> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://sincerelyskylar.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # i'm about to sound like an asshole - URL: https://sincerelyskylar.co/im-about-to-sound-like-an-asshole/ - Published: 2026-07-03T23:21:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-09T18:59:54.000Z - Author: Skylar Barron - Tags: Essays Listen, I know how this is about to sound. Believe me, I do. But I have to say it anyway. I think sometimes, life can be a little harder for those who are very good at many things. Ok, get it out now. *Booooo!* *That’s such a privileged thing to say!* *You are so out of touch!* You done now? Ok, great. Now hear me out. To be good at many things is a blessing, I agree. But it is also a curse. And here's how I came to that conclusion. I am speaking from experience, which I did warn you was going to make me sound like an asshole, so just get over that for a minute and let me say my piece. It is a paralyzing feeling – having too many options. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that having too many options is quite destructive and harmful to human beings, as a collective, and we were never meant to be put in this position. This is demonstrated over and over again by the current state of people’s dating lives — the apps, social media, the ever-present belief that there’s always better, right around the corner. I could really dig into this, but that’s not the topic of today’s essay. I’ll save that for another time. The point is, that when you have multiple skills, talents, or interests, it becomes increasingly difficult to decide which one to pursue. And if you do ultimately decide on one, then there are tradeoffs. Focusing and dedicating your time to one skillset, inevitably means the others have to fall to the wayside, to some degree. Because to truly master something, you must have a certain amount of dedication towards it — of hours, of effort. And if you are good at many things, the sacrifice of other skills becomes more painful. The ‘what if’ whispers become screams. The idea of wasted potential inevitably finds itself kicking around your skull. And to make matters worse, you have the people, and surely one of you reading this is one of these people, so I apologize in advance if it feels as though I am calling you out, but it is the people who will sell you the absolute lunacy that you can just ‘do it all!’ Those people really frustrate me. They frustrate me because I so badly want to believe the dream they are selling. Wouldn’t that be nice? I can be all things, all the time, all at once… Do you see how absolutely ridiculous that is?! It’s impossible. On one hand, sure, I’ll give them this — maybe you can do it all if some things become hobbies, if some things don’t take much time, or if you pick and choose what to half ass. But you cannot do it all, and do it all well. Herein lies the problem. Let me get personal for a second and break this down so you can understand where I am coming from. I really struggle to decide which path to pursue in life, particularly with my career. Currently, I work at a small management consulting firm where I run the operations side of our training business. I am very good at my job. Why? Because I am organized, disciplined, responsible, timely — all traits you need to succeed in an operations role. But my job requires almost no creativity, which my heart yearns for. So I find myself constantly toying with the idea of creative pursuits. Obviously, writing, which I am doing now. But then it spirals. Should I drop everything and be an author, instead? I love reading, I could do it 24/7 — should I go into publishing? Would that fulfill me? Or would it ruin reading for me? Okay, but I’m also great at talking to people. I can be quite persuasive. Should I go into sales? That can be lucrative. I loved planning my wedding, and that required a lot of the skills I practice in my current career. I’ve done plenty of event planning, and I really excel at it. Certainly, that means I should start a wedding planning business, right? I scored very well on the LSAT — is that a better path for me? It seems silly to throw that opportunity away, no? That sounds interesting, helping people in the courtroom. I think? Or would I be bored, dedicating myself to copious amounts of legal readings and paperwork? I am also incredibly intrigued by the psychology of individual differences. Should I get my master’s in that? Become a professor? They get the summers off! I did get into the program at the University of Edinburgh, and spending a year in Scotland sounds wonderful… but it’s expensive. Is that worth leaving my job over? The job that currently pays my bills and insures me? I don’t know, that seems like a gamble. People often tell me how funny I am, that I have a great personality; I would go viral if I posted consistently on social media. But is that the life I want? Yes, on some level, that is appealing to me. I envy influencers and their ability to travel the world on anyone else’s dime. To not sit at a desk from 9-5\. To make a disgusting amount of money for seemingly no good reason at all. Yet, I pity them. How vacuous and vapid their lives are. Promoting consumerism for a living. Living fake lives, curating experiences just to make content and post it online, where others live vicariously through them. Their lack of privacy, and people’s lack of respect for them. They live in a fishbowl, where people can poke and tap on the glass, all day, every day. This stream of consciousness is my confidant, one who joins me for a cup of coffee on a regular basis. And I cannot settle on which path is the right one, so I do not pursue anything at all. I settle into my current job, which is good. That’s all it is. It’s a good job, with good pay, good benefits, and I am good at it. But is that enough? Is that what I want? This is when I so badly want the ‘you can do it all’ folks to be right. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could be an author, work in publishing, be a successful saleswoman, wedding planner, lawyer, professor, and social media personality, all at once? But I am right, and I have to choose. Because if I do not choose one, then my paralysis will leave me with nothing. And all I will be left with is wondering what would have happened had I made a decision, ***because at least even the wrong decision is a decision.*** Alas, this never-ending cycle has led me to believe the following: In many ways, all humans are babies. Perpetually so. We need life to present us with limited options. *Here, baby. Do you want to eat peas or carrots for dinner?* The baby picks peas, thinking it has total autonomy. It leaves that decision making process feeling quite proud — empowered even. It did not know about all of the other options, so it didn’t have time to stew and overthink and spiral. This is what humans need. But that is not the position we find ourselves in. *Here, baby. Do you want to eat peas or carrots or chicken or squash or beans or pasta or bread or apples or green beans or spinach or banana or cheese or steak or pizza or berries or nuts or nothing or everything or you can pick two or three or four…* And suddenly the baby is sobbing and starving. That is the position we find ourselves in. I don’t like it one bit. I think most people don’t, actually. And we frame it as luck. How lucky are we to have the world at our fingertips? To have endless opportunities. But to truly appreciate something, I think there must be an end in sight — some sort of limit. *Don’t you?* I have come to envy the people who are good at limited things, ideally, really good at one or two things. It is easy for those folks to decide what they want to do — they don’t have countless options. They don't find themselves paralyzed by choice. I envy the children who seemingly come out of the womb knowing their path, and they follow it. The born doctors, lawyers, teachers. How nice, how contenting that must be, to know exactly what you want to do, and so you just do it. No hemming, no hawing, no wondering, no overthinking. Yet if you ask those folks if they wish they had more options, were better at more things, they would likely say *yes! What a blessing that would be, to have such choice!* And so I leave you with this: ***what would you choose?*** ### *Sincerely,* ### *Skylar* ###