Commitment is scary

I bounce between a lot of projects.

sometimes I code.

sometimes I shoot photos.

sometimes I build hardware.

the list goes on...

To be honest, this has always been my "way" of doing things. You sit on the wall between multiple different projects, and see what sticks. This is good for a few reasons, for starters there is a large variation in what you do - so if you're stuck, you can do other projects. The other reason (and argubly the most impactful one) is the fact that you can use your breadth of projects as a somewhat safety net.

But as of recently, I've been pondering the idea of what full commitment looks like. People talk about how you have to be 100% in on something to make it big - but I'm not sure thats truely the case.

Is commitment bad or good?

Yes to both. Full commitment sits in the grey area between good and bad, and seems to fluctuate through each side of the spectrum. On one hand commitment has asymetric outcomes (the longer/harder you commit, the better it gets), but on the other hand, balance is really important in life. However, if the thing you're commiting to is truely good (according to your goals and values), then maybe it's not so bad...

I recently commited to a startup. When I say commited, I mean I spend around 80% of my time throughout the day pondering and working on it. The other time? Spent on things that I still value. Family, friends, school, creative work, all these things matter to me. Does that mean I have to stop it to be fully comitted? Sure. Does that mean that I'm not commited on it? No.

Full commitment as an idea doesn't have to be dedicating your entire life to one thing. But it should be dedicating your time spent on unneccisary things to one thing. Unneccisary is decided by you.

But you have to draw the line on commitment.

you need balance, you need moderation, most people do.

Removing every factor but work from life is unhealthy, and sometimes things need to ebb and flow a bit. For me, this just means 80% is my maximum.

just do it

Even though I had a clearly defined max, I still found I couldn't reach it. For the past year, this is because I was searching for 17 different things that could lead me to some level of success.

But the truth is, spending your time spread out among many different things is a recipe for not getting anything out of any of them.

This is why I started anngati.

No i'm not here to pitch you the startup - but I think it serves as a lesson into commitment.

• Most of us fear commitment to one thing, involving a greater breadth of work instead, so that you can win when you pick the right thing. Like an investor, you can go for the "spray and pray" approach, or you can pick the single best ROI company.

Picking the one thing is scary, that's why no one usually does it.

But heres the thing:

• You could go about with a spray and pray, learning minimal things each new project, and slowly building off the last.
• Or you could go head first into one thing, build it out until you fail, and get better at doing single big projects.

Both styles work for different people.

But I'd give both a try before judging.

Even still, I haven't reached my max, but just trying and failing to do it - makes me push all that much harder. Still, I believe that I can do it - and that itself is enough to get me there.

Can you be a laser focused polymath?

I'm still in hs, and trying to become a polymath (a jack of all trades of sorts) - so this question has been haunting me since the idea of laser focus.

I mean, of course you can.

I spend 30m per day writing these blog posts. And yet still I'm laser focused on my startup.

How?

It's not time management (mostly)

It's not being super good at things instantly (I still suck at a lot)

It's playing the long game, being passionate and saying no to things you don't want.

That's where I came to this number of 80%.

If I can spend 80% of my time on something I'm really passionate about, then I basically just use the remainder for whatever I want. Some days I do random things where as other days I use that time to catch up with people that mean the most to me.

Biggest thing is - you won't become a polymath overnight, and so laser focus on one thing - but still accept some random side quests.

So how do you do it?

• Don't worry about the right thing. Just choose something. Going for it is better than stagnency.
• Take that risk
• Don't overdo it -- we're all human. We all need different things. Do what's right for you.

Because behind all the laser focusing and flow states is a human being that you have to make sure is taken care of.

If you liked this post, I'll make another one soon on the idea of human agency as it relates to productivity and happiness. Be sure to sign up for my substack (micahschmidt.substack.com) if you want to get these straight in your inbox.