279 ~ From Overwhelm to Focus: A Lighter Approach

Hello Magical Human & welcome back to Madison Mindset the Podcast 🧚🏼

episode overview:
• the meaning of "Jack of all trades, master of none" 
• the frustration of not mastering any one skill, craft or 'trade'
• the importance of focusing on one passion or specialty 
• tips on narrowing down interests to avoid overwhelm 
• understanding the role of true community support

In this episode, you will walk away with clarity about the balance between exploring multiple passions and mastering one. This discussion is anchored around the implications of the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none,” and how it affects our personal and professional lives. 

You are more than enough, you don't need a thousand and one things to make you enough. You are enough EXACTLY as you are. 🪬

Love,

Madison Mindset x

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome to Madison Mindset
• 4:44 Understanding “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”
• 29:17 The Frustration of Trying to Do It All
• 6:16:11 The Value of Specialization Over Generalization
• 12:27:25 Finding Your Passion and Purpose
• 20:54:36 The Importance of Community and Collaboration

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello Magical Human and welcome back to Madison Mindset, the podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:04

In this episode we are going to explore a little bit of this phrase Jack of all trades, master of none. We all know this phrase. I feel like most of us do, anyway. It comes from way back. I tried to find like, where did this come from? It was like mentioning like Shakespeare days, like really, really far away, basically saying that Jack is, you know, the ordinary common name, like common person. So yeah, it's very, very old phrase, but I just want to kind of break that down with you today because it's something that I've only just realized is relevant for all of us and it's something that I've had to work through in my own life.

Speaker 1: 0:43

You know, we all have these desires to do this and to do that and to learn this and to learn that and, to you know, do some of this and some of that. And especially when I was going into business, what I was finding is I wanted to be, you know, the sound healer and the mindset coach and yoga teacher and you know everything the spirituality and the Oracle cards and all this different stuff massage therapist, a Reiki healer, you know just everything. I wanted to write, I wanted to paint, I wanted to draw, you know. I wanted to be into nature and grow plants and know how to make my own oils and my own natural products, and I wanted to be really good in the kitchen. All of this stuff, okay, and that's just talking about work and the few things that you want to learn in your life, you know. So, you know, at the same time, I was learning guitar and learning drumming and learning how to sing and all this different stuff, you know, and being so frustrated with myself that I couldn't keep up with it all. And when you say it out loud, and when you hear that, you're like, of course, you couldn't keep up with it all. You just listed like 20 things that you wanted to be good at, right, but I bet you, you're doing the same thing. You know we all do this and we don't think about it. Okay, it's not actually thought like, hmm, maybe I'm trying to do too much. So we're going to break this phrase down today and I hope that you can leave this episode feeling a little bit lighter, with a little bit more clarity. It might be frustrating, because you might have to cut down on some things, but at least you have the clarity and the wisdom to move forward with peace. Let's jump in.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Hello, magical Human, and welcome to Madison Mindset Podcast. My name is Madison. I'm a yoga teacher, a mindset and spirituality coach and a complete earth fairy. I see a world that is peaceful and easy to live in, humans that are awakened and enlightened towards who they are and what life truly is and why we are here. I understand life can be really hard. I've had a huge journey with anxiety myself. I understand what it's like to feel overwhelmed, overworked, stressed and frustrated within this earth. It is this journey that led me to begin my own growth journey that I was able to birth this podcast, so that you can have the tools and techniques and knowledge to help you step forward and be a being of light, a magical earthly being who is grounded, supported, who takes on challenges with love and embraces the lessons that each day brings. You are that being. I am here to walk you there. You will find many different kinds of episodes through this podcast. All are created in the moment and with love for you. Find the one you need for this moment and enjoy. Take a moment for yourself, sit down with your journal and tune in.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Welcome, let's begin, I'm sorry, let's begin by breaking down this phrase. Okay, jack of all trades the meaning of that and I know. If you already know the meaning of that, it doesn't matter, we're going to break it down. Jack of all trades means that you can do pretty much a bit of everything. A little bit of everything, okay, which most people can do. Most people can do a little bit of cooking, maybe even a little bit of sewing can fix the random hole somewhere. A little bit of gardening, a little bit of cleaning. A little bit of sewing can fix the random hole somewhere. A little bit of gardening, a little bit of cleaning, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Everyone's got a little bit of stuff going on everywhere. You know, even when you pick out the clothes you're going to wear that day and you think about does this go with that? You've even got a little bit of you know fashion designer in there. You know. When you're picking music, you know you've got a bit of a music thing going on, or a podcasting or a book. You know you're a bit of a book critic. You know you've got a little bit of everything going on everywhere. You know you're doing a little bit of parenting, a little bit of partnering, a little bit of being a friend, a little bit of being a daughter or a son or whatever it is, you know, a little bit of an employee, a little bit of a boss, you know you've got this here, there and everywhere right. So that is being the jack of all trades, right.

