If You Want More Freedom, You Need More Constraints...
We must narrow to expand
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New Format 🚨: I’m experimenting with a new format… Fridays will be dedicated to “The Rundown” - a weekly list of inspiration, resources, thoughts & ideas worth sharing. Tuesdays (like today) dedicated to longer letters on the intersection of creativity, spirituality and entrepreneurship.
Hey Everyone,
You can do anything but you can’t do everything…
Wise words I heard awhile back and a complete gut check for those of us who see a bigger vision for our lives.
Can we do more than one thing… absolutely!
Can we do it all at once… no!
Can we intertwine our passions and interests to align in multiple areas… 100%!
Can we do it all in the first year… I wouldn’t bet on it.
Can we narrow our focus to expand our dreams… this, I believe, is the way we’ll get there.
I’ve always been deeply interested in multiple things.
As a child my parents taught me it was healthy to explore sports, the arts, spirituality, reading, writing, music… you name it.
I think in part because they were learning as parents, and in part because they wanted to raise me as a critical thinker and explorer of things… you know, be deeply curious and seek answers.
As I got older the advice outside the home turned into what path is deemed most correct according to societal standards.
Prestige, titles, accolades, status, the amount of money in your bank account…
all of these were metrics to determine the type of career you should choose.
I just didn’t buy into it… luckily, my father (who passed away in 2019) who was a mentor and one of my best friends always taught me to take “my own path” and not follow the crowd.
I find his advice is paying massive dividends now that we’re living through a huge shift in work and career choice.
Which leads me to more current times and his advice rings true.
I’m a writer at heart and have been so for nearly 3 decades… publicly for 1 (decade).
I’m also a designer, a quasi-coder/developer, a podcaster, a publisher, a growth marketer, a brander, a speaker/author, an athlete and more…
I write thousands of words daily (for my social media, newsletter, websites & email)
I weight train 4 days per week and try to do 10,000 steps per day
I build Internet companies & brands… for myself and some private clients.
I create content daily (social media and my podcast).
I speak on stages at events
I have an apparel line I recently launched with my writing all over it.
If you look closer, it’s all related… each area actually builds upon a previous step or interest… each area built over time and and not overnight…
and that, I think, is the key… to pick something to learn… find whether it’s going to stick with you or not… and then integrate it into something else when appropriate.
Did I do it all at once… No!
But, through my process of narrowing my choices and focus and creating constraints, I was able to respect each area of interest in it’s own right time and build infrastructure around it for my future vision.
The problem facing so many people, especially in today’s overabundance of opportunities… is to make a choice and follow through.
I am asked countless times daily how to do it all and my response is usually the same…
pick one thing to start with, get it to a good place, see what it turns into and then introduce another thing when ready.
You can even have started multiple things out of experimentation to see what’s going to get your main focus… but once you find something worth your focus, go all in for a given period of time.
I, all too well, understand the wanting to do multiple things… and I believe we can and should…
but I also believe we need constraints.
Too many choices don’t create abundance, they stunt it…
Too many choices, too little time, not enough execution.
An overabundance of options force us into submission.
But… when we instill constraints such as boundaries, limitations, timelines or cutoff dates…
we maneuver ourselves into faster decision making without the worry or fear of making the wrong choice.
Put simply, we make choices and then decide on what to do next… faster.
Whether in the beginning, or after starting, you’ll stumble upon a vision for yourself.
It’s okay to have that vision include multiple areas of discipline… but, and here’s the part most don’t enjoy… it all takes time.
Pick one entry point, give yourself some deadlines on it and get it to a place that you feel comfortable stopping at so you can implement other areas after that.
Please pay attention to the fact that I said, “a place you feel comfortable stopping at.”
I say this because our work will always be evolving and we need flexibility for adaptation and growth as we continue on our path.
A few steps that worked for me in defining what needs the most focus and how to align each step thereafter…
Have a vision for your life… If you don’t have one, use this free workshop I created that actually helps you define it in 4 steps over 1 week. CLICK HERE
Decide on what’s most important now and needs your immediate attention (within your “thing”)… either because it can help you connect with more people, get you hired, make you money or prove your concept. Use this other free workshop for defining those immediate tasks. CLICK HERE
Focus on your most important interests, your unique talents & passions, what doesn't feel like work, maximize your energy + output + money, buy back your time and track your daily progress… CLICK HERE for my 3rd free workshop that addresses this.
Be fast with execution, slow with progress
Your vision is there for a reason, but it’s your intuition that will tell you where to focus.
Don’t worry about getting to everything else… just pick one thing and build it in a way that allows for your other interests to play within it later on.
Example: I’ve been writing publicly for the past 10 years… this has helped me write a newsletter, grow my social media and practice for my upcoming books.
I didn’t wait for permission to start… I just started writing.
Because of my “slow progress,” I now have a massive audience that’s interested in my work and can share my books with once I’m finished.
And because I’ve always been in and around apparel since I was a child, I naturally thought it would be great to integrate my writing into an apparel line, which I did.
It’s early so it still needs time to mature, but at least I built out that area of my business & interests for the future knowing that media, publishing and apparel all need to play together.
Do you see what I mean…
All of my interests I mentioned above sooner or later can be intertwined in time.
I do agree with a lot of the folks online that say you need to pick an area and focus… I absolutely 100% agree…
but I also believe we are more than one thing and we shouldn’t tie our identity solely to that one thing.
I believe when it comes to you as a person, go wide… the niche is you.
when it comes to your interests, go deep… the niche is what you want to specialize in within areas of importance for you.
Sooner or later… it all connects
Because of my interests… and taking a strategic approach to staying independent of the “system,” I ended up creating my own media and apparel company, a publishing arm and a creative marketing arm.
Remove the fancy branding of the previous paragraph and you’ll see that all that means is I’ve intertwined my interests…
independently publishing my own authored books (and maybe others)
creating my own apparel leveraging my writing
speaking on my podcast which has turned into speaking around the world
creating content and brands while consulting others based on 20+ years of experience.
So, the next question I usually get is… which discipline or area of interest do I go into first (or next)?
My answer is simple… if you look at the long tail vision, what is the most immediate item of importance… what’s calling you first in this moment and it needs your attention for at least exploratory purposes.
Then, be open to whether or not it continues, gets archived for later or is simply removed because it revealed to you that it’s not a future thing but served a current curiosity thing.
A great podcast I recently did may help with this… Can you close the gap between intuition and execution (Apple, Spotify).
We all want freedom, but freedom is both a daily discipline and your ability to make good choices that align… and each of these are practice so get moving.
Have a great week!
Matt
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Inspiring. Thank you!