You Can't Accomplish it All...
At least not all at once…
A couple of facts about me: I like to say yes to every opportunity that comes my way; and when my brain is lit with a great new idea I can quickly start to bring it to life (the operative word here being start).
I am the poster child (or more accurately the middle-aged face) for FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
The good news is this awareness has allowed me overtime to catch myself in the act of trying to accomplish too much too soon.
So, where exactly am I going with this? I want to shine a light on what’s at risk with our multiple dreams, the numerous goals we set for ourselves, and the side hustles we’re hoping will eventually be our ticket to freedom from the 9-5 shackles of our lives. I want to call out and course correct the well-intended efforts we apply to all of these (sometimes all at once), so that they no longer leave us with a sense of failure and disappointment when we find ourselves not as far as along as we’d hoped we’d be.
When I decided it was time to “work for myself” over three years ago, my goal was to do all the work I love on my own terms. It looked something like this:
Do some leadership development
Do some eLearning development
Do some instructional design
Do some coaching
Can you see what they all have in common? They all got some of my attention. And while I was finding some success in each, I found myself feeling somewhat accomplished. You get my drift…
So last year I decided it was time to home in on one area. I took a step back, looked at all that I was hoping to achieve in the next 5 years, thought long and hard about what work brought the most joy (the answer being leadership development and coaching), and recognized what was possible if I just focused on what I could create within that space — it became the ONE thing that I dedicated the latter part of 2018, and all of 2019 to. Deciding on, and committing myself to leadership development meant 100% investment of my professional time, energy and efforts. The result? I went from having okay success, to greater success in the one area faster than if I had continued sprinkling it with my left over time, effort and energy. I went from feeling somewhat accomplished, to hell yeah! I’m exactly where I should be and I AM making a difference.
We may sometimes be able to do it all, but are we ever fully accomplishing it all? Which brings me to my main point and words of advise:
Start envisioning what would be possible if you gave one dream or goal 100% of your focus. How much quicker would you get there? How would you feel? How much happier would you show up in the world and to those you love and care about.
Stop investing small percentages of yourself across multiple dreams. Pick the one dream that when accomplished, will likely fuel all your other dreams as a result of how you’ll be carrying your accomplished, 100% successful, bad ass self.
Start creating and communicating boundaries. You’re a mom, a dad, a wife, a husband, a partner. I get it. You have responsibilities. We all do. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, many of those responsibilities are often a result of assumptions we have made that we are the only ones who can fulfill them. Think differently. Communicate what’s important to you. Find reasonable ways to share responsibilities that involves your love ones.
Stop making excuses, and start creating the solid plan that will focus on and manifest your one big dream.