Speaker 1: 6:06

In business, or in career or hobbies specifically, you know you might enjoy playing guitar, learning how to sew or how to knit, doing pottery or whatever it is all these different things you want to do, and you might find you just never have the time for all of them, you know. Or you might, in business, do what I said I was doing in the beginning and I have a business that has so many different categories and yet I'm one person. Okay. So what you will find, no matter how hard you work to incorporate all these things and to get good at the things you want to get good at, you know so, obviously, cooking and laundry and being a fashion designer, when you put on clothes in the beginning of the day, you may not want to get better at those things, you just need them to get by, right. So you're jack of all trades, the trades that you want to know. Well, you can't do all of them, and if you try to do all of them, you will continue to be the jack of all trades.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Someone who knows a little bit about everything, who has a little bit of random information about most topics you know, has something to say, has read some book, can do a little bit of it. But the reality is, if you're the jack of all trades, you don't know any of them in depth because you haven't had time to really master them. So you'll be constantly frustrated, feeling like you're interested in all these different things, but feeling like you don't know all these different things because you haven't had the time to actually absorb them and to learn them well and to become a master. Okay, so jack of all trades means you're trying to do everything, you've got heaps of random bits of information, but you're the master of no trades because you've not actually given one trade your complete attention. Okay Now, this is frustrating because I heard this years ago and I was like, yeah, not me, not me, I'm incorporating all these things.

Speaker 1: 7:54

I can't get rid of any of the things that I love to do, but you know, I haven't gotten rid of any of the things that I love to do, but I have adjusted my way of dealing with them and I definitely have not mastered this. I can definitely chop this down a little bit more, but this is where I'm at at the moment. Okay, so at the moment I looked at all of my things. I went right, I want to be a master at something you know. As fun as it is to know a little bit of everything, to do a little bit of all things, it is fun, but it's also overwhelming and you find that you don't. If you sit down to study, you're like what the what do I study? I don't know. You know I'm working on so many different things. What do I do? Okay, you have to be able to break this down so that you can become a master and you know.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Before I tell you what I've discovered for myself, I want you to ask yourself now if you were going to book an appointment with someone, if you wanted to see, say to book an appointment with someone, if you wanted to see, say if you wanted to go to a yoga class, or you wanted to go to a doctor, or you wanted to go to a physio or to whatever. If you wanted to go to even an Oracle card person or Reiki healer or a massage therapist, whatever it is. If you wanted to have a carpenter or whatever, okay, you want to seek someone for professional help? Do you want someone who is a jack in that trade or do you want a master? You know most people are going to go yeah, I want this done properly. I want a professional, I want to master in the trade Okay.

Speaker 1: 9:17

So if you would want to hire a master mindset coach, a master yoga teacher, a master builder, a master plumber, you know, whatever it is. If you would like the best massage therapist or someone who is at least really put their effort into it, they love it, effort into it, they love it, they live it, they breathe it and you know that they're going to do a good job because they've done all the study, would you rather that, of course. Would you want to go to a restaurant where the chef is jack of all trades but hasn't really mastered cooking? No, of course not. You want someone who's the master. So now that we've cleared that up, you know you want to be the master, because everyone else is the same. No one's going to come to you for advice, for a job you know, for. You know to be a client. No one's going to come to you if they don't trust that. You know what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So what I discovered in myself, and what I told you in the beginning of this episode, is that I was trying to do all those so many things, and I tried to do that for a few years and obviously burnout, obviously. So then I had to sit down and ask myself all right, I can't do all the things. That's impossible. Maybe one day I can have a business where there's other people on my team and if that's the case, then maybe I can do more things, but it's still not me doing all the things, it's other people. So for myself, I was like what do I want to be the master in? You know, if someone was going to come to me, why would they come to me? And the answer for me is very clear and is yoga, right. Yoga classes, yoga teaching and teaching the philosophy and the mindset shifts that come from that, which is why I use a lot of yoga examples when I'm speaking to you, because I'm mostly studying yoga. That is my focus, okay, so yoga is the thing that I want to be in right. So that's the thing I want to be. The master in.

