You Can Be Good At Anything But You Can’t Be Good At Everything
How to decide where to focus your time.
What Are You Optimizing Your Life For?
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, spoke about taking up an interesting habit. Every day, he picks up a blank sheet of paper and answers the question “What do I really want?”1
“By answering the same question repeatedly you get clarity. Your answers change over time—they become more precise.” — James Clear
Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule
Legend has it that Warren Buffett’s private jet pilot asked Buffett for career advice. Buffett’s advice to his pilot was to:
List his top 25 goals.
Circle the top 5, and only focus on those.
Actively avoid the bottom 20 goals.2
You can be good at anything, but you can’t be good at everything. Your bottom 20 goals are distractions from your most important goals and aspirations in life.
The Tension You Feel
Viktor Frankl’s theory of logotherapy claims that a marker of good mental health is the tension a man feels between who he is today, and who he could one day become.
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling or a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.”3 — Viktor Frankl
You might also feel tension in your own life.
Should you prioritize lifting, or running?
Should you prioritize writing, or learning a new language?
The tension you feel between competing priorities is healthy and good. Everyone struggles to decide what they should become great at.
How do you know what your life’s purpose is?
My Conclusion
Use a notebook often to answer the question: “What do I really want?”
Take your daily responses with a grain of salt, because they’ll change based on your emotions that day. But over time, your purpose will become clear.
When you see the same answer repeatedly, you’ve achieved clarity of purpose for this season of life.
— Grant Varner
“James Clear on the Science of Building Habits That Last,” Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais (podcast, 14:35–17:00). Listen here.
The 25/5 rule is widely circulated online, though I haven’t found a verified original source. It’s commonly attributed to Warren Buffett, who allegedly shared it with his longtime pilot, Mike Flint, during a conversation about career priorities, according to James Clear’s article: https://jamesclear.com/buffett-focus.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006).
Thanks Grant for writing and sharing your thoughts on becoming the best versions of yourself. I’m gonna start again on writing what I really want. I used to do that but recently, I haven’t. So it’s time to restart the habit.