Are you a master dabbler?

(if you're only interested in my scrappy shares scroll down a bit :-0).

The master dabbler is another theory we examined as part of the 7 Types of Busy Seminar. The theory as presented to the group is that when examining how people react to a task you will find that they fall broadly into two categories - a dabbler or a master.

The theory states that when you take on a new challenge you experience a period of rapid improvement but then as you become more proficient your achievement levels out and eventually plateaus. It is at this point that the differences in character emerge. If you're a dabbler you'll become bored of this level of consistency, abandon the task and move on to something new. The masters among us, will continue to pursue the task until their skill level begins to climb once more. There will be many plateaus along their journey but they will preserve and eventually make it to the top of the field in that chosen task. Imagine a staircase, that's how a Master's journey looks. The dabbler has jumped off the stairs after taking the first step!

But this theory troubled me and others in the group. Is it always wrong to be a dabbler? A good example is those of us who have tried many crafts. Did we really fail? Did we abandon our pursuit because we couldn't improve our skill level or were we just distracted by some thing bright and shiny and new?

And most importantly why do we have to press ourselves to become the best? If this is a hobby we enjoy then surely achieving at the dabbler status is mastery in itself. At this point the presenter offered us a third category, the obsessive. This is the person who refuses to believe they can't progress to a higher level and continues to do the same thing over and over, achieving the same result and never progressing to the level of master. Again this personality type raised questions among the group. No one wants to be an obsessive but some people are neither dabblers or masters.

I've been turning this theory over in head since the seminar and decided to do some more research on it. I'm glad I did. I discovered that there is a completely different school of thought out there about the third personality type. It's called the achiever, who like the obsessive pushes on out of stubborn determination, or love of the task, not necessarily with a clear plan but, who through sheer hard work slowly improves and continues on an upward journey of achievement.

I think many of fall into the category of achiever. It has a nice feel to it. Everyone loves the sense of achievement that comes from doing the best you can regardless of whether you are a master or not.

For me this is particularly true of my scrapbooking. Scrapping is something I love. I recognise that there are many truly talented scrappers out there whose artistry I can never hope to surpass but this knowledge doesn't cause me to down tools and move on to something new. I watch and learn from these clever women and apply my knowledge so that steadily over time I too achieve results.

I think the achiever personality type also supports my thoughts on winning and losing (as I talked about in my last post). Being an achiever is about being a winner - doing the best you can and being happy with the results.

I'm sure that there are other parts of life where I am more a dabbler (gardening and cooking) and still others where I take on the mindset of a master (professionally and perhaps towards health and fitness). I hope though, that, I never become an obsessive, I think that would be a very unhappy mindset don't you?

I was very interested to read your comments on my last post - thanks for taking the time to provide such considered responses, it was great to hear other points of view :) I'm looking to your thoughts on master dabblers too.

After I wrote my previous post I sat down to scrap and thoughts of how we approach life and the lessons we teach our children were still present in my head. I created this LO for the Top 50 quote challenge: "if life is a song, then love is the music". I paraphrased it slightly and used it as my journalling, I hope that my daughter will always remember to dance her way through life because then she really will win!

I also had a play with the Purple Pumpkin recipe challenge. I used a photo that shouts fun and reckless abandon - something we all need to practise regularly. The recipe called for paint, a button, doily, twine, misting ink, fussy cutting and two types of alphas. I was thrown for a moment as I'm not much of a fussy cutter but then that star caught my eye and I cut it out quick smart. I thought I was all finished and then realised I only had one type of alpha (the stamped word) so I added a little extra to my title and that was that :)

Thanks for stopping by, before you go, may I trouble you for a little advice? Should I demarcate my blog posts - have one for my social commentary and another for my scrappy shares? Or is it ok to combine the two, knowing that some people will skim over the stuff they're not interested in?