Speaker 1: 11:10

The podcast for me is an avenue to share more of that, but also an opportunity for me to chat about mindset, work and self-development and spirituality, because I'm also passionate about these topics and, while they do cross paths with yoga, they're definitely related. There are different ideologies and philosophies and ideas and I'd love to look at them all and study them all. So these two things together really work for me. And from there it's very simple. What do I do for a living? I'm teaching classes, I'm recording podcasts, recording classes, hosting retreats, doing workshops, doing circles of different kinds. This is my main focus. What am I also doing? I've also got my music over here also doing. You know I've also got my music over here that I love to create. I've also got art and the writing and all the creative things I want to do.

Speaker 1: 12:00

I'm also super into pottery at the moment. My partner and I did a pottery class and we both want a wheel and we want to go out into nature and find clay and put it together. But basically what I have to do is narrow this down, you know, because not all of it can be something that I'm the master at. And if something's a hobby, who cares if you're a master at it? Just enjoy it, you know. But in terms of you know, if you want to be someone that people go to, if you want to be an expert in that particular thing, you have to give it all of your attention, or the majority of your attention. I would say if you've got more than three things you're focused on, it's too many Okay. So for me, pottery is fun, writing is fun. Maybe one day I have more time and I can write a book or I can, you know, do whatever I'm doing with my art and with my music.

Speaker 1: 12:43

But for now the focus is yoga, podcast, the other things I love to do, music and everything I do them. On the weekends. I study much more randomly and sporadically than I do yoga and mindset. So you've really got to understand like, what am I doing? But there was a time where I had mindset sessions to book. I had Oracle cards bookings that you could get and you can get Oracle card reading with me. You know you could come to a yoga class, you can come to a retreat, you come to a workshop, you come to a session, you come to a one-on-one, you know, come to a group class, joining a course. You know I had so many things going on.

Speaker 1: 13:18

How is anyone, how is one person supposed to make a dent in any of those things? Okay, if you have a bucket of energy and everyone's given the same hundred percent amount of effort in the beginning of the day, just for an example, and you start throwing your efforts and energy at things, if I have 20 things to divide my energy amongst, then all those things are going to get like this much of my attention and energy. How much is that going to actually push me forward? Nothing, whereas if I give okay, I've got 100% of my effort here. Today I'm studying yoga. I'm just doing that, awesome. I'm going to give 60% of my attention to yoga. I'm going to teach classes, I'm going to study, I'm going to research, I'm going to read, and that's going to be my day. Then I'm left with 40%. And, oh, maybe I pay attention to the people in my life. Here's 10% for my partner. You know, maybe throw some to the kids. That would be nice, right?

Speaker 1: 14:12

If you use all your energy on all this nonsense, the kids don't have any left, you know, maybe to your pet or your family, or to cleaning the house, or to self-care, doing something you love, or just sitting down and reading a book and just relaxing. You've got to realize that whether you're the jack of all trades or the master of trades one trade, your life is the same. You're ultimately going to live and die. Okay, so don't worry too much about knowing everything, being good at everything, because you can't and at the end of the day we're all going to die. Okay, so live your life. Find something you're interested in, study it, become the master, help people with that. Whatever that trade is Okay, and I'm using trade as in could be anything, okay, anything, whether it's your own business, employee situation, whatever. Study that, be the master at it. If there's another thing you want to do, that's fine. I would say.

Speaker 1: 15:06

If you go beyond two or three, it'll start to get hairy for you because your attention is not able to go to all those things. And if you spread it out too much, then the people in your life your family, your friends, your children you'll lose relationships. The relationships will suffer because you don't have any time. We all know what it's like to see a workaholic or someone who's just obsessed with all the stuff that they're doing, you can't get a moment of their attention. Okay, so you have to understand that this is not just affecting your professional life or your life with your hobbies or whatever it is your personal life. It's also affecting your relationships. The amount of stuff that's sitting on your shoulders is also there for everyone else to handle. Okay, so what I'd love you to get out of this episode is to understand that perhaps you've been trying to do too much.

