I am independent in every sense of the word. I can do just about anything necessary to survive. A Jill of all trades. I can make a Sunday dinner that will give you “The Itis,” diagnose a car trouble, scale a rock wall, battle wits, and I am great at all of this. At some point I decided it was important to know and be able to speak intelligently on everything, and I ignorantly set out to do so.
Not necessary.
No one person can be good at everything, and furthermore, there is no need. With age, comes acuity. As we mature we develop the desire to focus on a few things we care about, rather than on everything.
While it is cool to know a little about everything, especially if information gathering is your thing, when it comes to succeeding in life, it is far more important to figure out what things you love and enjoy most, and scale them. Invest time in building those skills and learning as much as you can about those things. Because in time, your expertise will be valuable and marketable and it will be in an area that you actually care about.
You will love your work. [I will blog about why this is important later]
Society teaches us early on to master everything. We are taught the goal is to be the best at all that you touch: stay in the honors classes, play a sport every season, and take up an instrument. Society teaches us that being good at everything will give you options and make life easier to maneuver. Being good at everything, makes you more marketable, well liked. It really isn’t true. The more you have done, the less you have scaled and the less able you are to say with certainty what you really love and enjoy.
The truth is, as one ages and life interests weigh heavy, it not only becomes important to be almost perfect at something you truly enjoy, it becomes irrelevant to be even remotely good at anything else.
Do you expect your favorite author to be an awesome cook?
Does it matter that your favorite musician, could have played pro-baseball?
When it comes to being skilled at life, it is more important that you know how to figure out what to do when life throws you a curveball, rather than spending time collecting expertise in each area you believe the curveball could come from.
Hone your art, your talent, your creativity. Build on it, invest in it, Keep tabs on what kinds of doors it can open, because as you become better at it, it will increase your value, both emotionally and financially. And emotional and financial scaling are both essential to being happy about life.
Happy Monday.
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Word! This was great!
I agree, but in a pinch, those “extra” skills can help you keep the lights on. Especially in this crappy economy.
sounds about right to me.. depth eventually outweighs breadth. with that i will go back to my corner.. piece and blessings
A great reminder. Now, on to studying for the MENSA test.
It is possible to be Jill of all trades, but the second half of that quote is “Master of None”. Recently came to truly understand this. Great post.