Ralph Emerson's Search For Meaning

Ralph Emerson, a well respected author, once stated that if you only practice what you have mastered, then you'll cease to develop as a person. Many choose to disagree with this by saying how you'll never master any task with focusing on others or how you'll lose the skills that you have spent the time and effort on obtaining. Though this is true, this point of view is a bit misguided. Emerson did not mean you would become a master of every task, but that you'd have an expansive range of abilities to be able to survive in any situation. This statement, as most would agree, is correct because of how you'd have the abilities to survive in life, you'd have more options in where you'll go in life, and your abilities in tasks can still be exceptional.
You are inevitably going to turn yourself into a one trick pony. Although as you try new things, you are allowing yourself to be free. Thus opening yourself up to new experiences that will help develop you as a person. Also, now that you have grown more, you've now developed abilities that will help you be able to make it through any situation. When thinking about all of these factors, you can see how keeping yourself open to new ideas is essential to living in this world. As you allow yourself to try new things, you can get more of a grasp on your life. This is because you are opening yourself up to more paths, instead of just one, as you develop. For instance you'll have more choices on what college you may want to attend. Also your abilities can aid you in obtaining a job you'll enjoy, and you'll now have so many interests that you can connect with a wider range of people and make more friends. These examples are a few, but good, representations of how you'll have more control in your life. Even though you may not be the best, you can still be great at what you do. This is because there are more factors to being talented than utter devotion. You may naturally have the mental or physical