Creative Genius or Jack of all trades?

Are you being punished, judged and labeled because you have many interests, skills, talents and passions and will not settle for any ONE thing?

There is a myth that I want to address today. The myth of specialization.

We have been made to believe that in order to ensure our success we need to specialize in one thing, serve one narrow niche and focus on something very specific.

Society often creates myths that serve its needs at a particular time. Specialization is a myth of the industrial era, where fast delivery of specific parts that would be joined by a machine was the priority. But life is not a factory.

Even science today finds that nature does not specializes and that a holistic approach becomes increasingly necessary.

Specialization may still work for many people —though for many others the routine of specialization is proving outdated as our financial structure is in the midst of radical changes.

But there’s a group of people for whom specialization is not only a curse, but it can cripple their genius. This person may be a Creative Genius, Renaissance Woman (or man) or a Multipotentialite.

If you are one of us, then for you specializing is like amputating an arm or leg. Ahhgrrr!

It is not necessary to force yourself to specialize anymore than it is necessary for you to live a boring life in order to thrive!

Understand your nature. Remember that your nature is the Divine Blueprint for your purpose. And though must people can identify a single purpose, your purpose may be fluid, changeable and holistic. If it is, then there is a reason for it.

You may be a Creative Genius, Renaissance Woman or Multipotentialite. Find out in the long version of this post.

If you don’t have time for more, I want to leave you with food for thought.

Here’s what Steve Job said about creativity

   “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” – Steve Jobs, February, 1995, shown in http://www.swiss-miss.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-on-creativity.html

Reflect on how your diverse, fluid, multi-talented and multi-passionate nature is a gift and what does it qualify you to do?

How does it help you connect the dots, innovate or integrate different spheres of knowledge?

… And stop giving credence who those who judge you for this gift.

Would you find a gift with multiple parts that could work sinergistically to achieve more a hindrance?

Then do not see your genius as a limitation.

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