In a world that wants to pigeon hole you into this niche or that, what do you do if that is too confining? What if there isn’t a niche or a label that encompasses who you are and what you offer?
As a child - I constantly confounded my parents because when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I said, “I want to be a veterinarian-fireman-mother-astronaut-dolphin trainer-ballerina-unicorn.” (And that was only Monday’s answer.)
In my English classes, my teachers would throw their hands up in frustration because my essays were like an ecstatic dog that someone left the gate open for. “Grass, my favorite thing! Birds, my favorite thing! This bush, my favorite thing! A butterfly, my favorite thing! A stranger, my favorite thing!”
You get the idea.
I recently had a call with a business coach - and her first advice was that I needed a niche. At first, I thought I had one. But the more I played with this niche, the more unhappy I became. I felt like someone had strapped a straight jacket on me. My usual mental flow felt sluggish and shallow.
Yuck.
I thought long and hard about it and I came to the conclusion that my niche would be guiding the un-niche-able. The Supernovas. The people who know they are enormous, gargantuan, and colossal. The people that keep being told to tone their light down to what “works” and just can’t.
Oh, it isn’t for lack of trying. We squeeze, we shove, we suck it in, and we try oh-so hard to color in the lines. But before you know it - there we go again, skipping uphill singing, “Don’t fence me in.”
See, people like me love to shine their light on every and anything. There isn’t a pigeonhole big enough for us. When you ask us what our “favorite” anything is - you’ll get a different answer each day. Or each hour!
And what I’m finding out is that in a world of order, categories, and genres - I am like oil in a watery world. I’m that immortal square peg.
And I’ve decided I’m not fighting it anymore. I’m embracing my multi-dimensional, versatile, jack-of-all-trades, inner-maverick. And either the world is going to meet me at the nonconformist cafe or not.
After all, you just can’t dim the sun.
💋KMFC
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