I didn’t even like the guy. I’d gone to school with him for 2 years, and pretty much rendered every word that came out of his mouth as utter horse shit. He would start talking and immediately I’d zone out. A bit of a dick move, sure, but have you ever met someone that immediately you just go – “Nope.” ? That was this guy.

Don’t get me wrong (I believe this in my heart of hearts) there is something to be learned from every single person out there. Every one. But when that ‘something’ comes in between hours and hours of useless words, just piles of auditory garbage useless to the human brain… not so good. When it feels like you’re talking to a 6-year-old, but also being held hostage in the same conversation? It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Anything good they have to say is buried underneath mountains of turds.

Ok. You get the point. This guy is annoying.

What’s Going On?

Well, last Thanksgiving I was snowboarding the beautiful Colorado mountains with a group of friends and this kid – let’s call him Gabe – was a friend of a friend so he tagged along.

He’s the type of kid who tries to sound smart and acts like he’s figured out all the cheat codes in life. He works out a couple of times and gives out fitness advice like he’s the next Hercules. He sounds like the most interesting guy you’ll talk to… for about 30 minutes and then you realize he’s full of shit and shallower than a plastic dog pool.

Damn, chill

Anyways, we were stuck on the mountain together waiting for our other friends when I felt the need to jump headfirst into a pine tree from hearing this kid talk, when I bolted back to reality because this kid Gabe, said something of actual, real-life, relevance. I was shocked. These were the words that came out of his mouth:

“He who chases 2 rabbits catches neither”

It was a Confucius quote. A ~500 BC Chinese Philosopher and let’s be honest, pretty much Uncle Iroh from my very limited knowledge of the guy.

Now, I understand that Gabe is full of shit and totally just looked up “Famous Quotes To Use To Impress Your Friends”, but nonetheless the quote was kickass. I don’t care who you are – if you offer solid reasoning and make a good point, I’ll listen.

So I paused for a moment, from my suicidal daydreaming, and pondered what Gabe was actually saying.

“He who chases 2 rabbits catches neither”

Why It Caught Me So Off-Guard

I had been trying to learn to ride switch (when you ride with your opposite foot forward) on a snowboard. I’d been going back and forth between right and left foot, never really mastering either, and felt my progress stalling. That’s precisely when this shallow-ass human hit me with some ancient Chinese wisdom.

“He who chases 2 rabbits catches neither”

Damn, Gabe, that was actually good advice… Like something I can actually use. Thank you.

Why It Struck Me

We want to learn things immediately. We’re inherently impatient. But that’s not how we progress. We’ve got to isolate 1 thing to improve. [[Benjamin Franklin]] was on to something there as well. It doesn’t help to jump back and forth between subjects in our life. In this case, I couldn’t learn to ride both switch and regular simultaneously. I had to pick one and just get good.

If we’re learning a new hobby we have to just pick one and stick with it. If we want to improve ourselves, pick one thing and stick with it. If we want to go into multiple career fields, well we still have to just pick one and stick with it. The alternative is we paralyze ourselves with choices and end up in a deer in headlights. We could go right or left, it doesn’t really matter, we’ve just got to pick one and run with it.

If we don’t end up enjoying our choice we’ll at least be one step closer to figuring out what we do enjoy and are good at. Might as well pick 1 thing and get good vs trying to pick multiple and not improve on any.

Picking too many things is how we overwhelm ourselves and ultimately drop all of them.

You don’t have to make the right choice, just make a choice.

Because:

“He who chases 2 rabbits catches neither”