In a throwaway line during his interview with Eddie Murphy on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld said something to the effect of “Today we all have a lack of focus. And that’s why we have a lack of greatness.”
There are endless choices and options for us to take in careers, hobbies, and pure diversions. The mere choice available is enough to overwhelm, and too often rather than carefully choosing from our options, we instead try to do it all. We half ass many things instead of focusing our attention in one place at once.
And then we wonder why greatness in our work eludes us. The underrated skill of this age is focus. We have more opportunity than ever, but we’re far worse off if we can’t learn to choose.