In a world that tells us we can have it all, do it all, achieve it all, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Especially as you look at creating work that matters. At the beginning, it is particularly difficult to pick a direction (or two). I call it Vision ADD.

You have multiple gifts, multiple directions you could go. You may have even started working on a couple. You are overwhelmed.

You feel like you are spinning multiple plates and you know you can’t keep it up.

In his book Intentional Living by John Maxwell, he says,

I believe everybody has one thing they do better than anything else. The right place to start is with your one thing. I learned this from my dad. In fact it was a Maxwell house rule when I was growing up. When we were kids, my dad’s message to my brother, sister, and me was to find your strength—your one thing—and stay with it. He never encouraged us to try to do lots of different things. He wanted each of us to do one thing exceptionally well. A long running joke in our family was that we felt sorry for multi-gifted people. How would they know which of their gifts to focus on?

He quotes Henry David Thoreau, “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.”

Maxwell closes the section by encouraging the reader, “Find your one thing and start developing it.”

This reminds me of the old proverb, “He who chases two rabbits, catches none.”

As an Idea Addict, it is difficult for me to narrow and niche. I want to have it all and do it all…all at the same time. But this is not possible.

What is your one thing? Are you an encourager? Are you good at speaking? Perhaps you are a good writer? Decide on your greatest strength and decide to be the best in the world at this one thing.