Being a Professional Generalist

To be a smart generalist who master some skills

I often hear the opinion from people like this, “Focus on one only, don’t be a generalist.”

At first, I agreed with that opinion. All the experts I knew had one or two specific skills and were paid very well because they had a certification or branding in certain things.

Until I explored myself and created a brand called Wordholic Class. I decided to ignore the previous opinion and focus on my exploration.

Everyone sure has their journey. I also learned many things to satisfy my curiosity so my Mom said, “Your curiosity can kill a T-Rex and annoy people.”

I decided to do what I wanted to do, it was about learning many things while finding the dots.

Start From The Thing That Triggers My Curiosity

The first thing that I did to fulfil my curiosity was to learn many kinds of writing styles. I learned about blog writing, novel writing, script writing, and picture books. I spared my money every month to join a writing class or buy an online class.

Writing has been my passion since I was in elementary school, but to be a professional writer, we need more technical skills and a good mindset. That’s why I bought many courses. I love the process.

Learn One by One

Second, I learned until I got bored.

In my opinion, the reason why many learners end up not being able to master many skills is because they learn different things at the same time.

I didn’t do that. I will give myself some months to learn a specific subject. For example, in 2019 I learned about copywriting for 4 months, and then I crafted my first landing page. I shared my learning journey, and then I got my first copywriting client in 2020.

After I could speak in English and Japanese, I had an intention to learn a new language. I chose French. I bought a book and played Duolingo for 3 months. Then, I was getting bored. I stopped learning French and started to learn Korean because I love Korean Drama.

Now, I can read and write Hangeul although I still can’t speak well. Before I travelled to Ho Chi Minh City last January, I played Duolingo to learn Vietnamese. I could speak a little to make a bargain with the local seller.

Short Resolution

Last, I won’t make a long list of goals annually. I changed the way I make a dream plan through a short resolution.

I have a learning timeframe from 3 months to 1 semester. I choose the subject which I like then write a plan to focus on for the upcoming months.

In every trimester, I make 1 to 2 specific goals such as novel writing then for the second trimester I can focus on learning about SEO.

So being a professional generalist is more than the ordinary generalist who can’t master anything.

You can define your timeframe to learn many things.

Start from the thing that you want to learn and make a list, learn it one by one not in the same timeline, and last make a short time for goal setting.