The lunch with the General Counsel at my company yesterday spurred a few other ideas that I’ll detail in blog posts today and tomorrow. the one for today revolves around focus. The company I work tried to be all things to all people for a very long time. If you wanted a financial product or service, we had something for you. The trouble is when we spread ourselves so thin and try to be a jack of all trades, we end up not really doing any one thing particularly well.
Eventually, we divested most of our ancillary business lines and focused our attention on what we knew we could do really well. Yes, we gave up some potential opportunities, but we realized huge benefits with our focus. In all honesty it’s that focus more than anything else that helped us to survive the recession more or less intact and what is driving our growth, even though the economy now is so sluggish.
This example begs the question of not what should we do, but what should we stop doing or not take up at all? I’m looking at all of my projects and interests now as I turn the corner of December and look straight into the eyes of 2011. What am I doing with my time? Where am I focusing my energy?
In 2011, I am not going to pursue my afterschool curriculum about product development. I love the idea. I really want to bring it to life. But now is not the right moment. I don’t have the time I really need to devote to it to get it to go. It’s a full-time job. If I really follow my heart, it always leads me back to my yoga and my writing. Those are the projects that have me dancing for joy, and I love joy. Those two interests fit together well; they feed one another and they feed my soul. So that’s where my energy and my time are going.
How about you? If you really just follow your heart, where does it lead you?
Christa Avampato 