I'm a Scanner

This has been an exciting week for me. I read an online review of Barbara Sher's book, "Refuse to Choose!" Ever since I graduated with my Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, over a year now, I've been soul-searching and brainstorming on what I'm going to do next in my career. It's been one of the more frustrating experiences in my life. Not the short-term type of frustration that you know will come and go. It's the long-term type of frustration like a chronic illness where you wonder if you will ever be okay again.

The mental framework for my self-discovery went something like this:

1. Statistics have shown that people are happier when they work in professions that are aligned with their personal passion, ethics and morals.
2. I'm unhappy at work, so my current position or career is not in line with my life-long passion.
3. If I can discover the one thing that I'm truly passionate about then I can align my career and be work-happy again.

So I've spent the last year trying to find that one thing. That ... one ... thing.  
If only I could figure out my ONE true passion!

One year later, having considered hundreds of options, I came up empty handed. "There must be something wrong with me." I've had many discussions like this with trusted friends, most recently my wife, Jennyfer. "Nothing excites me so much that I want to do it forever. Am I depressed? I'm starting to feel depressed..." Funny as this may sound, I have often dismayed about the difficulty in choosing an avatar or picture to use in my online profiles, forums, blogs, email, etc. What one thing describes or defines me so much that it will be me representative picture to the world?! Well, I can't think of anything.

Luckily I'm not the only one who feels this way. Barbara Sher identified a class of individuals who can't happily confine themselves to a small range of interests, passions, hobbies or otherwise, and she coined the term "Scanners" to set them apart from the "Divers". For me this is a brand new discovery which has already lifted a great burden and catapulted me along my self-discovery process. The basic premise is that I don't have a single passion. I'm interested in many different things, and those things frequently change. And that's okay! 

The first thing Barabara recommends in her book is to create a "Scanner Daybook" to record "explorations."  She recommends a very formal physical book, something nice, to record the many varied ideas and interests that constantly come to mind. For me that's a problem because I hate to write. So instead I'm going to do this online, in the medium that I feel gives me a greater freedom of expression. This blog is going to be my Scanner Daybook. It's for me, but you're welcome to read.