Goals are best achieved when we knock them off our lists one by one. When a project receives our undivided attention, we can cover it in depth and get it done much faster. Think about it: If you put in 20 hours per week rather than just 5, you can reach your target 4 times faster. What might take 10 years to achieve will now only take 2 years and 6 months.
In this short article I will explain why it can be challenging to isolate your focus. If you don’t have the time to read it in its entirety, you can always skim through this summary:
This Post in Summary
- When we take on multiple projects at once, we hope that at least one of them will work out in our favour.
- Focusing on multiple goals at once is like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks. It’s an unreliable approach for achieving your goals.
It’s in Human Nature to Take the Path of Least Resistance
The roads in the city of Boston are said to be some of the most confusing ones in the United States.
They curve and jumble with no sense of a larger organization. A collection of essays titled The Conduct of Life by Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist and lecturer from Boston, gives an explanation to this,
“We say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.”
The story goes that the roads of Boston were built upon existing cow paths. Herds of cows moving through the topography tended to move where it was easiest to go. They put one foot in front of the other, taking whatever step was easiest. Curved and non-structured paths were formed as they walked around rocks, avoided rivers, or large areas of brush.
The point of this story? All energy moves along the path of least effort. This is something I wrote about in my newsletter some time ago. It is not just true for cows, but also for nature and its elements. Water travels where its easiest to flow. Lightning strikes large, grounded objects that are closest to the base of a thundercloud, such as a tower or tree.
Human nature is similar. Hikers choose the easiest way to cross hills. Pedestrians cut across lawns and create their own paths when it takes too long to walk on the intended sidewalk. It’s in human nature to conserve time and energy. And this, as you will see, explains why we struggle to focus on one goal at a time.
Related: The Benefits of Goal Setting and Why Everybody Should Do It
Why We Focus on One Goal at a Time
People want the greatest outcome for the least amount of work. It’s for that reason that we take on multiple project at once.
We subconsciously believe that we improve our chances of success when our goal planning encompasses multiple goals. When we take on multiple projects at once, we hope that at least one of them will work out in our favour. We think to ourselves, “Surely one of them will work out.”
Though it would be nice if that approach worked, the truth is that success doesn’t work that way. It’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks—It’s an unreliable approach that typically leads to no results at all.
Achieving goals requires you to go against the path of least resistance. You have to put in consistent efforts in one area.