Focus is a choice

I’ve been thinking about focus for years. Constantly asking myself whether I should even care about focus at this stage of my life (the twenties).

I’m convinced that exposing oneself to a problem over a long period of time is more important than focusing solely on one thing at any given time. But it would be foolish not to accept that focus is one of the most valuable skill one can have.

And that’s where I was missing the point. I saw focus as something you find, not something you practice.

In his book Indistractable, Nir Eyal defines distraction as getting pulled away from one’s goals. The interesting corrolary is that you can’t get distracted if you don’t have clear goals.

In other words, to say “no” to things you first have to commit to something.

See, that’s where I was struggling. I was struggling to say no to ideas and shiny opportunities because I didn’t have any clear goal. I was struggling to see these other opportunities as distraction, because they were not distracting me away from anything.

I’ve finally decided to join my friend in building Me3x —we use data to empower builders. So I can finally practice focus and pass on distracting ideas and opportunities.