Variably Consistent

Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation, despite our attempts to prevent it!

Every now and then I go through things that land me in a bit of a rut. It's not a bad one for sure, but I think that's part of life's challenges.

I found myself in a bit of a mindset and mentality rut. I was not in the right mood to be writing, and that got me annoyed which then further deepened the rut I was putting myself in. The self-fulfilling prophecies are annoying when they happen lol.

I ended up getting really close to missing a day of posting. I know that's not the big deal, but for me, because I've done this consistently for so long, that it felt like breaking a commitment. Besides working at a job and being in a relationship, there really aren't many things that I've done consistently for so long that it feels weird to let something go. I know the day will come eventually, but I am trying to get that to be a time where I'm really in bad shape like I got hurt or something lol not something as simple and silly as being in a bad mood.

I think for me as well, it's about motivation. I feel motivated and successful when I am able to keep a pretty good consistency going, and have a bunch of content prepared. I listen to a lot of podcasts in my life, and I think that is one of the things I have this akin to. The best podcasts have lots of content to deliver, and it being varied. I don't think I could stand posting only about economics all the time, or only about Splinterlands and the various other things.

It's good to be specialized.. but in the various areas of my life I am more of a generalist than a specialist. I can do specific things really well, but I don't want to hone in on a single thing because I feel like that's putting me in a box.

I remember one of the things that impressed upon me the need to be a generalist was years ago, I was working with my dad in an apartment building. The guy we were working for was a specialist. He had several degrees, some of them from really prestigious universities but he had multiple of them. He was brilliant in his field, but there was something that happened, I don't recall exactly what, that he ended up losing his job.

Because he was such a specialist, and had lots of degrees in said specialty, he was pigeon-holed into just that category and actually ended up having a really difficult time finding a new job. He applied for things in things close to his area, but he was rejected from many of the jobs because he was too qualified. That was such a weird thing to hear!

I think I strayed a bit from the original topic.. but it does relate, I believe. I love the work that I do, but I also have other things I am passionate about and enjoy. Being able to do some writing regularly is one of them and I think it helps me feel secure in that I am able to produce things outside of the solitary stuff that I do for my primary job.

Thinking back, this has really been what it's been like for me since my professional career started. I started in one area, but I was always doing something on the side. When I was going to school, I was working at one job primarily, but I was also consistently working with my dad which is a completely different field. Having that variability seems to be a really important thing, even to this day for me.

So while it may sound weird that potentially missing a day of posting on Hive is strange, I think it has a large part of influence based on my personal history of being a very broad and generalist type of person instead of specialized in one area. Pretty cool stuff when I think about it!

What about you, do you find that when you are doing multiple things on a given day or week, you feel better? Or do you prefer specialization? Let me know in the comments!