Life As I Learn It

Among the countless careers available to us, a small number seem to receive most of society’s admiration: medicine, pharmacy, engineering and other well-known professions. Yet these represent only a fraction of the paths a person can pursue. Their popularity and prestige can make them appear more desirable, sometimes causing us to overlook paths that may be far better suited to our individual abilities.

This made me wonder: is what we admire necessarily what we are good at?

I encountered this question myself while exploring digital marketing. When looking through Etsy, I noticed the popularity of digital planners and saw how many sellers were creating and selling them. Observing their work made the idea increasingly appealing to me. I became passionate about emulating what I saw and creating a planner of my own.

However, admiration from the outside was very different from actually doing the work.

What I had imagined as a relatively simple project quickly became complicated. I spent several days constructing the planner, yet even after repeatedly attempting to finish it, I was left with glitches and problems. The enthusiasm was there, but the process itself did not seem to complement my strengths.

Rather than forcing myself to continue simply because I admired what others had achieved, I experimented with another type of digital product. I began designing invitations and templates for events and occasions celebrated around the world—products that I could create and maintain more consistently.

The difference surprised me.

While designing these invitations, ideas seemed to flow naturally. Instead of struggling to decide what to create, concepts seemed to escape from my mind almost faster than I could put them onto the screen. Within ten minutes, I could sometimes produce designs that felt distinctive and, to me, peculiarly beautiful.

My sales are still on the lower side, which is expected as a beginner with a new shop. Nevertheless, the experience taught me something more valuable than an immediate sale. Moving from planners, which I had learned to desire through observing the success of others, to invitation design revealed an ability I had not originally been searching for.

Even more interestingly, I began to love it.

I had assumed that passion would lead me towards my strengths. Instead, discovering one of my strengths created a new passion.

This small experience made me think about the way we choose much bigger things, particularly careers. We constantly observe the achievements of other people. We see respected doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, designers and countless others, and naturally we may imagine ourselves achieving what they have achieved. But there is a difference between admiring the outcome of somebody else’s ability and possessing the strengths required to enjoy the process that produced it.

I believe God created everyone differently. We are not all given identical abilities, interests or purposes, and perhaps that difference itself has value. Rather than measuring our potential entirely through what other people have succeeded in doing, there is value in discovering and investing in the abilities God has given each of us.

At the moment, my shop is only a side hustle, but small experiences can teach surprisingly big lessons.

I have begun to think that passion is not always something already embedded within our personality, waiting to be discovered. Sometimes passion can be developed. We experiment, struggle, adapt and unexpectedly discover something that makes better use of our abilities. With time, competence can become enjoyment, and enjoyment can become passion.

Perhaps, then, we should be careful about confusing admiration with aptitude.

What we love by observation may not be what we love through experience. And sometimes, instead of chasing what looks beautiful in somebody else’s hands, we have to discover what becomes beautiful in our own.

This is my life, as I learn it.