Speaker 1: 15:55

If you feel like you've been doing nothing and you're feeling very uninspired, then I would encourage you to find something. You've got the opposite problem right you can't live for no purpose, okay. Humans are meant to have something that gives them drive, you know. So whether it's mending shirts or homeschooling kids, or writing books or gardening or cooking or whatever it is, I don't mind what it is, it doesn't matter. You just need something that gets you excited, to learn more about it, to show someone about it, to teach someone, to use the stuff that you're doing. You know something that gives you life. You know passion.

Speaker 1: 16:32

You've got to find that one or two tops things and give those your attention. If it changes over the years, that's fine. Say, if, in 20 years' time, I've had enough of yoga, okay, I'll put yoga down, find the next thing, start studying the next thing. But you have to understand that you can only have one two-tops thing that you master, okay. So understand, if that gets beyond three, you're never going to be the master in something. Why would someone, why would you go to a massage therapist who's also being a doctor, who's also being a physio over there, who's also doing, you know, some casual job on the weekends and also doing this and also doing that? It's too much, you know. You want someone who's embodied in their field, who's living and breathing it, you know. So you've got to find the one thing and focus on that.

Speaker 1: 17:25

If you have trouble finding that one thing, you can jump over to the Magical Mindset subscription. Okay, over there we are doing a whole episode, a whole session, on trying to find that one thing and breaking it down. So jump over there. The doing a whole episode, a whole session on trying to find that one thing and breaking it down. So jump over there. The link's in the show notes, links in the YouTube. I'm getting used to YouTube. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'm still learning. It's down there somewhere. We'll see if I can put it there. If not, jump over to Instagram and find it through there. But yeah, so we're going to actually go through.

Speaker 1: 17:58

How do you find this one thing? What is the thing? And break that down together. But otherwise, just what lights you up? What you know? Why do you want this purpose, this passion you know? Search for that. Also, look at what you used to do as a kid, because that's usually a telltale sign as to what you love to do.

Speaker 1: 18:16

And the other side of this if you've got too many things, you've got to start cutting it down. You've got to start realizing that you're living one lifetime. You can't do everything. What's the most important thing? Find that and you'll be golden. When you're practicing this jack of all trades, master of none, when you've found your one master thing, that you want to be the person, you want to be the go-to, you want to be the guru in that particular area, then you can study it, then you can dedicate your time to that one thing, you can work on it, you can promote that one thing, you can practice that one thing, you can read books on that one thing, you can talk to people about that thing, and you'll find that you have so much more time for your family, for your self-care, for your relationships and for you.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Okay, so I hope this episode has just given you a little bit of an idea as to why you might be having trouble. You can't do everything, even if you are fascinated by all things. That's amazing, that's great. But you know what, and this is the thing that really helped me let this sit and I just let go of things. We're a village, right? We're a community. No one could be the master of everything. You can't be the bread maker, the shoemaker, the yoga teacher, the builder, the hunter, the gatherer. You can't be all of the things because you won't have enough time. But if everyone in the community has an interest in all these different areas, when you put all of us together, that's perfect.

Speaker 1: 19:47

You know where to get your bread from right the person who's super passionate about the sourdough, and they're always making it. You know where to get the organic produce from. You know where to get your essential oils from. You know where to get the organic produce from. You know where to get your essential oils from. You know where to get your cleaning products from. You know where to get your pottery from or your yoga classes from or your gym classes from. You know where to go to get a healer or a massage therapist. You know because they're all around you. That's the beauty of a community, and getting amongst the community and learning who's out there. You don't have to be friends with everybody, but you just have to do your research and find where are people in my area or a little bit beyond. You know, oh great, I don't have to make essential oils. That person over there does it and they're an expert and they're obsessed with it and they read about it night and day. That's the person I want making my essential oils.

Speaker 1: 20:34

You know, find your team. Find your team of people who can do all the other things that you can't do. They don't have the time to do. You know, find a gardener or someone to help you out with it. You know, then you've got a team, then you've got a community. It's a village. It takes a village not only to raise a child but also to live a human life. Okay, so find your thing, become the master so that you're useful to people, so that you can be a part of this community and share your gifts and then understand that other people are there as well. Don't forget the other people. They're just as valid, just as awesome, and they can help you with the stuff that you don't have the exact passion or time for. Thank you so much for being here, magical Human, I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you.