A guest post by Terry Heath
“Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they’re looking for ideas.” ~ Paula Poundstone, American Comedienne
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~ E.E. Cummings, American Poet
I’ve met many adults who still don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.
If I asked you, you might search for the one thing you think you want to do with your life. Or if you are adventurous you might say something like, “First I’ll be this thing, then I’ll be that, but eventually I want to be another entirely different thing.”
Most of us thought we would have figured out an answer by now.
But have you ever considered you might be able to find the answer by paying a visit to your friendly neighborhood ice cream shop?
Ice cream cones have something to teach us about growing up.
Walk through the door with me. Can you smell the waffle cones? They’re fresh made and waiting to be filled with your favorite flavors of ice cream.
Today you’re going to fill one of those fresh cones with three scoops. What flavors will you chose?
Notice I’m assuming you’ll select more than one, everybody does. Variety is the whole point of a triple scoop ice cream cone. You’ll order three different flavors, and together they’ll make something wonderful.
Together they’ll create synergy, the thing that happens when one plus one equals three.
Sure you’ve thought about synergy before. It’s one of the great buzzwords of our time, an often-used battle cry of business gurus and motivational speakers. It’s used in team building exercises, and these days I hear it’s even associated with corporate downsizing.
Oh sure, you could pick just one flavor of ice cream and maybe you would be perfectly happy. But you wouldn’t get to experience the synergy of three totally different flavors joined together to create heaven in a waffle cone.
Now let me break this down a bit before we move on. One flavor of ice cream is nice, but no synergy. Two flavors, maybe a little bit of synergy starting there. But stack three flavors together and you have a triple-scoop, waffle-cone enhanced trip to heaven.
That could be like your grown-up life.
When we’re filling a waffle cone with ice cream, do we feel compelled to take our flavors one at a time? No, we pick as many as we can stash in our cone and generally feel pretty good about it.
So why are we uncomfortable pursuing a few of our many divergent interests at the same time? We know putting a combination of ice cream flavors in our waffle cone will create something unique and wonderful, so why not allow ourselves the same freedom allowing our varied interests a place in our lives?
What would happen if we let two or three of those things we love, or think we might love, be our “big thing” . . . all at the same time?
Synergy would happen.
“Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.” ~ Jim Fiebig
In life we seem to think dropping scoops is part of the game, a part of growing up. We may even equate “growing up” with settling on one particular flavor. But is it really okay to let any part of yourself fall by the wayside?
We could look back on our lives someday and say, “That was a really great ice cream cone.”
Enjoy some more articles by Terry Heath on his blogs TerryHeath.com and Bloggity.
Related articles by Mary Jaksch:
What is the One Thing in Your Life?
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Good advice!
I’m one of those people who focuses on only one passion at a time. Instead, I can have several passions. I also agree pursuing multiple passions could create unexpected synergies.
Roger – A Content Lifes last blog post..Prepare to Die
Terry, How does the icecream cone square with Mary’s 26-01-09 post about “What’s the One Thing in Your Life?”
One of the most awesome ways to do this is to COMBINE the passions. Then you can bring a whole lot of unexpected value to the world without doing any extra work!
Like Andria Baldovin, a case study from Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week. She knew a lot about yoga and rock-climbing, and she noticed some yoga exercises she knew were great for rock-climbers.
None of the rock-climbers knew them, because they didn’t do yoga, and no yoga folks realized the exercises would be great for rock-climbers, because they didn’t climb. Only Andria, because she knew both fields, realized how much value she could bring to rock-climbers by teaching them the simple exercises. So she created instructional DVDs, and now earns a nice living through that.
Or Brian Clark from copyblogger. He decided to join the fields of blogging and copywriting, because he noticed how useful copywriting advice could be to bloggers. He has built a massively successful blog, by teaching bloggers to create catchy headlines, and snappy interesting content, by applying copywriting principles.
So, consider not just following several passions, but COMBINING them together!
Vlad Dolezals last blog post..Creating Money out of Thin Air
Hi Jim!
Interesting question. As I said in What is the One Thing in Your Life?, it’s possible to have more than one passion in life. But deep underneath you may find one hidden driver.
It can be difficult to find – and understand – our underlying aspiration. In my case, one of the ways I got to see my aspiration was in a significant and unforgettable dream.
I might write about that in my next post.
Terry, I totally agree with you on fitting in multiple passions all at once into life, but somehow your article left me cold..
Your metaphor of the ice-cream cone doesn’t really work for me – you point out that synergy happens with multiple flavours on a cone, but don’t actually demonstrate why “adult life” is like that?..
My life is not a waffle cone. It’s my life.
With all due respect, I could write an almost identical article using a petrol-tank for a metaphor, and say “if you use a mix of different fuels, petrol, diesel and lpg, you’ll destroy your engine. Cars run best on just one fuel at a time. Life is like that too.”
Great article!
For most of my life, I was driven, by expectations–mine, society’s, parents’, family etc. When the angst for it to be other than what it already is was given up, in that stillness, rose true passions. Then, it’s effortless, and synergies just happen!
Thanks for the insight.
Kaushiks last blog post..The Paradox of Effort
@Mete: An ice cream cone is just an example of synergy, as many other things could also be. I’m not sure if there is another question in your comment, but am sorry you don’t like the article.
I like the article and it made me realize I NEVER get 3 different flavors. I feel guilty getting two instead of one!
I wonder if that has a correlation to my life and how I approach my goals.
Alright, I may not be able to eat it all at one sitting but I am trying my usual chocolate chip and chocolate ice cream with a scoop of orange sherbet on top next time… sweet!
Dianas last blog post..I love Susan Boyle
i absolutely LOVED this post of yours … loved loved loved it !!!! many times i find asking myself to keep “pinning it down” to only ONE thing i should concentrate on, one talent or one dream that i should focus on pursuing.
your post has shown me that ultimately its OK to enjoy many flavors in life !!!!
what a great post and what a great blog –
Deb
Just popped in to say a belated thank you to those of you who commented on my guest post here, since there is a chance you have subscribed to followup comments.
Soon after posting my father went into Hospice, then passed away the end of May. I made him a priority and I’m so glad I did.
Keep trying new flavors! I’ve resumed blogging and hope to bump into many of you again across the blogosphere!
Terry Heath´s last blog ..“The Big Sleep” – Pulp Fiction for the Thinking Man