What's in your Venn Diagram?

When I think of a Venn Diagram, I think of maths, and science and ways of grouping things, but never about myself, or my career. But that is exactly what I thought about after listening to a TedX Daily podcast about “Why all melodies should be free for musicians to use” by speaker Damien Riehl. How do melodies have anything to do with Venn Diagrams and careers you ask.. Well let me tell you.

In his talk, Riehl explains that a finite number of melodies exist and, with the current copyright structure, the world will one day run out of free melodies. So, Riehl and a colleague, Noah Rubin, got crafty and combined their data science and musician skills and coded a program to generate every melody that can ever possibly exist. They then copyrighted all of these melodies, and put them in the public domain, making them open-access to all musicians in an effort to “keep space open for songwriters to be able to make music”. Pretty cool, right?

What I found most interesting about the talk wasn’t the music, or the coding, but was when Riehl talks about his Venn diagram.

Riehl explains that he is a lawyer, a musician, and a technologist and that the combination of these three jobs/careers/domains puts him in the middle of a Venn diagram that gave him unique insights to solve this particular problem. Insights that he may not have had if he did not have experience in all three of these domains. Basically, given his past and current roles, his training and experience, he was uniquely positioned to save the world from copyrighted melodies.

The idea of our own personal Venn diagram really got me thinking about how the combination of our past and current roles give each and every one of us insights that are unique, given our experiences. It also made me think that we are never just one thing. That we are not defined by the current job that we have.

WE ARE NOT DEFINED BY OUR CURRENT JOB

We are made up of all of the experiences - including jobs, education, family, friends - that we have had over our lifetime to date. These experiences (and jobs) provide us with a different lens to see the world, and they are how we approach problems at work, and in everyday life.

So, I decided to sketch my own career Venn Diagram, and this is what I got:

Do you feel like your Venn Diagram may look more like this? Or have EVEN MORE circles? Or maybe it feels like your circles are different sizes? This Venn diagram is only from the last 11 years, and leaves out my work experiences from early 20s, and ALL personal life experiences - but each of these circles have played a role in who I am, where I am now. This tiny red shape represents how these different work experiences combine to give me a unique perspective. Looking at this today, I am sure that I bring each of these circles/past lives and roles to how I approach my work as a coach - whether consciously or subconsciously.

You may not think your past roles are connected or that the work we did 10 years ago isn’t related to what we are doing now, but I assure you they are. They are connected through you, the red spot sitting in the middle of all of those circles. So, if you’re up for it, I challenge you to give it a try. Draw your circles out, and if you’re feeling courageous, send me a photo of your Venn Diagram, I would love to see it!

If you’re feeling stuck or unfulfilled at work, send me a note. I would love to chat about it. You may feel like you are defined by your current job - whether you like, dislike, or are indifferent to it - but remember: you are not your job. Your job is just one part of you.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB.

YOUR JOB IS JUST ONE PART OF YOU.

Until next time,

Amy

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Interested in hearing Damien Rheil’s Ted Talk? Listen wherever you listen to Podcasts: