Hari ni aku terpaksa memaksa sikit diri untuk menulis artikel. Alhamdulillah siap walaupun ambil masa 5-6 jam. Teruk kan. Ye la, writing is not my passion. But then kalau nak memahirkan diri mmg kena paksa sikit.
InsyaAllah dah ada platform blogger kt phone ni senang sikit nak sapu sawang kt blog ni. Doakan...
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Are you a jack of all trades but master of none? Meaning that you can do a lot of things fairly well but have never really felt highly proficient in any one thing. This is a trap that many people fall into- including myself.
Being a jack of all trades has a way of letting us feel as though we are ready for anything that comes our way. It allows us to know that it’s not likely that we will be embarrassed in the presence of others when a topic or a task is at hand. It also lends us the false belief that we can effectively multi-task and master everything that comes before us. I say false belief because multi-tasking is not effective and not worth your time. I’ve known plenty of people who would argue otherwise but they are fooling themselves. Our minds focus on one thing at a time even if we are constantly shifting our focus. What it really boils down to is whether you wish to do 2 things at 50% efficiency, 3 things at 33% efficiency or 1 thing at 100% efficiency.
I recently decided that I wished to do one thing at a time at 100% efficiency.
This came from a long struggle with getting things done, battling negative habits and effectively going nowhere with my work out routine. Getting things done is certainly at the top of the list for me and pretty much everyone else who hasn’t been blessed by the productivity gods. What really brought me to the “ah-ha” moment was when I noticed that I was thinking about all the things I had to get done for the day and trying to do multiple things at once. Things like, doing the dishes, doing paperwork for my job, taking the dogs for a walk etc. etc.
What I was really doing was washing the dishes half-assed, writing mediocre notes for job and walking my dogs for only a few minutes. None of this left me with a sense of accomplishment and my creativity was stretched thin across the day. When it came to negative habits, I have had a long stretching battle with alcohol. I don’t usually drink to drown my sorrows, but like many other people, it started off as a way to relax in the evenings. As the years passed, it became a daily habit. A habit that I couldn’t stop because it was so ingrained into my daily routine. I tried to look at it from every possible angle in my mind but come 6-7pm there my cravings were. In an attempt to stop drinking in the past, I have tried a multitude of things. Once again though, I never really tried any one thing as best as I could. I kind of spread my effort across 5-10 things. It really is no wonder I got anywhere with it until now.
The real progress was made when I realized that I wanted to exercise more and drink less. These two goals were a match made in heaven because one goal helps with the likelihood of achieving the other goal. Getting back to the destructive nature of trying to be a jack of all trades, I decided that I wasn’t going to devise some elaborate work out routine that I would probably give up on anyway. I didn’t need to master the reverse squat thrust inverted pullup to get in shape and stop drinking. Yea, I made that move up- but you get the point.
I decided that I would do 4 sets of push ups each day. The number of push ups per set would be completely reliant on how many I could do without going overboard. Right now I’m doing about 120 per day. I’m not pushing myself until a vein pops out of my neck and I’m not doing so little that it has no effect. The importance of this is that it makes exercising an enjoyable experience and allows me to master one exercise that works a range of muscles. The importance of it being an enjoyable experience makes all the difference when I contemplate repeating it again the next day. I think you will find exercising in a way that is over the top or not enjoyable is the single biggest motivational killer to continue.
The last time I stopped drinking, I found myself fantasizing about a drink and twiddling my thumbs trying to repress the urge to drink. What has happened now is that I have not only mastered one exercise, but I have replaced a negative pattern with a positive one. Had I continued to try to work out using 12 different routines, I know I would have never gotten exercise to be a staple part of day and never been able to stop drinking.
What I am trying to convey is less about drinking and more about the effectiveness of mastering one thing. It almost doesn’t matter what it is that you master as long as it has a positive effect on your day and your life as a whole. Once you stop trying to master 10 things and align your focus on one thing that is of value to you, it creates a ripple effect throughout your life. The simple act of mastering push ups instead of trying to be “ok” at a list of other exercises helped me stop drinking, sleep better at night and have increased motivation to get things done the right way.
