Nowadays, it seems there is an obsession with accomplishing everything or having everything imaginable. It’s perfectly normal to want to push yourself to new heights, but there is definitely a limit. A lot of people can achieve just about anything they set their mind to. Well, they can achieve most single goals, if they really dedicate themselves to it. Becoming president? That may be a little outlandish. But making six figures per year? Perfectly reasonable for most people. However, if they want to make six figures and work 10 hours per week, that is a completely different story. Without further ado, let’s get into how you can have just about anything, but never everything.
Being A Renaissance Man
In our society, this is the most common direction I see this issue going. We encourage people to become well-rounded, and pretend like that doesn’t come at the expense of other things. First off, specializing is super important in many careers. Second, even if this is unrelated to your job, choosing to only round yourself out means you lack depth of knowledge in some other area. At the end of the day, you have to pick and choose what you want to learn. Quite frankly, you can’t learn everything. You probably can’t even scratch the surface of every interesting thing you may want to explore.
So, it’s fine to broaden your horizons, but make sure you don’t get so caught up in it that you neglect other things.
There Is A Limit To How Much You Can Know Or Do
As I just said, there is no way to know everything. You also just don’t have the ability to do every type of activity or hobby in the world, certainly not to an extent where you’d even be decent at it. Also, there are certain things that will be harder for you to accomplish than it is for other people. Maybe it’s worth exploring, but maybe not. Everyone has their limits, so it is important to pick your battles and focus on the most important things to YOU.
You’ll Never Have All The Time In The World – Even If You Have Money
Hopefully this goes without saying, but even if you’re completely retired and rich, you’ll never have enough time for everything. Different things require different amounts of time, and it really doesn’t take much to use up all the available time you have.
Now, let’s assume you have an intense workload, and your free time shrinks drastically. Suddenly you have next to no time to pursue other things, so you have to be very intentional about what you pick. Of course, if your goal is just to be the top of your field, you could be on your way to achieving that. As I said before though, these specialized, focused goals are much easier to accomplish than trying to tackle everything at once.
There Is Something To Be Said About Specializing
I said it earlier, but specializing is absolutely crucial for most careers. It usually comes with much higher pay and better opportunities. Even outside of your career, it is incredibly rewarding to focus on a specific skill and hone it until you can perform it at an abnormally high level. Likewise, it’s rewarding to accumulate a lot of specific knowledge on certain topics. So, if you really want to specialize in something, it’s perfectly normal and even ideal to drop some other things so that you have the time to focus on it.
There Are Also Pros To Rounding Yourself Out
Obviously, as I’ve touched on, rounding yourself out does have merits. Expanding certain skills or knowledge can make you better at other things too. Enjoying and appreciating other things can also give you a better lens through which you can view everything else. Also, sometimes you just need to do things that are for pure enjoyment rather than just purely related to a goal. We’re not machines, so it’s okay to not always move at a breakneck pace. After all, you don’t want to fall into a rut or burn yourself out.
Set Priorities
I’ve already written a lot on goals, particularly SMART goals. It’s important to set good goals so that you know your priorities. Once you have your priorities established, it becomes much easier for you to focus on what matters as time goes on. Also, if you have the opposite problem of what I’ve described so far, and you don’t know what to spend your time on (because you have so much of it), good goals can help you decide.
Drop What Doesn’t Help You Or Make You Happy
This is incredibly important. We all have parts of our life that we don’t enjoy doing. Your daily routine is probably full of things that you don’t like. In fact, you may’ve even gotten used to doing them and no longer notice. Think about it for a moment and I’m sure you can come up with several things you do every day that you wish you didn’t have to do.
I say all of that because not liking certain things is just part of life and working. Even passion projects will have things you don’t like doing that come with it. However, if overall it isn’t contributing to your current happiness or your long-term goals (aka future happiness), consider if it is worth your time.
Find A Partner Or Support Team
This works both ways. Find yourself at least one person who can help you succeed and keep you on track to get where you want to be. This person can be an “accountability partner” of sorts. If you have more than one person you can trust to help you with this, that’s even better. However, don’t forget to help out your friend in the same way they’re helping you. If someone is helping you out, do your best to help them out too! A little effort goes a long way in building and strengthening your relationships.
Conclusion
I know this article may seem somewhat negative, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s just to announce, to all who need to understand it, that you can’t always have everything. It’s important to make priorities and choose what you spend your time on with intention. If you have any thoughts of your own to share, let us know in the comments!
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