How to master the things you want to do

I am a woman of many interests—curious, layered, easily tiresome of the same room—and constantly interested in what interesting, creative people have to say and show me about their lives and their crafts. And often times, I want to try these things for myself.

What a wonderful and beautiful way to live…

Yes, sure, if capitalism didn’t exist and we lived in a village where we had a range of mediocre skills to trade for goods and services. Then, being a jack of all trades might be good. But alas, we do not, we live in now, and being a jack of all trades makes you…watered-down. A bit soggy.

Being a master of 100 trades though… now that’s a bit more fun isn’t it?

As a jack of all trades, no one thinks you’re good enough, focused enough or serious enough about the 100 things you’re offering. And they’re probably right. You’re probably shit at the 100 things you’re trying to do—especially if you’re doing them all at the same time. You look… average and no one trusts you.

Like Old Gil from the Simpsons who job hops every episode and sucks at all of them. Or like a 20 year old trying to be a life coach. No one trusts you.

Trying to be a jack of all trades is like being a teaspoon of butter for a whole loaf of bread—spread so thin you can barely see it.

But being a master of 100 trades is like a tablespoon of butter on each piece of bread. You can see it, feel it and taste it. It’s obvious.

So the entire quote reads: A jack of all trades is a master of none, oftentimes better than a master of one. In 1618 when this quote was first documented, it might have been true. Everyone kind of needed to be good at everything or at least to fill in the gaps in the village. Like the only doctor died so the blacksmith became one, ya know.

In 1618 I would have been trading my weaving skills for oysters and shepherding on the weekends in exchange for peaches because my husband died from the bubonic plague and left me with 15 children at the ripe old age of 25. Glamorous.

But in 2026, I wouldn’t trust a doctor who’s also my blacksmith. Would you?

A mechanic who’s also a baker, is probably not an expert at either. And personally, I wouldn’t trust them to bake my birthday cake or fix my car. But if they were a mechanic who used to be a baker for 10 years, I might still trust them to bake me a cake. Because their focus has shifted, not been spread thinly.

Wanting to learn and try new things is a good thing— it keeps you on your toes and makes life way more interesting and mentally-documentable. As a dopamine seeker, I get it and I live a pretty hedonistic life in terms of just up and doing what I want—I encourage it.

I also believe in the new structure Millennials and Gen Z have built and are building to chop down the traditional 9-5—working for the same company for 30 years and then retirement. That shit can truly fuck right off.

So please, if you want to, have 30 careers in your life. Do it. Be a mechanic and then a baker. But here’s the kicker—don’t do it at the same time.

You can only do one thing well, at one time.

You can do everything in this life. You just have to do them one at a time.

Right now I’m working on my first novel. It’s middle-grade sci-fi and I’m at about 20,000 words. It’s absolutely, fabulously fun and puts me in a flow state for hours.

I’ve been writing since I was three and that’s not an exaggeration. I still have my first story, illustrated and all, written before I started kindergarten, titled The Easter Bunny Who Ran Out of Eggs. And even after that genius (if I do say so myself) first story, I’ve got boxes full of short stories, essays and poetry from my whole life.

I always knew I was a writer but it took me this long (I just turned 33) to actually focus on it. Why? I thought I needed to be a writer/business owner/designer/ journalist/ dancer/seamstress/painter and so I spread myself across a bunch of things for years, instead of honing in on writing. And when focus is spread so thinly, none of it will be fruitful.

I never thought it was cool enough, good enough, visual enough, exciting enough… to be just a writer.

Now, being just a writer has made me the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. Focusing on one thing that I truly love and offering it my whole attention has given me a real purpose to get up every morning.

Finding your truest passion can take years even if it was there all along. It can be found in trying new things, meeting new people and I guess… “wasting” a bit of time. I’m grateful I found mine at 33. And I know in the scheme of life, that’s still very young. It’s the perfect time for me and my unique life trajectory. And maybe I’ll find another true passion at 60 or another 10 along the way to 120 years old. In fact, I plan to live at least 10 more lives of true passions because there’s so many things I want to do and master.

You might find your passion at 20 or at 55. And those are both perfect times too. The perfect time doesn’t exist. There is only now.

So even if you’re 18 or 75, the time before and after were, and will be spent on other crafts, skills, careers and general “wasted” life. All of this “wasted” time gives experience. And as a writer, creative or human, that’s the most important part of living—experience. You won’t take your paintings to the grave, but you will take your experiences with you.

If I had started this novel at 21 instead of going into journalism, social media, owning a fashion brand, auditioning for broadway, working in corporate, starting Boring Studios… and living at least 20 lives before this one, it would be a completely different story, because I’m a completely different person. And that’s my life trajectory. It’s my journey and maybe if I had of done one thing differently, I wouldn’t be starting this novel or writing this exact story.

How beautiful that we all have different life journeys. Don’t get drawn from your path because someone else’s looks better. You might just end up walking in circles. The grass is rarely greener. 

Stay offline because it’s confusing your taste and what you truly want

It can be so beautiful to live through other people. A guy sailing-around the world for instance. I’d never do that, nor would I want to, but how cool that he is sharing that with the world.

Watching people’s lives online doesn’t necessarily make you jealous because you want that life, I think it just confuses you about what you truly want. Social media is designed to flood your brain and when you watch too much, of course you’re confused about what you want to do. There’s so many options for careers, skills and even which cafe to eat at—and they all look pretty darn cool—because the system is designed that way. To make you want.want.want.

I think social media gives us a chance to see into the endless professions and possibilities the world has to offer. It’s like career day in high school where they bring in a bunch of people to talk about what they do, to see if you’d be interested in it. But then the day ends and theres only like 10 choices to think about.

