Mark Lin via facebook
I recently have been a bit fascinated with the difference between the specialist and the generalist when it comes to physical exercise / sports. The specialist gets really good at one thing and maybe cross-trains a little to supplement the one thing they’re focused on. In contrast, the generalist does a lot of different things, gaining a wider breadth of experiences. I definitely consider myself more of a generalist. I love trying new types of exercise and seeing the parallels between them in terms of body mechanics. I even try the things that scare the crap out of me, are really challenging, and/or take me out of my comfort zone. It also ends up being a test to see if you’re able to do what my yoga studio reminds me of every time I walk through the door — “Please leave your shoes and ego at the door.” This is true because the generalist tends to value experiences more than competition results, but it’s hard to keep the ego out of it, because I must admit… it’s nice to win stuff and specializing makes you win more usually. Recently, I found myself chatting with specialists (runners in this case) and I could feel their eyes glaze over when I talked a bit about CrossFit. It made me sad, but I understood where they were coming from. Not everyone has my generalist attitude. I was excited to hear about their upcoming races and how they were preparing for them even though I’m not much of a runner, but I know the opposite wouldn’t necessarily be true. Being a generalist is interesting — you can walk in many circles and feel welcome there, but you don’t always feel like you’re truly part of those circles. Just wondering if there are any other generalists out there that have felt this way.