Narrowing your professional focus

sarahdunifon·Oct 20, 2020

Posted in:Advice Productivity Career Growth

Hi everyone,I'm looking for some advice on how to narrow your professional focus when you might be stretched too thin. For reference, I'm a business owner (professional services consulting) and have a few side projects that I've been toying with. Between the main job and these side gigs, I've been feeling like I may be giving everything a small percent of my focus, rather than prioritizing the most important ones with my full energy. Does anyone have experience with narrowing down their focus after juggling multiple balls? I want to make sure I'm being considerate of which projects I focus on and which ones I let go - taking into account potential for growth, potential to bring good to the world, my personal values, etc.Thank you!

saraanderson·Oct 21, 2020

Hi Sarah! I can absolutely relate to this. In my experience, when we are overcommitting our time or energy, it's because we don't feel totally sure of what we want the most and we don't want to miss out on anything. We hedge our bets by holding onto everything. You can begin to pull apart the threads and examine this more closely by looking at each commitment and figuring out which category(ies) they land in:- it's familiar- it's something I "should" do- if I didn't I would let someone(s) down- I'm good at it / I get recognition for it- I enjoy the activity- it brings me toward a future goalIn an ideal world, 99.9 percent of your work would land in the last two points. The last one is especially important. Bringing in perspective and long-term priorities can help you to release things that are no longer in service of them. Another really helpful angle (especially if you are analytical/overthinker, like me), is to begin to train yourself to tune into your body to help you with decisions like these. Hope this helps! Happy to talk more/answer questions.

sarahdunifon·Oct 21, 2020

Thank you so much! I think you hit the nail on the head re: 'not feeling totally sure of what we want most and hedging our bets'. Mostly what I'm struggling with is figuring out which of my passion projects outside my main gig (if any) are worth pursuing further. I'm juggling several ideas, which is untenable if I want to make actual progress on them. Luckily, they do all bring me towards a future goal and I enjoy them. I think the difficulty is that because they do all align with my personal values, it is trying to take an outsider perspective to gauge which are the most tenable ideas, which have the most potential to bring good into the world, etc. I like the idea to attune to my body to feel out what is the right path - that's something I'm not the most practiced in. I appreciate your thoughtful advice!

saraanderson·Oct 22, 2020

Hi Sarah! In that case, it sounds like you are in a pretty good position, getting to choose between a few options that are all in alignment. I love talking this sort of thing through with people (natural brain stormer). If you want an outside opinion, I'm happy to chat. Feel free to DM me!