A Singular Focus: Part 3

So what can be taken from all my writing on Steve Jobs (see previous posts on him winning and losing)? The connecting factor, his singular focus, contributes both to his success and failure. What is a motivated individual seeking to make his mark on the world to do with this? Focus more? Focus less?

One obvious takeaway is that you can't have everything. It sounds simple, but many like myself act shocked when we discover it to be true. The Atlantic recently ran a cover headline touting: "Why Women Still Can't Have it All." Much to the chagrin of many women, the article (written by a woman) explains that it's nearly impossible to continuously climb the professional ladder and be an all-star mom. To take the time to be a great mother requires sacrifices.

There was some outrage accompanying the story, but this is foolishness. The cover could have just as easily read "Why People Can't Have it All." Men can't either. Choices must be made. I guarantee that Barak Obama is not an all-star father right now. He can't be. For that manner, neither can Mitt Romney. Neither can anyone else whose profession requires of them a great deal in order to be successful. They can be a dad. They might even be a good dad. But an all-star at work and at home? They simply cannot have it all.

I have faced this myself. Since the premature death of my head coaching career, I have longed to be a head coach once again, that passion still burning within. Since that time, I've had two head coaching offers. As badly as I wanted to chase those professional goals, to say yes meant to sacrifice something. They each would have made it harder on my family. I spent days weighing pros and cons; it took days because it's true - you can't have it all.

As I've made it abundantly clear on this blog and through Facebook posts, I am thrilled to now be done with grad school. During those three years, I couldn't have it all either. I chose this degree. That meant I chose many hours in my office working, not building relationships, not chasing goals, not smiling much. I had to choose.

I bring these up not to say that I chose wisely, just that a choice had to be made. And the lesson from the Jobs book, then, is to choose carefully. If you have only one priority, you can be unbelievably great at that one area. If you want fifty areas of interest in your life, you might be well-rounded, but you also might not be any good. I like what Jobs did at Apple when he came back: he put up four categories that were Apple's priorities and said anything that fell outside of those was getting cut. No more resources, no more time, no more people were spent outside of the four quadrants.

I was able to cut my personal list to only two for July and August: writing and relationships. Having been burdened by grad school for so long, I knew what I missed most and had sacrificed the most in that time. I've tried to take my time and spend as much as I can advancing relationships (family, friends, God) and my writing ambitions. I can't keep up this dual focus for long - school does start again at the end of August and I will eventually have to teach once again. But this is a starting point.

In my journey for right living, for narrow but balanced priorities, the real singular focus that I must have is God. Biblically, there is only one question that I need to ask about the priorities I choose: will this bring glory to God? All of my relationships can accomplish that; they can also be an outlet for ignoring God. I can write for God's glory, or I can write to feel important. The same with the money I make and spend, the books I read, my actions at home, and the rest of what I allow on my calendar.

Your focus, whether singular or not, will be on things that last, or things that don't. If I'm going to live well, I would be well-served to lock in on the eternal.