We marketers have slowly and unwittingly allowed ourselves to evade greatness. Because of all the market commotion, distractions and disruptions, many of us now tend to do a LOT of things in a mediocre way; we don’t do the super valuable things in the brilliant way we’re capable of, and in the manner our customers demand.

I’ve witnessed marketers getting increasingly scattered in what they do, because they are so overwhelmed and are trying to keep up on all fronts — new technologies, new media, new screens, new best practices. But when they spread themselves so thin, highly talented people stop having a meaningful impact on their team and their company. Great campaigns fizzle. And results flatline.

Company leadership and sales teams, equally enamored with everything new and shiny, exacerbate the problem by adding tactical requests rather than strategic guideposts.
More than ever, marketers have to be ruthless about maintaining focus on their goals. This launches a continual tap-dance of tradeoffs so we do the things with the greatest return against goals.

The tendency is to want to do it all. It’s not that one course of action is bad, it’s just that if it’s not hte BEST action for your goal(s), and it will take time away from what IS best, don’t do it. Your resources (time, people, money, sanity) are limited so don’t fritter them away.

A fool-proof, and profoundly simple, way of brining yourslef back into focus is to keep remembering WHY you are doing something — in other words, the goal. In the throes of chaos, remind yourself to ask “what is the reason I’m doing this?” and you’ll know exactly where to put your focus.

Channel your energy toward what matters most (your goals, not your activity), and let distractions roll off your back. Stop being pulled off course by squirrels and shiny objects. if you chase two rabbits, both will escape.