The Successful Dilettante
September 5, 2006 Issue 5
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit our website at: http://www.susanhenderson.com
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Greetings!
A very warm welcome to both old and new subscribers. Thanks for sharing my ezine with your colleagues and friends. We are a growing community here. I appreciate you so much! Past issues of this ezine are archived on my website on the Newsletter page. I am continually adding new content and resources to my site including a bookstore. I invite you to stop by occasionally and see if there is anything interesting and helpful to you. Suggestions are sincerely appreciated.
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Identity
I am finding that a major struggle for those of us with a predilection for multiple interests and talents is around the issue of identity – not only in the way we present ourselves to others, but more importantly, who we are to ourselves. It can get quite confusing and can hold you captive. It can also come at a high cost.
For as long as I can remember, I had a fascination with the whole sheep-to-shawl process of making cloth. This led to weaving courses and became my big passion. I totally immersed myself in it and took on my identity as a weaver. I bought looms, accessories, books, and many, many cones of fiber and took numerous classes. I even left a high-paying job in Alaska and moved to North Carolina to participate in a year-long fiber arts program (imagine my family and friends’ response to that!).
After all this fevered effort to refine my weaving skills, I began to find reasons why I would never make a decent living as a weaver. But still I held on tightly to that identity. I didn’t figure out until much later that, having mastered weaving to my own satisfaction, I didn’t need to do it for a living.
I also have strong explorer urges and have moved around a lot trying on different jobs and businesses. I was looking for my one right career choice that I could settle on so I could be wildly successful – allowing me to “do my art.” With these moves, I hauled my core identity with me – that roomful of weaving stuff.
About four years ago, I was preparing for another life change and knew I would be moving again. It was then that I had an “a-ha!” moment: I had not threaded up that loom or woven one thing for ten years. I had moved on to explore many more interests, including creative and artistic endeavors. I had trained as a life coach, and through identifying my own top five values of independence, creativity, integrity, nature, and family, I learned that my life works best when I check in against my values and let them define me. What you are and the essence of what you value best informs your identity.
And yes, I did happily let go of all my weaving stuff which resulted in an incredible lightness in my being. Are you holding on to any stuff that has passed its expiration date because it defines you?
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Featured Guest: Do Mi Stauber
Today’s guest is another great model for those seeking to happily combine multiple interests and talents into a successful and satisfying career. She has been a book indexer for the last 20 years, which she tells me is the perfect career choice for scanners who love to read and learn about many different subjects. She is well-known in her field, conducts workshops and written a book on the subject titled Facing the Text: Content and Structure in Book Indexing.
But wait, there’s more. She is also an extremely talented colored pencil artist who has won awards in local and national shows, including cash awards from the Colored Pencil Society of America and the Audubon Artists’ Annual Exhibition in New York City. Do Mi gets up close and personal with her subjects and her work is beautifully textured and detailed. Don’t just take my word for it. Visit her website listed at the end of this article and see for yourself.
Q: What led you to the multi-textured life you enjoy today?
I spent a long time hoping to find the One Thing, the passion that would take over my life, establish my identity, and make my priorities clear. I never quite managed it. I should have known when I took the Strong Interest Inventory at the end of college: I was no more than slightly similar to people in any of the listed careers! For several years recently I thought that a visual artist was the only thing I needed to be. Just as that was starting to feel uncomfortable, Barbara Sher’s wonderful book Refuse to Choose came out, and I realized that I am a Scanner. These days, still working seriously on art and making my living with book indexing, I am welcoming in a rich flood of other interests. I’m trusting that my drive for mastery can be fulfilled in many fields. I feel excited, overwhelmed, and full of many colors, textures, sounds, ideas, and words.
Q: How do you balance your multiple interests into a meaningful career?
I have been a book indexer for the last 20 years, a career that has served me well as a person with multiple interests. Because I index books in all of the social sciences and humanities (well-prepared by my very generalist college education), I get to read a different book every couple of weeks, on subjects like behavioral psychology, teaching English as a Second Language, the effect of globalization on social programs, human prehistory, and what it’s like to be deaf in Japan. And because indexing means absorbing, understanding, and processing the text, I’m a temporary expert on each topic until the next one comes along. Between the varied subjects and the intense deadlines, it’s never boring! As a freelance business, it also leaves me time and flexibility to follow other interests.
Over the years I have seriously explored many other areas, including choral singing, guitar, anti-racism work, Tolkien studies, teaching anti-bias education, and home-schooling my daughter for five years. I’ve traveled the country giving workshops to other indexers, and written and self-published a book on indexing. And over the years I’ve developed my colored pencil art to the point where I am receiving national attention with awards and a feature article in a national art magazine. This year I am teaching regular classes in colored pencil.
Q: So how do you manage your day? Do you make a plan?
Time management, of course, is an ongoing issue (and also one of my ongoing interests!). The system that works best for me is Getting Things Done (created by David Allen, www.davidco.com), which helps me to capture every thought and scrap in a system I trust, so that my mind can be open and ready for the task of the moment. I index almost every day and spend rotating time on other interests.
Q: Have you had any mentors along the way?
My best mentor over the years for nurturing my multi-talented self has been Barbara Sher -- through her books and lately her message boards. Her emphasis on finding a life you love without having to change your personality, and her down-to-earth practicality, have guided me through many of my explorations.
Eric Maisel, in his book Fearless Creating and other writings, has helped immensely with the anxieties and blocks that inevitably come with creative work. His ideas have enabled me to develop my visual art farther than I ever imagined. And as I dive seriously into other creative areas, I will continue to appreciate his guidance.
My partner of 20 years is a scanner herself, and we revel both in the many activities we share and in encouraging each other in new tangents.
My therapist, who specializes in gifted adults, accepts all of my complexities with love and tells me that my mind is like a rain forest, with thousands of interwoven plants and animals all helping each other grow. And of course, I’ve had wonderful mentors in individual areas!
Q: Do you have any advice to share that will help our readers in their quest?
There is so much pressure in our culture and society to find that One Thing. If you’re a person with many interests and talents, don’t listen to that story! Accept yourself as a rain forest. Find a way (or multiple ways) to make a living, and allow yourself to play and explore. Go as deeply as you want into everything. You never know what new and wonderful creations will emerge.
To learn more about Do Mi Stauber’s art, Intimate Landscapes in Colored Pencil, visit: www.domistauberart.com. And, for information about her indexing workshops and book, Facing the Text, visit: www.domistauberindexing.com.
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If you would like to learn more about if and how Susan Henderson Coaching might be able to help you achieve your desired results, please contact me to set up a time to talk. We will start with a complimentary phone conversation where I can learn more about your current situation and goals. I will also answer any questions you may have about me, how I work with clients, and the coaching process. If we both feel the coaching relationship is a good fit, we will move on from there. Click here for contact information.
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© 2006 Susan Henderson, All rights reserved.
