I’m sure most of us have heard the expression, “you only have so many eggs to put in so many baskets.” This is simply a statement about priorities and energy expenditure. You only have so much energy you can put into so many things each day.
What do you want to be really good at? Where do you want to find success? Whatever your answers to these questions are, that is where you should put most of your energy and focus.
In the modern age with access to so much, I see way to often people wanting to put a few eggs in many different baskets. If your only goal is to experience a lot of different things and you don’t really care how good you get at each thing, then this isn’t a problematic strategy. However, if you want to be a really successful at Olympic lifting, Powerlifting, Crossfit, Bodybuilding, or Jiu-Jitsu, it’s probably not best to do all of those things.
It can be very enticing when training starts to become mundane and boring to want to switch to something that offers a bit more novelty. Again, this isn’t a huge problem if you aren’t trying to get onto the National stage in a specific sport, but it is 100% a losing strategy if your goal is to compete with the best.
This idea also has implications in the general fitness setting as well. If you haven’t trained in a long time, if you haven’t been creating healthy habits around food, if your sleep is awful, and your lifestyle is overall sedentary, it is probably best to spend most of your energy on the move that’s going to conquer the most chess pieces. Starting the keto diet, training 4x/week, meal prepping, eliminating all processed foods, and starting a supplement regime is probably a losing strategy. What is the one thing you can do that will provide the biggest results? After that is accomplished, focus on something else you can start.
One quality about the greats is that they all have a relentlessly narrow focus. They put all of their eggs in one basket. You get to choose where you place your eggs. There isn’t a right answer, but just know the consequences of placing too many eggs in too many baskets.