The downside of wanting to do everything is that you end up doing nothing. The key is to start.
I want to travel, I want to write a book, I want to learn languages, I want to learn digital art, I want to do so many things! So why do I end up not doing anything?
Being a generalist means wanting to know a little about a lot, having many skills in many different things, and striving to learn more and more. It’s difficult to focus on one thing for too long because you know there are so many other activities to spend time on and knowledge to gain.
With generalism comes an overwhelming feeling that prevents progress. There are so many things you could do, but where do you start? How do you enter into the new project? What resources should you use and what supplies should you buy? The questions of a generalist are infinite and that’s what causes inaction.
So how do you overcome the generalist roadblocks? Do something.
When I want to try something new or learn about something I have no knowledge on, I just start. My first step is typically searching Google or YouTube. The goal is to start building that base layer of knowledge and start to gain an awareness of whether or not it interests me as much as I anticipated. If it does, I continue. If not, I move onto the next thing.
Learning a language – “How to start learning Japanese” was my search
Digital Art – Watch videos on the basics, see if any friends could loan me a tablet
Coffee Roasting – Lots of videos and lots of articles
Travel – Where do I want to go? Budget travel tips. Do any friends want to join? Start planning.
A large portion of the inaction comes from the understanding that there is so much to know, so much to learn, and so much that could go wrong with every single new thing I want to do. There’s a fear of failure and a fear of wasting time and energy. To overcome that, your desire to try has to win the battle.
If you want to call yourself a generalist, you actually have to do and learn a lot of things. Generalists don’t simply think about doing all these things, they do them. So pick something off your long list of ideas and start.
August 24, 2022
