Wherever you put your energies you will find your way
Why limiting yourself is the best way to grow
🏷️ Categories: Time management, Continuous improvement.
To get something worthwhile, we don't have to work any more.
We already work long hours, days, weeks, we spend our lives doing it. It is not the number of hours that makes the difference, but how we use them. Time is the same for everyone. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. What sets us apart is how we spend it. The really great results come when we concentrate all our efforts in one place, when the energy goes in one direction.
The shortest route between you and your goal is through concentration and perseverance.
Is talent overrated?
How many times have we looked at someone who achieves more than we do and thought they simply have something we don't: a special, unattainable talent.
The truth is, that's not entirely true.
What appears to be far superior ability is often simply a clearer focus, a stronger commitment. Talent is important, yes, but the real power is in knowing what we devote our energy to.
There are 2 qualities often confused: innate talent and acquired ability.
The first is obvious, it's there. Some people are born with an amazing facility to do certain things, but the problem with innate talent is that, when everything is easy, it is also very easy to rest on our laurels and not make an effort. That's when those with innate talent fall behind those who have worked hard on their skills through hours and hours of dedication to the same thing.
No matter how much talent you have, your talent will fail you if you don't work at it every day.
How to work on your skills
Those who are committed to their goal, those who focus for a long time on one thing, are the ones most likely to achieve great results. Innate talent is just starting to run with the wind at your back, but you have to move your legs to get to the finish line.
And here's the trick: it's not about working longer hours. It's about saying “no” to everything that doesn't matter, because when you don't commit to anything, everything distracts you.
If you have to go in one direction to reach your goal, it's best not to get lost in unnecessary detours. There is a Japanese concept that inspires me: “Muda” (無駄), that on which we spend resources and contributes nothing. Often that there are too many leaks for the faucet to pour water. To have big breakthroughs, eliminate those tiny leaks.
How to limit yourself to grow
Step 1: Think about what you will prioritize.
Think of your life as an energy puzzle with each block representing 30 minutes. Each day has 48 blocks (2 blocks per hour; 48 blocks per day). A week, 336. And a year, 17472. Of course, not all of those blocks are going to be productive.
Dedicate 16 blocks to sleep, which is essential, and another 16 blocks to your personal life: family, friends, moments for you. The other 16 blocks are for your work.
Sleeping less is not a shortcut, since it destroys your energies of the other blocks and all your well-being. The 16 blocks of sleep give meaning to the other 32. On the other hand, the 16 blocks of work are immovable unless your work is aligned with your personal goal. If this is not the case, the solution to advance your goals is to use the 16 energy blocks of your personal life in the most intelligent way.
We will talk about both cases, when work is your goal and when it is not.
Step 2: Filter your goals
Write down all the ones you have in your head and you will see that it is not difficult to fill a sheet with 100 things you want to do, in fact, you will probably come up with more. When you have them together you will see clearly everything you had in your head.
Now go on to filter them. Of everything you wrote down, what really matters? Take your time and choose the 9 most important, then the 6 most important from that list and then the 3 most important of all.
You now have your current priority list.
Step 3: Remove the ballast
This is the hard part. What is not in your top 9 goals has to leave the list.
Now, of those 9 focus from this point on the 3 most important of all and leave the other 6 for when you have completed one of the 3 top priorities. Every block of time you spend on something that is not in that list of 3 is “dumb” (無駄), that is, time that doesn't really contribute anything to you.
The power of limiting yourself
Suppose your work is your personal goal, you ideally have the 16 blocks of work all to yourself. Imagine that you now have ten projects on your plate. You know which projects are priorities, but we also spend time on other things.
5
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
We might think that this is efficient, but if we do the previous exercise of limiting ourselves to grow, it would look something like this.
10
3
3
Look at the huge difference. Same time, huge difference in performance in what is a priority in our lives.
It's by limiting yourself that you start to grow dramatically.
Now think if you don't have this ideal situation and your goals are not aligned with your work. In that case, your personal time is even more valuable. Of those 16 personal blocks, how many do you have free for yourself? 8 of them? If we discount personal tasks, responsibilities and social time, you may have 3 or 4 hours a day left, or 6 to 8 blocks a day.
With only 6 blocks a day (3 hours), in a year you will have invested more than 1000 hours in your personal goal. That's a lot if you focus on just one thing.
But then, why does it cost so much to focus on just one thing?
Because it requires sacrifice, and sacrifice hurts. It means saying “no” to something you also want, something you also care about. But without that “no,” the “yes” has no force. The cost of attending to everything is to not really be in anything.
Your energy is not unlimited. Limit yourself to what matters. Ignore the rest.
✍️ Your turn: What are your top 3 goals right now? Think about how you could better reorganize your energies and limit your priorities.
💭 Quote of the day: “It is the work that is never begun that takes the longest to finish.” Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
See you soon! 👋
You displayed a great way to section your time and plan. I would love to plan this way. However, I want to add a perspective that 24 hours are not the same for people who deal with chronic illness and pain. Much of the time in a day comes with working to feel better.
My main goal is to be healthier in my lifestyle because nothing else can get done effectively without my health improving. You talked about the real power of knowing what to devote our time to, which is true because distractions come so quickly and can consume much of our time. Because of what distractions do to our time, sometimes I am selfish with my time.
Focus and commitment can beat out talent because of the grit of being committed. Sometimes, when people are talented, they don't feel like they have to work as hard. I enjoyed reading your post, there are gems in it.
Your observation that “sacrifice hurts” because it requires saying “no” to things we also care about is such an honest take on the difficulty of focus. Yet, you show how this very act is what gives our priorities meaning.
How do you balance the pain of these sacrifices with the long-term fulfillment they bring? It feels like finding peace in the process might be the key to staying committed to our goals.