For years I have found myself listening to people tell me to find focus, find my direction, find my place and work to excel at the one thing I'm ment to do. I love so many different things and I love trying new things, it's always been a struggle for me to not only decide which thing to stick with but I also have a hard time knowing which thing is best for me. So, I'm always setting goals to “find a focus” only to fail. I'm tired of failing at focusing. I'm a hard worker, I'm driven and capable. So why then can I not succeed in this one area? Heck, I started this blog as a way to share all the things I love and all the directions I like to explore.
Thanks to a new friend, I think I've found the answer. Kit Bennett suggested a book to me a few weeks ago called Refuse to Choose. She explained that the book talks about being ok with doing a lot of different things and not necessarily specializing in a single skill or talent. So I set out to find this book… only to discover it's not yet available in audio. Yes, I can read… no I don't like to sit still to read when I can be doing something else with my eyeballs. So I googled the book title and found a couple videos by the author and even more videos by others on the same topic… Scanner Personalities.
Am I a Scanner? I've always loved creativity. I've usually stuck with areas that relate to creativity… I haven't had much interest in pursuing a career in biology or hotel management or forest services. However, I did look at aeronautical engineering and also architecture. I've tried my hand at marketing for the sake of specializing in marketing. But I always come back to something art related when it comes to what I love most. So am I really a scanner? I love to create things and I love creative problem solving. So I've refined my understanding of this new self discovery topic to the label of “creative scanner”. I think you can be a scanner with a specialty. You don't have to be a painter and only a painter. You can love a variety of things, explore a variety of topics and then create things with paint, applying all those other things you love. I think that's how mixed media came to be. Its a love and ability to make art using a wide variety of materials.
Why do I have to choose and only pick one?
Isn't there a way to do them all, enjoy the diversity and still be successful?
I really do love all things creative. Painting and sculpture and cooking… I also love exploring new things like travel and marketing and engineering. One of my favorite things to do with projects is figuring out the build, the structure and the functionality of an art piece, not just make the art. Most of all, I love to brainstorm and creative the answers I come up with by building and creating tangible things. I'm a creative mcguiver and a situational troubleshooter of sorts. And being able to put these labels doesn't help me one bit.
Finding your passion as a scanner is explained pretty well in a video by Paul from the PaulyMath show. He's not really going to explain how to find your passion, but rather, how to understand how you, as a scanner, looks at the world and the things you jump into. He ends the video with a challenge to embrace your scanner personality instead of focusing on specializing. I'm going to take this challenge and see where it goes. I am trying to make sure everything I do relates to my art… that's my “glue”, but you don't necessarily need glue as a scanner.
If you're on board with me, there is another great video about finishing things, also from PaulyMath… check it out. It's about knowing your intention, setting goals and reaching your goals.
