Split Focus: Superman Syndrome & Being Blinded By the "Hustle"

Split Focus & Superman Syndrome

I feel I’m pretty in touch with my audience at times. I know the majority of my listeners and readers are trying to figure out where to start or how to continue pursuing their creative work. I basically just said it in my intro.

The reoccurring pattern from my newsletter shows people like you want to know how to make time to focus on something outside of your daily commitments.

Today, I was going to write about the power of focusing on a project that you both enjoy and are relatively good at.

I wanted to write about how to get started with experimenting and catching a pulse to see if it was the right direction to pursue. However, this ended up turning into me possibly oversharing how my split focus has guided me to the current roadblock I’ve found myself at.

Yes, I’m going to share the benefits of what focus can do for your creative pursuits, but I'm no expert. I fell I can best share how split focus and doing too much can negatively impact your life as well.

Poop on a Plate

I’ll admit it, I’m a wizard at piling shit high on my plate (I can't help but imagine a poop emoji on a plate). It’s been a blessing and more recently a curse in my life.

I’ve had this Superman Syndrome mentality that I could do it all dating way back to high school.

It started with a car accident my sophomore year resulting in me having to get a job at the age of 15. From there, I held down that job of pushing in carts at Hy-Vee while attending after-school programs and playing multiple sports.

I was excelling in school, standing out in sports, getting awards all while making some side cheddar. What couldn’t I accomplish in a day?

This mentality carried throughout college. My crazy ass was holding down my job at Hy-Vee, working an internship, playing / coaching football while having an overloaded course schedule with night classes.

With how much this private school was charging per semester, graduating in 4 years was my only option. Bring on the challenge and premature grey hairs—I can handle it.

Doing all the things and succeeding in them was my definition of success. I caught hits of dopamine chasing that ‘productivity high’ and I wanted people to know how busy I was.

I was the king of focus, split focus that is and it was a blessing in the beginning.

The Value of Focus

Here is where I want to tell you the value of finding one thing to focus on that you not only enjoy, but you’re good at too. (I can't recommend the book Essentialism enough if you want to learn more.)

Yet, somewhere in there, I’d be full of shit as I’m horrible at focusing on only one thing as I’ve wired myself to think I could do it all.

When it boils down to it, yes, it’s extremely important to have something to work towards each day. Giving your attention to something you both enjoy and are good at can radically impact your life and others in a positive way.

The thing I pour my soul into every day is Perspective-Collective. It started as a small side project back in April 2014 for me to create art under as I talk about in Episode 28: Make Your Name Mean Something.

Over the years it began to take on a mind of its own. It's since opened up new paths of opportunity such as blogging, speaking, teaching, freelancing and now podcasting.

Having something to focus on used to be an issue in the past. It had me feeling lost in my lackluster day-to-day routine. That lack of focus has since blossomed into an issue of split focus and spreading myself too thin.

Imagine the smallest slice of butter that you're trying to cover a massive piece of bread with and that's me.

There are so many things I like to do and want to accomplish, but there’s never enough time to pursue them all equally outside the day job...I'm sure you've said this a million times to yourself.

Queue the dreaded elimination game or as Stephen King says,_ "Kill Your Darlings."_

Killing Your Darlings

Here’s a breakdown of everything I do under Perspective-Collective. I’m trying to be as transparent as possible so you can see how I struggle to find the essential thing(s) to focus on while eliminating the non-essential.

1. Podcast - 50%
2. Freelance - 20%
3. Personal Work - 12.5%
4. Speaking - 12.5%
5. Teaching - 5%

You have no idea how badly I want to get back to doing the podcast weekly. I feel if I was 90% all-in on the podcast, I could significantly grow it at a faster pace. Yet going all in on the podcast has its consequences that I’m not sure I'm ready for.

While my day job covers the basic costs of my day-to-day living, taking on freelance with the right projects is too hard to pass on. I have...