Blogocentric Formulations

Day 8: Amazing At One Thing or Pretty Good At Lots of Things

*Written as part of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 

Day 8 Prompt: If you had the choice, would you rather be incredibly gifted and talented at one thing, or slightly better than average at lots of different things? Why?

Well, one of the few days I wait to write my entry until later in the day and blainecindy beats me to the punch and writes almost exactly what I was going to write in her entry: "Invalid Entry" ! And to add insult to injury, I'm pretty sure this was my prompt; one of the three that I submitted in order to join the activity! That'll teach me to slack off.

Honestly, though, blainecindy and I have a lot in common. I've always found myself fairly adept at most things I've tried. Not great or anything, but just able to accomplish a diverse and varied set of tasks with a passable level of skill. Basic home repairs, cooking, gardening, public speaking... assembling IKEA furniture... figuring out the best insurance plans, investments, various sports, etc. I may not be exceptional at any of these things, but I can get by without embarrassing myself too badly. Whenever I'm faced with a new challenge, I seem to be able to figure out what I need to do and accomplish those tasks a little faster and maybe even a little better than others. I first noticed this in Boy Scouts where we had the opportunity to earn merit badges for various skills (hey, kinda like WdC! ) Whatever the particular merit badge specialty - and especially when it came to the more obscure categories - I seemed to "get it" faster than most of my friends and was often one of the first few kids to finish all the requirements, whether it was for emergency preparedness, soil and water conservation, coin collecting, fingerprinting, or oceanography. I wouldn't go so far as to say any of these things are actual skills, but I do have a knack for picking things up pretty quickly and being able to do them with a modicum of proficiency.

I have no doubt that a large part of the reason I'm able to do this is because I have a variety of interests. I'm one of those people who struggles to stay within the character-count limit whenever I'm faced with an "interests" or "hobbies" field on a social media website or opinion survey. Writing is the one exception; the one thing that I do pursue above all others. But other that writing, I'm equally interested in entrepreneurship as I am in cooking, and just a fascinated by tennis as I am by technology. Having that diverse set of interests is what has allowed me to be "pretty good" in a wide range of areas. And, hey, maybe it's not even a matter of being decent at lots of things... maybe all of these things are facets of the same overall talent. Maybe my one special thing is adaptability or being a quick study.

And while being able to passably accomplish most things is great for board game night with friends or when you get roped into playing on the company softball team, part of me wonders what it would be like to truly excel at something. To have the kind of laser focus and concentration required to prioritize one skill at the near-exclusion of all others. It's tempting to have dreams of being a bestselling author, or a star football player, or a brilliant musician... but would my life be the same if that came at the expense of everything else? Would my wife be okay with me shrugging off a new bed frame that needs assembling by saying I don't have time to figure it out because I have to practice my one special talent (again) for a few (more) hours? Would it be worth staring blank-faced at a hospital bill or an apartment lease or my computer monitor on the fritz if it meant I could walk into a bookstore and see a mountain of my latest novel piled high on a display table?

I would definitely like to know what it's like to have a single and solitary focus. I'd like to know what it feels like to be exceptionally good at just one thing and not have to worry about losing interest twenty minutes later because something else caught my eye. But at the end of the day, I think I'd end up wanting to go back to who I am; the guy who manages to do most things reasonably well and figures most things out pretty quickly. Being that person has unquestionably made me a better man, better husband, better friend... and I like being the person who is comfortable taking on a variety of challenges and conversation topics. To me, it seems like a way more interesting life than being so good at one thing that the rest of the areas of my life might suffer as a result.