Of course I mean you!

You know who you are. You've been this same way for years and years now, though maybe you're only starting to see the consequences clearly.

I've been moved to say this to students so many times that I want to pot the lecture for posterity:

You have too many talents, too many gifts to be able to develop all of them. People who develop all their gifts are called Dilettantes. That's all very well if you're independently wealthy and your main goal in life is enjoyment.

It was fine in elementary school and high school, when you were taking baby steps and someone else was probably doing your laundry.

But how many Olympic athletes show up on more than one sport? As soon as you get serious about things, you have to start cutting back. One of the best things college can do for you is give you ways to figure out what it is that you really WANT to do, since you're rich enough in your inner life and potential that what you CAN do isn't much of a limitation.

This is important because your dilemma is not only about cutting back: if you let something important get cut off, you'll miss it and the talent will petrify and begin to block off other important things. You have to find ways to let them work together -- horseback riding as part of your work in physical therapy, music as an element in your movies. Figuring out what you have to do and then figuring out how it can all fit into your life -- if not in balance, then at least eventually in harmony -- is a deadly serious business.

And knowing that it's necessary doesn't make it much easier: it hurts, like cutting off your limbs. Like cutting off the straggly branches, the ones that stray too far from the stem, so the stronger ones will bloom for real.

Go to the next one, A Lecture on Sleep.

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