We’ve all been there… you start off going in one direction and soon everyone recognizes you for it, and it’s hard to break free.
For example, if you’re known as the go-to expert in furniture design, it might be hard to get the world to recognize you as a talented chef.
If you’re here, it’s because you have many talents and passions.
How to Break Out of A Rut At Work or in Your Business
And often the world at large doesn’t appreciate someone who doesn’t fit in a neat box… there’s sayings like “Jack of all trades, master of none” that make you feel like you should only ever learn one trade.
Luckily, you’re not alone. Author Barbara Sher talks about us multi-passionate people in her book Scanners, and she has a few different recommendations for expressing all your interests.
One of the first things I need to do is give you full permission to not turn all your passions into businesses.
It’s totally okay to have hobbies and things that you’re interested in learning and pursuing in a non-monetized way. This could be a personal blog all about your latest knitting projects, photography, or martial arts.
Your hobbies will be different from everyone else’s: some people might be highly profitable businesses from their knitting blogs, doing professional photography, or opening a martial arts studio.
The trick is to recognize which passions of yours need to be a business, and which ones need to be just for your own pleasure.
Next, you’ll want to observe your preferred engagement style… if you geek out on a new topic for 3 years, it might be something you can incorporate into your business.
If your interest cycle is much shorter and your attention span is shorter like just one month, then you need to build that change into your business model… perhaps by working with clients in different fields regularly.
Now the trick to breaking out of your pigeonhole once you’re known for something is to announce it to the world.
One word of warning: if you tend to change businesses or ideas on a very short cycle (there’s nothing wrong with that) but you don’t want to freak your people out by switching things up on them so quickly. If that’s the case, then I say only make announcements when things are really changing, otherwise you might confuse your audience lose them.
Otherwise, when you’re making a big change – get very clear and direct about your intentions with the new direction and announce it to your email list and on social media.
Change is the only constant, so embrace it and let your business evolve over time.
I’d love to know what rut you’ve escaped, and what you did to break free… leave a comment below to let me know!
