How I struggled to combine my various intersts and how I solved the dilemma
How I struggled to combine my various intersts and how I solved the dilemma
As long as I can remember, I was passionate about many things and I had a long list of things that I want to do, experience, dive into, learn about and experiment with.
But how the hell shall I combine them all? How to make a living out of this hugely diverse list?
I was lost more than once. And I started a new topic, a new theme, a new experience, a new direction every couple weeks and months as a new endeavor and excitement presented itself on the horizon.
After a while I got frustrated about my diverse interests and wanted to find the one thing, the one passion I could focus on instead of moving from one direction and one path to the next.
But damn. That was difficult. I would create long lists of all the things I like and trying to find commonalities. How can I best combine them all under one roof? What am I most passionate about? What is the “one thing” that stands out among all the other ones.
Soon after, I would say to myself: “Oh, wow, I got it. I found it. That is what I want to do. I am most passionate about that one topic. And i would start working on it. To soon after experiencing an itchy feeling within me that would say :”But what about your other passions? You excluded them. That does not feel good. You restricted yourself”. And I would answer myself: “Yes, but restriction is good. It allows us to focus. And we can still do all the other things we are passionate about. we do not need to bring all of it into a career or a business. we can left some out!”.
Well. Great ideas. But it did not work.
Soon after the cycle would begin from the start. I would try to break it all down into one theme. I would get super excited about it and start working on it like crazy. To then soon realizing that some elements are missing and becoming desparate about it. To then re-doing the cycle.
It resulted in numerous projects started and never finished. It resulted in accumulated knowledge and skills that I never allowed myself to shine, as I soon changed direction, and it drove friends and family, and especially myself crazy, as it was a constant up and down, path one and two and three and four, path 100 and 2584 and 20394856.
How I found another way to find the connecting glue
Two weeks ago, I created one of a million versions of me collecting all the things I love, my strengths, people I admire, my “don’t like” elements and more into a 5 page DIN A4 document. After I was done, I thought: “let’s do a keyword counter analysis to find out which words come up most.”
I was still all in my old way of thinking: Finding the one keyword out of all of them to get this “done”. Instead of getting it done though, I got excited about learning how to write scripts and getting the results that way. I asked AI to write me a Python script to analyze which words are mostly named within the document.
I got my results rather quick with that method and realized: “Damn, “and”, “like”, “have” are the most used words. not a clear analysis of key-words, but more of fill-words. Even after I adapted the script - or better ChatGPT adapted it based on my instructions - the results were little promising. And soon I decided that this approach, while automated compared to manually put together - won’t bring any new results.
A week later - by accident - I came across an article by Emilie Wapnick, where she describes various approaches she is using with her multipotentiality clients to find an overarching theme for their business.
In her article, she mentiones 4 different approaches:
1. The overarching/umbrella theme
2. Combine two broad interests
3. The “through the lens” approach
4. Using an artistic medium as your lens
The first approach (the overarching / umbrella theme) lookes for an overarching theme, that combines everything you do. A particular way to see the world? Something that is ingrained in all you do. Examples are risk-taking, exploration, freedom or more.
The second approach (combine two broad interests) combines two or more interests. As you do not need to choose two narrow topics, but rather big ones, there is plenty of room to get creative. An example she mentions is the combination of Nerdiness (Movies, Books, Video Games, …) with Fitness (Nutrition, Wellness, Sports, …).
The third approach (through the lens) is about using a label in a way that the range of topics one can write about stays broad and extensive. Like the legal NOMAD, or “an expats take on….”, or “a surfers take on ….”.
The forth approach (using an artistic medium as a lens) takes the third approach, but takes a creative medium like “writing about creativitiy, housing and animals as a dancer” or “doodling on business cards all about productivity, friends, and cats”.
Wow. That seemed to make much more sense to me than to find one passion. In that way I may be able to combine my passions in a great way. But wait! Which of my two interests are the most relevant ones? Which ones do I want to combine? What if I leave some out again? And the circle repeats itself?
It felt like I was at the same spot I had been a long time ago. And then some time ago. And then recently. I did not come closer to the result.
And then I had an idea.
Why not using AI to get some good inspiration? I use it for so many different things already anyways? Maybe an AI would know more than I do and as they are good in pattern recognition, maybe I would gain some new ideas.
