Good vs Great

I had a talk with my friend last night. Since he is a few years younger than me, he confronts things a few years after I have, but he is always a few steps further ahead than I ever was. So needless to say, our conversations are always enlightening for the both of us.

But this was his thought. Not a new thought by any means, but the way delivery made so much sense I haven't stopped thinking about the simplistic ability to which it can be implemented. With each decision in life, we have an uncanny ability to water down our lives because of the inability most of us to possess to rationally distinguish between what is good for us and what would be great.

Somehow we have a desire to do all things well but few of us do one thing great. Why is that? I know for me, negatively it is because I cannot focus, positively it is because I want to be good at everything. As if I am competing with everyone for their strength, I want to be able to at least fight them and look admirable in that fight. I feel left out when I don't know about something, so I research it to understand it at least a little bit. But I believe I am doing myself a disservice. For one, I have the information of the world streamed through my phone. So if I want to know I can google, wikipedia, or digg some information about it instantly. Secondly, if I want to be good at any one thing, I must devote some time to it. I cannot be even remotely good at guitar if I refuse to practice more than one week. And if I want to be great at guitar, then I must devote at least years, if not my entire life.

Obviously, I cannot devote my entire life to everything and then be great at everything. I must pick a few things. Leo Bubata hits this point head on in his book The Power of Less. He cuts down your goal list to 3 things for an entire year. This is something I have not been able to do, but then again, I have not accomplished my 3 main goals either. So I think he is right. But to conclude, is this not the truth? We cannot say yes to everything if we want to be really great at anything. Not only does it take discipline, it takes humility to accept defeat in some areas in order to go for gold in the key areas. Cut the minutae (as Tim Ferriss refers to the all the distractions that keep us from our focus), and quit wasting time that keeps us from getting closer to great. I am sure that Lance Armstrong wasn't reading up on anything but cycling for the years he was crushing the Tour de France. So the next time you think about looking into something that could be really good, ask yourself if it is worth being good, at the expense of being great.