you have left to work
But this was not always the case. Here is a brief and interesting history:(source: thriveglobal.com)
At the end of the 18th century, the average workday was 10 to 16 hours because factories had to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But this was not sustainable. Robert Owen, a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, and social reformer, understood this and advocated shorter working days. In 1817, his slogan became :
“Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.”
But that was a long time ago. Today, a study conducted by VoucherCloud suggests that in an 8-hour day, the average worker is productive for only 2 hours and 53 minutes.
It’s probably related to the hard limits our brains face when it comes to focused work. We cannot manage 8 hours of productive, focused, and intense work per day. It is simply inhumane.
“How much proper brainwork — not zoning out in meetings, or reorganising the stationery cupboard, but work that involves really thinking — should you aim to get done in one day?”, asks journalist Oliver Burkeman for The Guardian
The answer is 4 hours.
And that’s not news. In the same article, he explains:
“Charles Darwin worked for two 90-minute periods in the morning, then an hour later on; the mathematician Henri Poincaré from 10am till noon then 5pm till 7pm; the same approximate stretch features in the daily routines of Thomas Jefferson, Alice Munro, John le Carré and many more.”
That doesn’t mean you can’t work more than 4 hours. You can spend a good two hours more on less demanding tasks. But still.
You can only choose an average of 1.5 things that you will become really good at
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” — Beverly Sills
Let’s get back to my problem. In the end, we have even less time at our disposal than I thought. So here’s the solution I found. And since then, it has proven to be very effective.
What I need is FOCUS. It’s the only way to get somewhere. The little time that I have can’t be scattered over dozens of different tasks or skills. The only way to make strong progress on something is to devote a lot of time to it. And to spend a lot of time on it, with the little you have, you have to choose few things to focus on.
If you want to be successful in whatever field, you have to focus on that thing, and commit to working for it every day. Yes, you read that right. Daily.
There are two cases. If you have a day job, it probably takes up most of your time. Then you can choose one thing, and one thing only, that you want to excel at. You’ll work on it for an hour or two when you have some free time. You can’t choose more than one.
Second case: your passion is your job. You can choose two things. But that implies more insecurity and sacrifice than if you’ve got the regularity of a day job. It’s a choice.
That’s how you get really good at something. The kind of good that’s “so good they can’t ignore you.”
“The speed of your success is limited only by your dedication and what you’re willing to sacrifice” — Nathan W. Morris
There is no way you can fail if you work on something daily.
I chose two things. Writing, because it has always been my primary passion. I committed to writing every day — or almost. As an independent writer, but also for selected clients. It’s what allows me to make a living. And I couldn’t be happier living off my passion.
My second thing is sports. It’s my fitness journey. I want to feel good about my body and take care of it. Moreover, sport is for me a way to evacuate tensions and negative energies and to replace them with positive energies, which bring me joy and well-being. It also allows me to concentrate on my work.
As I have just moved near the sea, I am waiting to see if the conditions allow me to fully dedicate myself to surfing. If I can, I will probably go surfing every morning. If I can’t, then I will continue to alternate between working out and surfing.
My goals for these commitments are as follows: I want to be able to write all my life and make a decent living out of it, while reaching goals such as publishing books. For sports, I want to keep improving my body and my health, and become a very good surfer.
I know it’s frustrating. If like me, you’re an eternally curious person who wants to try so many things, it’s frustrating to have to choose 1.5 only. But you can always try new things.
What I’m saying is that you have to choose what you focus on, what you commit to working on every day, and that’s what you’re going to become ridiculously good at after a while.
But that doesn’t preclude taking a few hours now and then to explore new things. It is even recommended to do so. Stay curious and open to new perspectives. You don’t need to excel at everything.