Everyone likes to make plans of their life right? Decide what you want to do in the long run, and sure it may be hard if not a big exciting. Some think college, others a business, and others still perhaps something different altogether.
What you do with your life is just that, YOUR LIFE, and we need to create a societal level understanding of that fact. There is always this tension with people around us to be pushed towards the herd. However the most successful people are the ones who follow their own path, and curate their own life.
Knowing what to focus on now, what to put on the slow burn, and what to put on the back burner.
A Sequel Post to:
Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator
Why should we curate our lives?
You could ask it in another way: Why should we take control of our lives? They both mean the same thing, and when you see that word control it shares this feeling of safety.
Here is something I haven't shared with anyone ever before. I used to fantasize about living in a high tech security bunker, within a fortress/castle, and having multiple layers of defense. Self-sufficient so I never had to worry about taking care of my physical needs. However as I got older I realized just how stupid that idea was, mind you I still like it deep down, but by isolating yourself from the world it causes a ripple effect.
Not only do you not get effected by the people around you, leading to severe isolation, which social influences on our psyche is a crucial part of life development. The other grand negative is that YOUR influence isn't imparted onto others, and you matter too. Your opinions, mindset, and ideas are unique (for the most part), and they are valuable to others when used in productive means. I don't mean in a tweet or sharing your opinion online, but rather when you are in a situation where you are problem solving with a team.
Your unique life, position, experience, they all come together to form how you think. How does that collection of experience and life occur in the first place? By amassing experiences in the world, and over the course of your life.
How does one plan out so far ahead?
By curating your life then the aforementioned amassed experiences are now catered towards the ones that you prefer. The ones that you feel is right for your way of living, and the flow of your own mindset.
I remember in secondary school I spent a lot of time thinking about the electives I was going to take. Although things didn't turn out fully the way I expected, there was a lot to be gained by the choices I made. The experiences I learned in those classes help me even today with PolyInnovator.
You gotta think about your life as a series of events.
Working your way back.
Think to the furthest event in your life history that you can imagine, for me it is standing on a balcony overlooking the smart city United Living Construct when I'm around 80 years old. That is what I envision from time to time, and it just came to me AFTER actively trying to visualize.
By looking back you can look at parts of your life in chunks. The chunks begin to take form, and you are able to plan out your steps to the next chunk.
Thinking in Phases.
While for me PolyInnovator is the most important thing in my life, as it is literally just the online essence of me, there is still a slight disconnect from what I do in life vs online. However those aforementioned chunks are equivalent to what I refer to as phases.
These phases are the areas of interest I focus on to achieve my future polymathy. It isn't a matter of doing 20 things at once, but rather focusing on one at a time. 80% on the main micro-focus, and 20% on the rest of the stuff to keep my skills up.
The phases of PolyInnovator often overlap with the ones in my life as well, or at least I try to get them to.
What is the point to curation?
The reason you would want to is that it gives you a plan to follow. A collection of steps to work towards, and give yourself a goal to achieve. You cannot be successful if you do not know where you are going.
By curating your life you are organizing the phases by priority/interest, and then pursuing them to success or until you are no longer interested. Reaching new heights along the way.
True path to polymathy:
I find that you CAN go serialized, and over the course of your life you'll have multiple phases and careers. Those end up at the end of your life being the polymathic traits, but I think that waiting until the end to become someone polymathic is a bit underwhelming.
I want to be able to pursue my interests when I am inclined towards them, not when I have to wait for a new phase, and so came this other path...
The juggling approach, and this is where people mistakenly say "jack of all trades master of none" kind of thing. Where if you focus on too many things at once you "fail to focus". I don't think that is true, but only because there are ways to systematize your actions.
Granted if you're a multipotentialite or even jack of all trades, and lack the discipline it takes to stick to something over the learning plateau then yes you are failing to focus. However it only takes a short time to get past the initial barrier.
If you can juggle your interests with the discipline and time needed, then I think it is possible to switch/interleave between them.
To the next phase!
My first phase was Modular Education, and I'm close to initially wrapping that one up. As I have some upcoming posts around the Modegree, and the template release that will all come together as a basis for people to start out.
Then I had the interviews over quarantine simply because of the opportunity, but I seriously want to restart that again. Albeit a lot more slowly so that it is sustainable, and so both of those previous phases will be part of the 20% I mentioned before, with a bit of focus on a future phase too.
Then I'll be switching my focus to swimming finally, as that is what I originally conceived to be my "phase 2". Taking all of my dry and wet exercise knowledge, and creating content around it.
During this endeavor I will be sowing the seeds of PolyInnovator Gaming, a future phase, and so I can keep up the previous two + initialize the next one. While FOCUSING on the current one, Polymath Exercise.
Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator
https://medium.com/darius-foroux/dont-pick-a-career-create-one-931a8d3c548d
