If you are reading this now, you may wonder if you can relate to the identity “Jack of all trades”. You may be curious as to whether or not having multiple skill sets is a positive thing to achieve or simply an inconvenience. In exploring this idea, we may better understand our place in the world and our place within a grander context.
Usually, when we talk about any individual with many skill sets, we like to mention Leonardo Da Vinci the painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. This particular life shows that a single individual can wear many hats in expertise and be pretty good at most of them.
Though, the fact that he is so good at a number of things can actually be dis-encouraging to most of us from the get-go. We may assume that this person had some sort of genetic superiority or was just raised in such a way, that he was allowed to cultivate such mastery over a wide range of areas.
Though, this viewpoint only serves to surrender into mediocrity. It gives us an excuse we can feed on so that we don’t have to learn anything new. However, it is equally true that our mind craves the easy road to things. If we, for whatever reason, find ourselves painting at an early age. And, for whatever reason, we continue to find ourselves painting when we grow older. We will find that our interest in painting grows and grows as we claim mastery by our interest in knowing more about it. Always being free to move onto others subjects that peak our interest, so that we can integrate a variety of subjects, and more easily relate to people, places, and things.
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. Then you do something else. — Leonardo Da Vinci
We may look to famous people in history or in our world today, and tell ourselves that we are just not capable of achieving what they have. This is, by all accounts of these famous people, not true. It is perhaps, only a conqueror of nations or an arrogant criminal that would like you to believe otherwise.
The trick is the doing something else. — Leonardo Da Vinci
The trick is indeed, the initiation of any new activity. Far more easy is it to relax into doing what we know. And usually, what we know, is how to watch videos on the internet, or how to listen to music and sleep all day. The doing part is very tricky, because we are faced with a greater probability of frustration with ourselves, and our lack of understanding can make any task seem as though it would take an eternity to complete.
But, let us question even that. Do we really know it will be frustrating to learn new stuff? Actually, it seems that all of us are fairly proficient in a wide range of subjects. Our school system introduces us to a variety of subjects at a very early age. Mathematics, History, Language, Music, Health, Science, and more. And somehow we seem to retain a great deal of basic knowledge in all these categories, despite our varying interests.
As well, it seems that our desires now allow us to naturally learn about a wide-range of topics by a simple search on the internet. Various documentaries, tutorial videos, and articles, can make almost anyone a skilled adept in nearly any field they want, depending on how interested they are in the subject. In fact, our education would improve greatly if we allowed everyone to study only what they were interested in at the timing of their interest in that topic. This is because excitement in subjects is what allows the retention of knowledge within said fields. As it is now, most of us forget the more advanced knowledge we learn in school, because we are often overwhelmed with information that is barely relevant to how we perceive ourselves as individuals, during the times that the information is forced upon us.
In this way, most people are completely confused as to what to do out of high school. Usually opting for more general education, and thus generally becoming more bored and confused with life. If only they were able to fully explore an interesting topic to its depth! There they would naturally become far more interested in the others.
For example, let us assume someone was born with a health condition that brought them a lot of pain. This may make them more interested in the science of health, more then any other topic. And if we allowed this individual to learn what they desired to learn, it is far more likely that through spending time in learning this topic they would desire to learn about medicine, then the chemistry behind the medicine, then the effects of the chemistry behind the medicine, leading them to the most conducive solutions. Eventually, leading this person to learn about mathematics or engineering so that they could develop a machine that was able to administer a natural solution, in such an efficient and advanced way, wherein their health condition could be healed. Something akin to oxygen therapy, which appears to have no side-effects at all.
Within this idea, we can see that it doesn’t matter how much skill you have in any area. It only matters that you continue to explore your interests, no matter what they are. Being free to explore any topic of interest can allow anyone to believe anything is possible in the Earthly realm. Perhaps, there will be notable individuals who take a similar path in health for similar reasons but also, dip into philosophy at an earlier age, leading to eastern philosophy, where they learn that the body is more than capable of producing rich oxygen through advanced yogic techniques. Thus, clearing their condition without the need of spending exorbitant amounts of money on technology or therapy.
It is in this way your mind can work now. Knowing that whatever you are interested and whatever you decide to work on or experiment with has lead you to a path that is unique only to your individual soul. No one else has the specific set of skills that you have. Whether those skills are within the realm of sociability, economy, science, philosophy, or play. It is all part of how you have defined yourself as an individual. All that is required is to know what you would desire to know more of, and then spend a paltry amount of time in initiating that activity. It could be a mere five minutes of looking into a new subject. In doing so, you will naturally want to spend much more time, as your skill increases. Eventually, you will find yourself exploring areas you never knew about, and your awe and excitement of existence will grow exponentially.
Everything has its timing, and thus has played out by the nature of circumstances. More importantly though, is your ability to be open minded about your innate intellect, despite these circumstances. Time takes place in everything so it is best to pay it no mind when endeavoring to expand our consciousness. For certainly, we are all capable of mastery in any work we do or in any sensation we wish to experience, so long as we are willing to initiate a single step towards our hidden desires for more understanding.
Rokazulu's Mystical Eschaton 