The Jack-of-All-Trades by Jennifer Janechek

Trying to “do it all” is a form of procrastination that will delay your success. 

Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to success is the human tendency to juggle too many tasks at once. So often we pride ourselves on our ability to multitask and “do it all.” However, what we neglect to realize is that in “doing it all,” we are really doing nothing substantive. We are merely treading water—distributing effort across a multitude of tasks, expending energy just to stay afloat. If we pause for a moment to consider the reality of our situation, we discover that we have not, in actuality, moved forward. We have made no progress; and yet, we are completely exhausted from wasting our energy on divergent aims. 

We are all familiar with the ills of procrastination on a small scale. We know it is counterproductive to whittle away our time by mindlessly scrolling social media apps, daydreaming, watching television, and engaging in other activities that prevent us from making progress on our goals (though our awareness of this often doesn’t translate into action). But we are less familiar with this other form of procrastination, which might be considered more pernicious because it does not at first glance appear to be a method of wasting time; on the contrary, it clothes itself in the guise of productivity. Trying to do too many things at once—to be good at everything—makes us appear successful by virtue of our busyness: we juggle so much; surely, we must be getting somewhere! And yet, what of value are we accomplishing? In reality, we are delaying our success by wasting time and energy on efforts that do not support our primary goal—what Napoleon Hill called our “definite chief aim” or “definite major purpose.” 

Hill recognized how detrimental our inability to align our efforts with a definite chief aim is to our potential for success. After all, one of the thirty major causes of failure he identifies in Think and Grow Rich is attempting to be successful at too many different pursuits. As he writes, “The ‘jack-of-all-trades’ seldom is good at any. Concentrate your efforts on one DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.” In Napoleon Hill’s Power of Positive Action, we likewise are instructed to “direct our limited energies to what we want to achieve and not dissipate them on things of no consequence.… By focusing on what we want to achieve or do that will create a lasting impact, we are directing our energies to what is truly important to us.” 

How much more could we achieve if we evaluated all our commitments and weeded out those that are not moving us toward our definite chief aim? Of course, sometimes we must perform a role or task that is not directly related to our definite chief aim if it is necessary to the maintenance of health or security, e.g., working a job unrelated to our desired profession in order to support our family. However, even this should be reframed as supporting our progress because it is a means of ensuring that our basic needs are met. I am talking more about our tendency to overcommit ourselves, taking on roles and activities that do not align with our desired outcome. For example: Do you really need to volunteer for that board position? Does this freelancing opportunity support your professional goals or take away time that could be used for deepening your knowledge and skill set in the area you most want to pursue? Which “side hustle” could drive your success if you pursued it wholeheartedly, and which ones are serving as distractions from your chief desire? 

Hill explains in Napoleon Hill’s Gold Standard that “the man who controls his own mind may control everything else that gets in his way.” And as he acknowledges, no form of controlled attention is more important than that which is directed toward one’s definite major purpose. 

So today, take inventory of your commitments—everything that requires your time, energy, or attention. How do these tasks, roles, and responsibilities align with your definite chief aim? 

If they do not, or if you are unsure, the first step is to clearly define your definite chief aim. Without a thoroughly defined goal, you will continue to waste energy on pursuits that lack direction. In his speech “What I Learned from Analyzing Ten Thousand People,” transcribed and printed in Napoleon Hill’s Greatest Speeches, Hill recommends the following: 

Make a practice of concentrating upon matters pertaining to a single interest, and you will become absorbed in it as an ideal. You will acquire a standard by which to appraise the value to you of the facts of your life. 

Make a practice of concentrating upon a single interest, and you will acquire a constant and completely “possessing” and automatic inhibitory power. You will without thinking refrain from many useless activities. You will refrain from indulgence in pleasures and recreations that would interfere with the accomplishment of your main purpose. 

Clarify your definite major purpose, and begin today to consistently envision the realization of it so that all your thought processes align with your desired outcome. By doing so, you will be better equipped to discern which activities will bring you closer to your chief desire and which will only distract you from it, and you will be able to eliminate from your life those unnecessary commitments that drain your time, energy, and attention. Imagine what you will be able to accomplish when you have renewed these resources and redirected them toward a single interest!  

In his or her versatility and constant occupation, the jack-of-all-trades might appear to be successful, but it is better to be great at one thing than to be mediocre at many things. Do not limit your success by merely “keeping busy.” Invest all your actions with purpose, and you will be amazed at the momentum you gain toward attaining what you desire most in life. 

Jennifer Janechek is the director of content strategy for Sound Wisdom and the founder of Work–Home–Life, an online magazine and virtual community for remote and hybrid workers, freelancers, digital nomads, and entrepreneurs with home offices. 

For the latest from the Napoleon Hill Collection, including free book and audiobook samples, visit this webpage. The latest in this collection is Think and Grow Rich in Ten Minutes a Day, which is available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other fine retailers. This succinct, engaging summary extracts the key principles, instructions, and stories from Hill’s original, unedited masterpiece and provides updated, relevant examples—in modernized, easily accessible language—so that all readers, regardless of how busy they are, can benefit from the timeless wisdom found in Hill’s book. Action items added to the original text will help readers expertly apply each chapter’s lessons. This title will be released by Sound Wisdom on November 17, 2020.