Anything worth doing is worth doing well…
But not everything we do is worth pursuing to the exclusion of all else.
Therein lies the difficulty:
By definition, making big things happen requires a significant investment of time, energy, money, and other resources.
We can only work on achieving a limited number of significant goals at once.
Some pursuits require everything we have.
Some things can be balanced against a handful of complementary (i.e. non-competing) priorities.
And some things we’d like are so humdrum that we’re not worried about the cost of acquiring them. But those kind of outcomes aren’t the ones that keep us up at night.
For the things that matter, we’re left to grapple with a simple reality:
Even if we can do anything, we can’t do everything.
We need to pick and choose. Selectively focus on what we care about, and actively set aside everything that gets in our way.
Some things are simply a matter of time.
Give them sufficient focus and attention, stick with it for months – or years! – and see what happens.
In the right context, we can pursue multiple goals like this at once. Because they allow our efforts to compound, they’re suitable to work on over a long time horizon.
Other things are the opposite.
While they may still benefit from compounding, there’s a critical difference:
Entropy.
Like building a city of sandcastles before the tide comes in, we’re on a deadline. The output we create with all our effort degrades over time.
With these kinds of pursuits, we need to decide in advance if we’re willing to do what it takes to reach our end goal.
There’s a critical threshold of spend required to bring them to life – and it needs to happen at a certain speed.
Until we reach that point, none of our effort pays off. It’s simply the price we pay to reach that point in the journey…
But unless we’re willing to see that quest through to completion, it’s ultimately wasted.
Either we give up, or time undoes our efforts.
Time is either on your side, or against you.
Knowing which is true as you pursue the things you care about is key.
The takeaway point…
Focus can take farther than we think. Without it, we’re lost.
When it’s lacking, it’s lacking.
It doesn’t matter if you’re working on something solo, leading a small team, or driving a larger organisation forward:
Without focus, nothing meaningful gets done.
The only difference between a 10-person team with scattered attention and a 10,000-strong project lacking clear direction is scale.
The things they fail to do are bigger, but they fail all the same.
Before you commit to spending effort over time, get clear on what you care about – and the true cost of pursuing it.