I was a pyromaniac once. I burned everything in sight. I think it was a teenage boy thing. Thankfully, I seem to have outgrown it.
My incendiary device of choice was a heavy, long-handled magnifying glass. Out in the bright sun with some newspaper or a pile of dry leaves, I could get quite a blaze going in no time.
The power of the sun – focused through the glass.
There is little that cannot be accomplished with the power of focus.
I thought about this as I was running by our river last week. There’s a beaver down there. And he’s gnawed on about two-dozen trees or so. 
Now, I’m no beaver expert. But I’m pretty sure that the whole object of the effort is to get a tree down and into the water to be used for a dam or a beaver house or some other beaver-type enterprise. But so far, there are just a bunch of trees with big bites out of them. Seems like it would be a much better use of beaver time to choose one tree and gnaw it straight through.
All of us, from time to time, are guilty of this generalized gnawing.
We all have a tendency to scurry about in frenzied activity; juggling a bunch of balls; trying desperately to keep them all in the air. And, oftentimes, a bunch of things end up being half-gnawed.
Entrepreneurs are particularly prone to this; wanting to be generalists; trying to be all things to all people; thinking that to cast the net wide is the secret to success. When really, just the opposite is true: to niche down; to get focused. That’s how we build a firm foundation; that’s how we build our experience and claim our expertise.
Leadership expert Brendon Burchard, when talking about launching a new business or platform, uses the metaphor of digging a fence post. He says, dig one post. Focus on one thing, one service, one product, one offering, one area of expertise. Dig the post dig. Make it solid. And then, and only then, think about the next one. Over time, you’ll have a solid line of fence; instead of digging a bunch of shallow holes only to have the entire line fall over.
Digging the foundation deep. Seems like a pretty good principle for lots of things: writing, running, relationships, health and fitness, and creative endeavors.
Stephen Covey said that, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
The power of focus. Sets stuff on fire.
Find one tree and gnaw on it.
Thank you for this post this morning! I have been spreading my self a little thin these days and I believe this is exactly what I needed to read today. I have many projects started and know I have to focus on “first things first”. It’s funny how we know this but still allow ourselves, at least for me, to get distracted.I’m headed back to that first hole to make sure it’s complete. Thank you.