What Is Your One Thing?

“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”” Matthew 16:15 NKJV

Have you heard the statement, “Focus on one thing” at a career seminar before? How did it make you feel? Confused or energized? How you’ll feel may be different from that of your neighbour, but one thing is certain, multitalented people will feel confused.

Do you know how hard it is to have diverse gifts, only to be told that you need to focus on just one thing? Please what then happens to the remaining 99%, huh? For a long time, hearing that statement come from the lips of motivational speakers was so depressing. I’d go home feeling like I hadn’t done my homework well.

Then one day, I finally understood what it meant. The Holy Spirit must have seen the dilemma I was in and had mercy on me. But I bet many people who make that statement don’t even understand what it means.

You may have multiple talents, skills, or interests, but there’s always one thread that connects them all. For example, if you’re passionate about putting the small town you’re from on the map so that the world can appreciate the ideas and ideals of your people, you can have a talent for strategy and decide to work at a VC firm providing funding for entrepreneurs from your area.

With your added talent in painting, in your spare time, you create artworks that highlight your tradition and put them online as NFTs and on your blog. Your added gift of teaching and your first degree in International Trade pushes you to take a vacation once or twice a year so you can teach small business owners in your town with quality locally made products how to leverage global trade for profit and recognition; sessions that you can record and later convert into a digital course. Your astute ability to build relationships helps you create a bridge between your town and the resources they need to excel.

Your one thing doesn’t mean one profession. It doesn’t mean one industry. It doesn’t mean focusing on one talent while you discard or trivialise the rest. It doesn’t mean refusing to acquire a new but unrelated skill you like just because it has nothing to do with your current season.

Your one thing can be a mission. From the example, some people will call you an Investor. Some will call you an Artist. Some will call you a Teacher while others will call you a Connector. These are different professions, but they’re all dimensions of one person – YOU.

Don’t put yourself into a box that God didn’t create. Even Jesus Christ was called different names because of the dimensions He expressed. But one mission harmonised everything. Please, empty yourself because you are loaded. Forget the labels. Just do the work.