Creative Cross Training
Today I was searching for an ingredient and got talking to a woman who works at Essential Ingredients in Kingston. Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised I had finally found someone who knew what dulse was (it turns up in so many of the books recipes and I had never heard of it before this book, even with commercial training!). And secondly, it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm when I mentioned why I was so adamant about not to having substitutions.
“I’m Julie and Julia’ing my way through a vegetarian cookbook.” The words were not even half out of my mouth when the reply came back “I love that!” The bubbly energy towards my endeavour was both encouraging and a little scary. Here was a stranger (a pleasant one non the less) who asked for my details so she could look up this very blog (Hi by the way, and welcome to my creative mess) and I suddenly felt that panicky inner critic freaking out about how it isn’t just friends and family any more. What if this isn’t good enough? What if she is expecting Julie Powell level prose and amusing anecdotes? Will she judge me that I am still undecided on whether to include the actual recipes along with the photos? (My main hesitation is that they are in American measurements and for the commercial based quantities of 10 serves each. That’s a lot of maths.) But interestingly, I found myself making excuses about the content. Claiming the Julie and Julia approach for the cooking made me feel like I was somehow defrauding her of her attention by also having the other creative pursuits on the blog too. Like I may be tricking her into spending a few moments on a topic she might have no interest in. I know that is just my own insecurities projected upon this unsuspecting (and only encouraging) stranger.
My whole life I have heard the messages of singular focus, specialisation, pick one area and focus. This has come from school, parents, friends, family, careers, self helps books. . . you name it, it’s the prevailing advice. Even in my photography course the main path is that you pick one genre to specialise in. That’s not an easy piece of advice to follow if you are me. I have always had an insatiable curiosity. This has led to many different job roles and experiences but also to never feeling entirely settled. I tend to get to a point where I have satisfied my curiosity about whether I can achieve a thing, then I get bored and look for the next task or role to conquer. I know I have been judged for this. I have had people tell me to my face that it is not a good way to be. But in my exploration of self, I find myself asking why is it a bad thing?
For many years now specialisation is and has been the goal. Using doctors as an example, this is usually a good thing. When someone has something stuck behind their eye, I am sure they don’t want someone who has only ever treated an eye a small handful of times as a general practitioner but rather an eye specialist who has had years of practice. If you are accused of murder you probably don’t want someone who studied every single law in the country as that means they probably only spent a small amount of their time on criminal justice. Specialisation means people can get exceptional at one particular area and be extremely useful in that one role. But that mostly means the person can only do just that one role.
A generalist is a person who is satisfied with being not excellent at one role like a specialist, but good at many roles. I know when people look at hiring for jobs, they are looking for the best person for that one role. This is where specialisation has its advantages, but what if those companies hired a person who was not the best person for that one role, but good at it as well as a handful of other useful roles? That one person would be of more use than the person great at one task because they would be able to step in a help in many areas while the company only needs to hire.
We have all heard that’s saying, “jack or all trades, master of none.” But many of us have never heard the second part which says, “but oft times better than master of one.” Having skills in multiple areas allow a person to utilise information from each of those areas when doing a task. A previous student job of mine running cables and helping with staging and lighting meant that while studying photography I had an advantage on lighting set ups and how they work. My playing with modelling clay helped my pastry chef training by giving me a head start on sugar flowers.
There are a few areas we celebrate broad approaches; exercise is one that comes to mind. How many memes are out there teasing about missing leg day or spending too much time on just one area? At the gym an all-rounder approach is ideal. If I am kind to myself, I would give myself license to exercise my creativity in more than one area. It is OK that this blog is multifaceted. It is OK that I have multiple interests. So, friendly sales lady, if you are reading this, welcome to my creative cross training.
THE RUNDOWN
Art – I had company yesterday! Thank you, Clare, for suggesting an art date, was excellent fun. Tried my hand at a hedgehog after feeling nostalgic about the albino ones we had living around our house while growing up (7/100)
Writing – Book: 300 Blog: 6645
Cooking – Tonight’s dinner is Black Bean Chilli with Almond Coconut cookies for dessert (11/285)
Music – Another half hour (5/100)
Photography – Enrolled this week so first steps towards completing the Diploma
Craft – I may have bought a toy pottery wheel for my husband as a joke about his lack of creative hobbies for Christmas. . . It may have also been a little for myself. . . This is the first time I have tried my hand at it, and it was on a $15 Kmart toy that could not stand any pressure upon it and so would simply stop spinning. I am claiming that as my excuse for how wonky they are (I may have managed to use a little of trick photography to help with how bad they look).