When I look at it on a deeper level, I know the increased motivation from mastering something comes from the satisfaction of a job well done. We aren’t rewarding ourselves when we run around doing everything half-assed and neither is anyone else. The more we return to simplicity, the closer inner peace and mental clarity come to us.
So, How Do You Decide Which To Master?
This is probably the #1 question that floods people’s minds and keeps them from mastering something. The reality is that it doesn’t actually matter so don’t sweat it too much. Once you master one thing, you can move on to the next.
There are two things to remember though. The first is that you can’t abandon what you have mastered when you move on to something else. Makes sense right? Otherwise you wasted your time. The second thing to remember is that you can’t master too many things in too many areas. This is where you fall into trying to be the best at everything but really being just average at all of them. There is nothing wrong with being average as long as you are alright with blending in and living life at a small % of what you could be.
The easiest way to determine what you should master is to think about problems in your life. Are you not getting enough sleep? Are you flying off the handle at people who irritate you during the day? Are you spending too much time in the car?
Once you determine a significant problem in your life, you can begin to think about solutions. This is where you say to yourself “ok I will master this one thing and not all 50 of these possible solutions”. Take the example of not getting enough sleep. Try a Google search for this problem and you will have a million people giving you a million different suggestions. This is overwhelming and not productive to try to integrate all of these solutions in relation to your problem of not getting enough sleep. The simplest way to go about this is to pick one solution that seems feasible and master the living hell out of it. It might be exercise or getting up early each day or not taking naps if that is a problem for you. Whatever you choose, decide to be the best at it. The results will come flowing to you faster than you can imagine.
Stop Comparing Yourself To Everyone Else
One of the biggest contributors to being a jack of all trades but master of none is the constant need to compare ourselves to others. On the surface it looks like everyone is able to handle tremendous amounts of stress while doing ten things at once. The reality is that these people are performing at a much less efficient rate than someone casually working on one thing at a time. Not only that but this type of behavior is what usually leads to destructive habits and/or “crashing”. Crashing can be considered anything from getting sick multiple times a year to walking into the office with a shotgun in each arm after completely snapping from the stress.
It might seem like other people have shortcuts to being happy and productive but they really don’t. They will be more than willing to tell you how awesome they are at just about anything but this is often less than half the truth. Dig deeper and what you see as proficient multi-tasking is no more than someone overcompensating to seek praise or a time bomb waiting to explode.
Have Faith In Yourself
Letting go of the idea that you have to be good at everything is not always easy. It requires faith on your part that you can and will master a small number of things that are important to you. It will open you up to criticism and self-doubt. It is up to you whether you listen and internalize the doubt you hear internally and externally. Often the criticism coming from within is much more critical than anything we will hear from someone else.
Some of the best ways to instill faith in yourself are to commit to the undertaking of what you plan to achieve. If you are going to get up early every day to help yourself sleep better at night, go all out. Set up a few alarm clocks in inconvenient places around your room. Tell several people who’s opinion you highly regard about what you are committing to. Read up about how to effectively wake up in the morning consistently. Have a pot of coffee already made the night before. I could go on and on but all of these measures help solidify your faith in yourself. The amazing part is that mastering one thing requires much less faith than trying to master many.
Your Mind Is Either Your Ally or Your Enemy
Your mind can either serve to cast doubt and fear upon you or it can serve as a toolbox for infinite positivity. You possess an incredible imagination far more powerful and limitless than any computer that will ever exist. Your imagination is the drawing board of your mind. It bridges the subconscious and conscious parts of your mind and is the locomotive that keeps our lives moving in new directions. To master new things in your life, visualization can be a very powerful tool. Continually visualize yourself mastering what are you setting out to achieve and feel the benefit that it brings you. Done consistently, and your mind will be convinced that success is the only option.
What I hope that you take from this article is the understanding that there is no glory in being a jack of all trades. It serves only to further you from real efficiency, mastery and motivation in the larger scheme of things. Take the time to master one area of your life and the rest will begin to fall into place.