Using AI as a Pattern-Recognizing Direction Coach
I decided to give it a go. I inputted into ChatGPT and Pi.ai (in a shorter version) my long 5 page DIn A4 document and provided the AI with the four different approaches Emilie was talking about as well as some examples for the AI to know what it was supposed to work on. Then I pressed enter.
And the results were quite good. Fusion Horizons, Evolutive Creativity, The Creative Architect, The Creative Explorer, The Ideation Maverick, Creative Technologist, Creative Alchemist, Exploration / Growth, TechPlay, Narratives of Inovation, Design & Discovery and so on. It listed one theme for each of the approaches and gave me a detailed analysis why it chose that theme. After a first analysis, I asked it to provide me not with 1 idea per appraoch, but with 15 of them for each approach. It got messy, but helpful. I saw first patterns emerging. And I wrote down each of the themes, words and phrases that I liked the most and that resonated the most with me.
It took me a while. Sitting with it. Thinking about it. Looking to let it sink and see what patterns emerge within the words and concepts that rang a bell in my head and stomach and intuition the most.
After countless hours and fully scribbled papers, I got closer to the result. Creativity Unleashed. Curiosity Unleashed. The Creative Innovator. The Creative Tech Architect.
But how to decide among the more specific concepts?
Using Comparison Analysis to find what resonates mos
After I found those concepts that mostly rang true with me, I broke them down further. I still had many concepts that I loked a lot, but still failed to get close to an overarching theme.
For that reason, I asked AI in a new chat window, what first comes to mind when hearing the different words. As a creative person, a professional, a client manager, a mother and father, a child, a pessimist and more.
Instead of taking the AIs ideas at face value, I only cared for the words it used and how I reacted to the words - would I like them? Would they resonate? Would it feel good? Was there an itchy feeling?
All the conceps that did not feel promising were taken apart. Up till that point, where I was left with two options: Creativity Unleashed or Curiosity Unleashed.
I liked them both quite a lot but did not know which oe to take and so I asked one last time: Which one do you like more and why? And I listened in, I did let it resonate, I slept several days to make sure that in the end I feel confident with the choice and finally decided to go with Curiosity Unleashed.
It felt fantastic, exciting and quite calming. It does not constrain me. There is no itchy feeling of “oh no, I can’t take this into there” and I genuinely like it.
It was a long journey and it is not yet over. It is just the beginning.
Many endings begin with a new beginning. And the same is true for a concept.
It can lay in the darkest corner of a building, it can be forgotten or never become ingrained within oneself and one’s direction. Or it can start to flourish like a flower that waited to get water to grow and be nourished.
I decided for the latter. It is a beautiful concept. And it is the first one I ever feel no itchy feeling. No need to hurry up and rush and get super-excited. But an anxiety induced happiness of “wow, I feel there is no constraint”, but instead “there is beauty in it”, and the feeling that “I do not need to rush, simply work on it each day a bit and letting it grow from one day to the next” and “it just feels good and like - wow - that is really me and the inner motivation that drives much of what I do”.
Wanna try it out? Here are the steps 1 by 1:
Write down everything that comes to your mind regarding the following questions:
Your Interests, Your Passions, Your Goals, Your Strengths, The People you admire and why, Your Bucket List Items, Your Struggles, …
Copy-Paste your Answers into ChatGPT or Pi.AI. Be aware that only in the upgraded ChatGPT4 Version your data is not used for training purposes (if you feel it is too personal to share).
Post the four approaches plus examples into the same Chatfield as well
Press Enter and the see the magic happen
Need more ideas? Ask ChatGPT: “can you do the same analysis, but now by providing me with 15 ideas per approach please instead of only one?”
Then snythesize, analyse, feel inside yourself: Does it resonate with me? Does it feel good? Does it give me an itchy feeling? Does it still feels good after a week?
OPTIONAL: Write down the ones that resonate most with you and write them on sticky notes and put the sticky notes on your fridge. Then take down those you do not like until at the end, you end up with the one that resonates most
Use AI to get various perspectives and insights on each of the ones that feel closest to your heart
And voilá, you are ready to start with your concept!
OPTIONAL: Buy a domain. If it is not available anymore, buy a similar one and use your concept as the branding and main headline of your site and project/business.
Let me know how it works. I would love to learn and find out how you have found your overarching theme, business concept and/or personal concept. Did you choose a similar approach? A completely different one? Was it pure intuition? Or a rational, structured approach?