It’s time for me to focus.
After the first of the New Year had rolled by, I knew I was spread too thin.
I visualized myself as a bit of butter, spread too thin over a piece of hot toast.
You know what happens when you don’t have enough butter to spread across your bread?
It tastes like plain bread. The butter has no effect at all.
That was me.
I was spreading myself so thin, I had no effect on what I covered.
Cutting Back & Saying, “No.”
My only hope to have a successful year was to reduce the amount of toast to cover. It was going to be hard, especially since so many people are talking about starting new things for the New Year. I was no exception. I had started a new project at the First of the year and I had decided to continue my personal 365 project.
But, I had to say, “No.”
Even though it was tempting to focus my attention on the new projects, I decided it would wiser to continue what I had started and not be swooned by the shiny new exciting new stuff.
I had to not only say, “No” to new projects, but I needed to say, “No” to some others.
So, after only a week into a new project and a year under my belt with a personal 365 project, I cut them both.
It was hard to do, but I can say that after a few weeks without these underfoot, I’m not only feeling a lot better about the quality of my work, I’m feeling a lot more focused.
It turns out that saying “No” is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but the positive effects have more than made up for it!
How has the first month of the New Year been for you?
[Image via pni]
Franklin Chen says
I know the feeling. I took on too many new projects this year too, and even got sick last week. Scaling back, focusing on keeping the “little” things that I can actually make steady and continuous progress on regularly.
Eric Dye says
Focus #FTW!
Barry Dollar says
So hard to do and so necessary. I look at my plate full of so many good things and can’t imagine taking anything off. Feels a bit comforting to hear someone else say it. I have no good answer on how to decide other that by the measure of real influence. The thing I most want to do may be self-promoting with grand visions of future significance, while the most influential thing may be the youth class of 15 students that I teach on Sunday morning…
Eric Dye says
True story. It is hard to decide what to take off. I know it was painful for what I removed, but I can tell you that I’m already feeling the rewards of doing so!