Social media shows us 100s of different career paths from fire-person to OF creator. Some look more glamorous and are celebrated more than others. But we never see the whole picture of their lives or the entire process of their craft.

And often on social media, the most viewed are just average people positioning their lives as better than yours, literally through… consumerism. Social medias are just ad platforms—specifically not Substack, but the rest are just trying to sell you something—whether it’s a product, a place or purely just purchasing your attention through views. How wild that the most valuable currency in 2026 is attention? It's more valuable than you think and you’re just giving it away for free only to confuse and cloud your brain? C’mon you’re better than that.

I won’t lie to you, I scroll for a few minutes about once a week. But I try to view and follow people who inspire me through their crafts, skills, ideas… not their day in the life where they literally do nothing but get matcha and go to pilates. I promise you, that life is boring as shit and those people would be an absolute wet blanket over dinner. Do you want to be like that? No you don’t. You want to be layered and interesting and interested in having conversations.

You probably wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t an interesting or interested person. So don’t be clouded by this nonsense like I have been before. I lived that “soft-life” and it’s fkn boring long-term and burnt me out to a crisp by having no purpose. Now that I’m chronically offline, my real interests shine through and I wake up daily excited to write, not to be a boring sod.

Oh and I forgot to mention the time you will save getting off the scroll. Go on check your screen time in your phone settings. I’ll wait…

Yikes.

How do you focus 100% on just one thing?

Okay so I said one thing at a time right? That was kind of the crux of this piece.

I can’t be a writer, a seamstress and a painter all at once. Not only because I don’t have the passion, or the time, but because I don’t have the brain capacity to do all things greatly, at once. And why would I want to do three things averagely? Ew.

You truly only have so much brain space, even for creating. Yes, the more creativity you give yourself, the more you have, I do believe that is true. But you can only focus your energies so much. There’s only 16 hours in the day and you have to eat, bathe, do chores, do work that makes money. So being a painter, seamstress and writer is just not physically possible.

Don’t spread yourself too thin like that butter from the intro. You’ll produce average work. Do one thing at a time and do it well. If there’s multiple things you want to do in this life, just do them one by one.

For me, the next five years will be (hopefully) purely writing. And then there are other things I want to do in life—things I want to do now but I know they will need to have my full-attention, just like my writing does. They can wait and that’s okay.

When we started Boring Studios in 2023 as a creative studio, it had my 100% full attention. How? No socialising, no Netflix, no other projects, limited hobbies and definitely not trying to make a novel-writing career happen. I lost a lot, but gained so much more in the long run.

Now, I’ve stopped everything that isn’t writing—except one day a week working on Boring Studios, which includes this newsletter. Has the business side taken a hit? Abso-fkn-lutely. But that’s the price I am paying to focus on my goals. My focus has shifted, it’s not going to be spread.

You have to make sacrifices to 100% focus. Whether that’s removing socialising and all expenses to churn through your first-home-deposit savings or quitting your job and moving into your grandma’s to make your dreams possible. You can’t have everything all at once.

You can’t have one foot keeping an old door ajar while you’re reaching for the next one.

Don’t be scared to close doors and start from nothing. I’ve been at complete zero twice in my life so it doesn’t scare me anymore. If my novel completely flops, I’ll move onto the next thing. Life can always be re-built, like a phoenix from ashes.

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to focus on writing a novel and I understand that most people don’t. It’s not making me any money right now, but my business that took 3.5 years of 100% attention is.

Like all new ventures started in your 20s without daddy’s-money, Boring Studios began with no money, no clients, no investors and no real business plan. But we believed in it and gave it our 100% attention for months before we made even one dollar. The cash would ebb-and-flow, like all businesses do, until it finally reached a place where it was stable. Why? Because it got 100% attention. And I hope for the months/years that my novel is making no money, eventually the 100% of my attention will be fruitful. I am counting on it… No, I’m betting on it because I know I’m giving it my all. If it fails, I’ll just move onto the next thing with 100%. Because I’m not a fkn baby.

I will give my writing 100% instead of 50% business, 50% novel. Both would be shit. Too many things at once means you’re not giving 100% to anything. And why would you want to do that?

As Yoda says “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” He’s saying there’s no point “trying” something, just give it your all, that’s doing.

So my friend, what I’m saying is that you have to be all in on your goals. You have to believe in what you’re making. Fall in love with the process and your purpose.

What gets you out of bed?

That’s your purpose.

For me, the fact that I get to write everyday gets me up. I’m excited to see my characters—to build their world. To get into a flow state that makes everything I am, and have experienced up until now truly make sense. But if I was focusing on other things, those things would pull me out of the flow state of my world— instead I have chosen to live inside my novel.

Find your daily words or the paint under your nails. It’s cliche but, believe in yourself. Believe in your work. Believe that your purpose is bigger than money, than glamour, than status, than showing off. Believe that your purpose is bigger than you and find that purpose in your daily flow state—whatever it is that you’ve chosen or fought to finally come out.

I’m glad I’ve decided writing is a cool enough career to have chosen. Even if you can’t see a visually glamorised version of it through little videos. And I’m glad I’ve decided to focus on it. But if I was still dabbling in painting, sewing or working full-time on Boring Studios, I’d have no story written. I’d be doing everything half-baked.

Writing is all I want to do right now and even though it took me years to try a million different things to figure it out, I’d rather be spending my days in a flow state than trying to put on a show to prove to everyone (and myself) that I can do everything, all at once. I can’t. But I can do everything I want in this life, it needs to be just one thing at a time.

Love Penelope,

Currently full-time writer, future art gallery-owner, future photographer, future teacher, future mother.