Break Free From Boxes And Bondage

Managing Distractions & The Obsession With Finding Our Niche

Dear friends,

As content creators we have all been taught to “find our niche”.

To double down on that particular domain or topic that makes us stand out.

This is turning out to be terrible advice, I’ve noticed.

Especially if you want to grow, learn, and explore your diversified curiosity over time.

We are not going down the rabbit hole of trying to understand where this notion comes from. That narrative of niching down and hyper-specializing to serve one single thing. And having that defining you, restricting you from growth in other domains.

Today’s issue is opening up for a more dynamic approach to content creation and personal development.

An approach that helps you break free from mental chains and false narratives that you need to talk, be and do something in a particular way to fit in a predefined template.

Explore reality through your interests instead of fixating and putting yourself in a box. Share what you know, and distribute the discoveries. Whether you love to speak, write or draw, you can have your channels ready to connect with your audience.

We all have an audience and don’t have to get 1 million followers to call ourselves creators.

The world needs more dynamic and holistic connectors because reality is not boxed into compartments like the current school system.

Nothing Wrong With Your “Hammer”

Specialization in a particular domain is required to develop a deeper understanding. Over time, as we develop that specific skill, we apply that to a project and we use it to solve a particular problem.

We have developed an effective “hammer to hit that nail”.

A prerequisite to developing depth, yes.

But that does not have to define your whole persona and restrict you from nurturing your other interests.

You may enjoy drawing and exploring nature, while being an effective product manager delivering new features and solutions with your team.

I once wrote about balancing your depth with your wider range in different domains. Highlighting the importance of not being stuck in a box and being too dependent on specialization while avoiding the risk of spreading yourself too thin.

That may sound tricky, but I have studied multiple creators and successful practitioners through the years and one thing they have in common is packaging.

They know when to distribute the right thing through the right channel.

The hammer and your depth in a specific domain is great for packaging lead magnets, specific projects and products that makes you unique. But primarily solve a specific problem for your customer and audience. Something you offer and has value.

Navigate, Transcend and Break Free

As you explore new domains, interests and skills you want to learn there will be time of friction.

A hurdle to pass to learn something new and to go deep in another realm. And as a responsible adult with family and a full-time job that may not be an obvious choice or even an alternative.

But as soon as you have got the feedback, validation and having that feeling of being on the right path. Nothing is really stopping you from exploring the new domain. Transcending into a new realm of knowledge.

That is when you break free from bondage and the false notion that your previous specialization and depth is what defines you. That you need to stick to that, single thing.

You still have that hammer, though. Nothing and no one is taking it from you. There are more ways you can iterate and apply that skill you have learned before to keep it alive. But it doesn’t restrict you from learning something new.

Distractions Will Be There

Through time, on a daily basis, we are being constantly attacked and distracted. Digital devices, attention seekers from our surroundings, and news flashes from everywhere.

They all serve a purpose. They are created to distract us from the truth and the inner dialogues we need to nurture to seek clarity.

We can never find clarity and purpose by scrolling through social media. Nor from seeking answers and validation from other humans.

We need to find our own path, collecting and connecting our own dots.

Synthesizing And Skill Stacking

Steve Jobs once said that you cannot connect the dots forward - only backward.

We are so obsessed with planning and trying to outline a predefined path. A golden gate to success.

But most of the top 10%-creators, inventors, and builders in the world have been able to connect the dots based on previous failures and experiments. They were not all thought through beforehand.

As you navigate further in your learning journey, whatever position you might have, you can benefit from regular check-ins and reflections on how your previous projects went.

Your deep skills you acquired from an earlier project, how do these fit in and how can they be applied to your previous experiences?

Do they add on or do they create new branches of opportunities?

You may not see it immediately but you have already started to mold society around you. Our jobs are to note the patterns between our interests, across industries and projects.

Bridging them together in our own creations. Trying out new ways to run a project, discovering a new path. Without the bondage and predefined boxes of others.

Photo by Jennifer Griffin on Unsplash