There will be times in your life where you feel burnt out from doing the same line of work day in and day out. Maybe for you, that day already came and left. Or perhaps it’s the first time you are questioning your career and thinking about changing industries.
In fact, it’s perfectly normal to crave variety. This is a fundamental human experience that shouldn’t be overlooked. You and I aren’t machines that crank out flawless masterpieces day after day no matter if you are writing poetry or software. In the book Creating a Life Worth Living, an artist describes 25% of his work he makes as a complete failure, 25% semi-failure that is just okay, another 25% that is good, and 25% that is really good. The same is true for every person. It is actually the failures that make our work good and memorable, regardless of whether you consider yourself an artist or not.
If you stop and look at your life as an unfinished sculpture, it will become glaringly obvious that your decision to diversify your life and talents is the best thing you could ever do. Let’s say you spent most of your young adult life and school years learning science. Perhaps you have 10 years of professional experience in the field. If you translate this expertise and proficiency into your life sculpture, it would be the equivalent of chiseling away at one body part to perfection. So at the end of 10 years, your life is a sculpture of Michelangelo’s David, except the only resemblance to David is the head itself. Everything else remains a massive chunk of granite because you haven’t tapped into your other talents yet. What you are looking for is a complete sculpture at the end of your life, and the only way to get it is by moving to different talents.
It’s natural to want to expand your talents to do different things than what you once did. So you take your scientific knowledge and turn it into a teaching career to help others think methodically and eventually a speaking career. Now in your sculpture you’ve fleshed out a body and arms, and you derive a greater sense of wholeness. This is exactly what the Renaissance was about, and you become more of a Renaissance man/woman the moment you commit to diversifying your life and talents.
Here are some timeless ways to diversify your talents.
Do It Yourself (DIY)
The term DIY has been popular with the advent of modern computers in the mid-1990s. It was created to encourage people to tinker and experiment with assembling computer peripherals and diagnosing issues on their own without depending on expert help. The reason for this was simple. Each household would eventually have numerous computers more than any other electronic appliance, and someone would be able to solve problems independently if he knew how to do things himself.
Modern society has given us so many conveniences that we hardly do anything ourselves. We are far removed from the process of growing our own food, making our own clothes, or creating our furniture and utensils. A sense of unease has crept in as we discover that we are continually handed things to use, eat, or consume, but what we wanted is to do it ourselves in the first place.
How do you DIY? Simply take matters into your own hand whenever you have a problem that needs to be solved. If you have a toilet issue, look up Internet articles on how to fix it. If you are really enthusiastic about cars, figure out how to change the oil on your own. If you enjoy fine meals, learn to cook more interesting dishes.
Ask Questions: How?
If you don’t know how to do something yourself. Don’t give up! Most people just throw in the towel and resignate to depending on experts, or worse, never attempt to do things themselves out of complacency.
Remember that everything you know and are about learn have either been taught to you by others, or self-taught. You were able to acquire the knowledge or skills because you had a need for the answers. And the only way to get answers is to ask questions. If you haven’t already done so, get in the habit of always asking questions. Ask how things work. Ask why they work. Ask these questions to yourself and see if you can answer them satisfactorily on your own.
If you cannot answer the question, don’t shrug your shoulders and say “oh well“, go back to DIY and make it a point to find out what the answer is. Search for the answer on the Internet. The ability to solve problems is the most important skill you could ever acquire in your life. Becoming a solid problem solver means that you can come to rely on yourself to handle any challenge that life throws at you.
Learn from others
It’s entirely possible that you will exhaust your own abilities if you encounter a tough problem. You realize that you don’t know an answer to a problem, and your independent research starts to look more like a PhD dissertation. If this happens, don’t despair. Continue to ask questions, but ask other people once you’ve exceeded your ability to find out independently.
It’s important that you be honest about this process and not skip the sequence I’ve presented to you. Many people have a tendency to ask others by default in an attempt to avoid struggling or failing at a task. This is detrimental to the way we learn, because the more exposure (and struggle) we have to a problem, the more likely it is that we can remember and integrate the solution as part of our experience.
When you ask others questions to your nagging problems, be open minded about the journey. Some of the questions have simple answers. Some are more complex and require you to pay money to show your appreciation. Be willing to entertain all possibilities to get your answers solved. Sometimes an expert could be hired to help you solve the problem directly, but be sure to ask why and how they are doing things as you watch them solve your problem. The investment in time and money is invaluable to your growth and diversification of talents because they will become yours. You will become someone who has these answers, and can, at your own accord, be in a similar position where you help newcomers.
Follow Your Bliss and Do What You Enjoy
If you ever go through your day and jot down all the things you don’t know but would like to learn about, you will find a long laundry list of topics that pique your interest.
It isn’t practical or feasible to attempt to go through this process and learn everything, so you must choose the 2-3 most important things to learn. How do you choose? You follow your bliss and focus on what you enjoy, find interesting, and what gives you energy.
A very simple litmus test is to ask yourself if a topic is boring to you. Answer this question with a yes or no within 30 seconds without exception, since this will force you to instinctively respond based on your innate temperament and inclinations. You can never go wrong if you only focus on what is interesting, because enjoyment is the prerequisite to developing mastery, abundance, or experience.
Where can you start to diversify your talents? Begin by taking care of the little things in your personal life such as things to do or fix around the house, before you move on to things in your life such as your career and hobbies. As you continue to do this, you will find a growing sense of confidence. This pride comes in the fortitude of knowing you have many abilities that can never be taken away from you. Since your abilities and talents are in multiple areas, you can call upon one or many of them for one or many jobs and never be at the mercy of the economy. Expect to take several years to get to this point. But when you do, you will discover an unexpected benefit: You will call all the shots in work and life and work on your own terms.
Did you know that finding your unique skills and talents actually allows you to live a more enjoyable life?IMAGINE enjoying work, having fulfilling relationships, and doing what you love day in and day out. It isn’t a crazy fantasy. My book, The Secrets to Work You Love [http://diversifyyourlife.net/store/the-secrets-to-doing-what-you-love-a-kickstart-guide-to-reinventing-and-discovering-interesting-work/] gives you a wealth of insights, resources and tools to help make your dreams come true.
Also be sure to bookmark Diversify Your Life [http://diversifyyourlife.net/] for more articles on living a more empowered and creative life.
Your friend,
Jon
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