Scanners and Divers

I love to scan the wide horizon in Georgian Bay.

I read a Facebook exchange the other day in which the participants were mentioning being "scanners" instead of "divers". I didn't have much time to look carefully then, but the terms stayed with me and I got curious. A little web searching led me to a book by Barbara Sher called Refuse to Choose. Sher directs her work at those people who say they can never stick to anything, have trouble picking something to focus on, don't went to choose a major because to do so means you can't pick all the other things that fascinate you, don't seem to find the one career path that will keep them happy. She says that many of these people are likely "Scanners", people who in another age might have been called Renaissance Souls, people who are fascinated by so many things that they can rarely bring themselves to focus on just one. They approach learning about something with great enthusiasm, and then, when they have learned what they want to about that subject, are ready to move on to something else. Unlike Divers, who love to dive down into the depths of an interest, Scanners keep scanning the horizon to see what else is out there.

It was like she had been watching me through a one-way mirror since I was a child.

I've often explained that I was a generalist, not a specialist. In a world that increasingly values specialization, it can be tough to find your place as a generalist. Ministry is well-suited to the generalist, but even then, I find a need to be doing and learning new things. Scanners tend to be better at coming up with new things than with keeping existing programs running. We get bored with repetitive routine tasks, and there is little a scanner hates more than boredom.

I'm loving some of Sher's ideas and coaching suggestions as she goes forward. I even had to halt my Diving into the book to search out ways to work some of the exercises she recommends.

What a great area to explore! So, what about you? Are you a scanner or a diver?