"Focus" is bad advice!

The distraction might be just what you need.

If you look around, you will realize that the world around us has evolved into something almost unrecognizable. We live in an attention-deficient world, and it feels like, if you're doing only one thing and nothing else, you are doing the wrong thing. In fact, doing only one thing and one thing only seems impossible amidst the myriad of options that are being shoved down our throats every other day.

It's a sad reality, but this is the reality we face today, and we simply have to evolve with the times without which we'd be left in Yesterday.

This begs the question, if we continue to 'evolve' because we need to, and we try to make multiple things work, wouldn't we be in danger of loss of mastery?

Pause for a minute and think about it.

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Where we are right now in history is raising questions in the minds of people who are in even the most stable of jobs, knowing that if they don't evolve, and get new skills, whether relevant or not. to their current jobs and careers, they face the risk of becoming irrelevant and going into extinction. Heck, we all run the risk of some of these stable jobs going into extinction with the next advent of advancing technology.

Among all the evolution and historical moments we are navigating through, the worry of what we want to make of all of this, what could become of us, and even who we want to become starts to pervade our subconscious. It is so easy to lose sight of the one thing, when everyone else and everything else is going in multiple directions, and they appear to be right!

Beyond appearance even, they are right! Because if you want to remain relevant, you can't stick only to what is static in a world that is constantly changing. If you want to remain relevant in tomorrow's world, you have to start haunting for the next thing before tomorrow comes.

And more times than often, haunting for the next thing to stay relevant means you've got to learn new skills that seem completely out of your way or your current station. Many times it means you have to gain knowledge that doesn't seem to make any difference in the career path that you are currently on. Oftentimes, it means that you cannot concentrate your genius on one thing and one thing only as opposed to what the Greats from the previous generation advised us to do. We can't do that..., just yet.

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At this point, it almost feels like a dilemma. A paradox even.

You have to focus on one thing and one thing only to gain mastery, but focusing on that one thing is exactly what the fast-moving world is not allowing you to do. Aside from that, it would be foolish to focus on one thing only, seeing the way our world is morphing into something else at the speed of light. Focusing on one thing only right now almost sounds like... bad advice. And when we think of it that way, we'd be glad that the way the world is being set up, it's becoming impossible to pay heed to that advice.

In the end, focus is key, don’t get me wrong, and we need to have that single focus, that one assignment that our lives should be carrying out; that one single story our journeys here in the world of consciousness need to tell, but to make it work, to make it a story that transcends time and evolution, we must not make it about one skill, or one job, or one career path.

The one thing to focus on is a story with the ability to be told across different spheres in different ways with relevant and timebound skills. It is an assignment that can be carried out across different generations, with insights that will not be phased out with time. It is a life so inspiring, a life that will leave a legacy that effectively and continuously impacts the things and people that matter.

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I know this is not the advice you are used to getting and have been struggling to focus on, but if you're like me, worried about doing a lot of things and learning a lot of things without so much focus right now, maybe you're exactly where you need to be with the influx of energy the agility of your youth can afford you. Maybe you don't need to focus on one skill or one career path right now. Maybe what you need is to spread your wings broader and wider, not deeper right now, and you'll see that as time goes on, all of these things will come together to form your story and the true path you're meant to spend your life walking on and going deeper into.

Yes. Maybe the exact thing you need to be right now isn't focused, but distracted. Maybe you need to plant dots across multiple industries, multiple skills, multiple careers, and multiple efforts right now, even though these different things don't make sense immediately.

You'd see that many times, as time goes on, those dots will begin to connect, and you'd realize how it has all been very intentional; unintentionally intentional, and how the distraction was the exact thing you needed for traction. But don't take my word for it.

Take Steve Jobs’s words for it.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Perhaps your distraction is subtly telling you that "D(Th)is-is-traction". Don't be confused. Just make sure that the dots you're planting are dots that have elements of growth, while you're in search of or walking in the one story you want your essence to tell. In due time, the dots will connect, and when they do, you will know exactly what to start gaining full mastery of.

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This advice is not for everyone. It is largely for me, and the two other people who have been worried sick about having too many skills and not knowing exactly what to settle on and master.

In Robert Greene's words, "The key to success in any field is first developing skills in various areas, which you can later combine in unique and creative ways."

Just do the right things. Do the relevant things. Trust your gut and build upon the things that call out to your soul. In the end, the dots will connect. It will all come together.

Perhaps, the distraction is the exact thing you need for traction. In the end, the dots will connect. It will all come together.

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