We all start at this point. Creatives by their very nature would self proclaim to be a jack of all trades. Myself included. It’s what we do. We are trying to get good at a number of different fields, we have our hand in the jar of various skills and practices. We want to discover what we like, what we are good at, and what to pursue as our passion. We want to show that we can do everything. This is where I am going to break hearts.
You don’t excel in a particular field by doing the bunch of stuff at the same time. You excel at something by focusing specifically on a subject in a particular field.
It’s a slow, gradual journey that takes time in order to become a master at something. It’s going to take patience. When you focus you pick up vital skills and processes that you can then transition to the next field much easier and more competently.
Treat it as a season, where you can periodically jump from one thing to the next, one at a time, instead of all the time, this makes it easier to carry skills forward to the next thing and being able to apply them to a different field.
You learn the processes, problem solving, and various abilities that come with that practice, thus building a background of competence and knowledge associated with that field, but only if you fully focus on one pursuit at a time, rather than trying multiple pursuits at the same time.
It all comes back to picking a passion you like, and just starting to pursue that. If you like a lot of areas, just pick one and start working at it, if you like two or three and are not sure which one to pick, then just pick one, it shouldn’t matter because you like all three of them equally, so you hopefully shouldn’t feel like you are missing out by not pursuing one, and if you do, then by the process of elimination, you then know which one you want to pursue. It’s a win – win.
Clients don’t hire Jacks (unless your name is Jack). They hire masters. Someone who is competent, overtly proficient and excels in one field, not someone who has entry-level skills in a vast array of practices. Masters are professionals, adept and ingenuitive, people who know what they are doing.
From the client perspective, if a client views you as a master in one area, more than likely, you will be perceived as proficient at other areas and pursuits. This is because you have shown that you have applied yourself and are learned in one field, the general assumption from the client would then be to assume that you can apply yourself to other pursuits this successfully.
“Masters require focus, repetition, consistency, and time” – Sean Wes
On your journey to becoming a master, you will make progress and one thing will lead to the next, you will become good at different practices, but only by focussing one at a time.
Focus on your one field and aim to become an expert at it, one field at a time. Practice at it, deliberately. Aim to practice at the specific areas of the field that you struggle at or are bad at. This is the only way to learn and get better. As hard as that may be. Be consistent, by showing up everyday. Give it time, everyone is different. You will know when you have reached a point when you have gathered enough knowledge of a pursuit to become proficient and move onto the next.
Respectively, after time, you may end up circling back around and becoming a jack of all trades. But only this time, learned in each pursuit, and knowledgable in the processes and skills that it takes to master each of them.
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