How I Became a Niche Specialist in 12 months by Thinking Outside the Box
Writers Block. The typo is deliberate. The lack of apostrophe was a conscious choice to get you to read this. By thinking outside the box, it took on another meaning.
Welcome to my weird world of words. My life story can wait. I’m sure I’ll go entirely against my name and write it here anyway. A shiny new article writer, blogger, and SEO fanatic, I am inviting you to join me on a quest. The mission is to overcome the relentlessness that is writer’s block. Sometimes with, sometimes without the apostrophe.
This is our coming of age. Let’s begin.
January 2020 — Staring at the Box
An educated millennial, also known as “I”, graduated in 2008, the year of The Great Recession. Then spent the next decade dreaming of becoming a famous musician. Also, bitter at the boomers for destroying the economy and the environment. At least that’s where my mind was at.
Fast forward to January 2020, and there are a house, wife, and kids. And a management role in the largest store in the sector. Still a millennial.
New Year’s Resolution? To lose weight. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.
February 2020 — The Answer’s Somewhere Outside the Box
Our daughter is awesome. She’s 4 going on 14. She’s exactly like her mum; cute and friendly, but if you get on the wrong side of her you’ll see a different side to her!
The epiphany moment arrived upon realising; our daughter is neurodivergent. Anyone who has neurodivergent kids will understand the inexplicable emotion. The moment you read the characteristics for the first time, realising you’re also neurodivergent.
My wife and I booked in for our own diagnosis. The kids get seen to quicker over here since they are younger. Here in the UK, you can wait 3 years for a free or 3 days (no exaggeration) if you pay for private healthcare.
I had the answer. I didn’t know what came next.
March 2020 — I Lost the Box
Ah yes. The year of the virus. And the year I lost my job.
Different thinking starts to enter my subconscious. I mentioned earlier I graduated in 2008, the worst recession since the war. My friends, who had no intention of studying further went on to do a PhD. It was that, or wallow in a pit of culture, alienation, boredom and despair.
I chose the latter. That’s a quote from my favourite band by the way. I strongly recommend listening to them to get those ideas flowing.
My parents inspired me more than ever this year, especially with Covid doing the rounds. They were both made redundant around the time I came into the world. So my dad took a job 200 miles away to make ends meet (which in the UK might as well be in space).
It was time to put that advice into action. I would change career, retrain, and find a job in no time. But none of us could comprehend the mass immobilisation that lay ahead.
April 2020 — I Found Another Box
The plan was to use this time well. Stuck inside four walls was an opportunity to retrain. In my case, I chose software development and learned how to code.
It made some sense. I had some intellect hiding away in my brain. Plus a track record with tweaking computers. Even the concepts of computer linguistics are universal in language. For reference, my degree was in language and linguistics.
It took a while at first to sink in. If you’ve ever tried to work at home, with two young kids screaming how much they hate each other, you’ll get it. It’s like they’ve grown up watching millennials living with each other and arguing.
No. Not us. Big Brother contestants, of course. Why, did you think I was referring to my wife and me?
I was itching to put my curly braces to use and return some results.
May 2020 — I Couldn’t Find the Key Outside the Box
If you’ve seen The Big Bang Theory, you’ll understand this feeling. The scene when Penny discovers World of Warcraft pretty much sums up how May went.
I spent endless days in front of a computer trying to work out where the hell these curly braces needed to go. I could not for the life of me get it right. The beauty of coding is it’s an endless game of problem-solving. No matter what you do, you end up with another problem that needs solving.
Or in my case, five. I had a coder’s block.
I hit rock bottom.
Spoiler alert: It got better.
June 2020 — I Broke The Box by Thinking Inside the Box
I hit rock bottom.
For the first time, I could focus thanks to ADHD treatment. Anyone who has had a late diagnosis will understand the resentment that kicked in when I failed to get into boot camp despite studying endlessly. That was, as the saying goes, the straw that broke the camel’s back.
It’s not something many people feel comfortable talking about, getting to that stage, especially in their first blog post on their own business page. I’m supposed to portray a wealth of knowledge about how awesome things are and how inspiring I am. Whilst remaining professional, of course.
But if anything, that makes it more critical. And more inspiring.
Too many people, like myself, place this massive burden on themselves. A load that society likes to think is vital for our own development. Instead, you just feel worse for it.
Especially if you are neurodivergent like me. 2020 was definitely the year I had to think outside the box about who I am, I needed more than different thinking. I needed a rest.
Spoiler alert: It got better.
If you or a loved one find you can’t cope, seek help immediately.
July 2020 — I Tried to Fix the Box but Failed
Build up a supportive network of friends, family, and anyone else you feel comfortable around. You’ll need it to help you through the tough times. It should be top of everyone’s list.
I was pretty useless in July. I ended up struggling with even the basics. It was here I learned you couldn’t brush your issues under the carpet, or do a quick fix on a problem that exists. It doesn’t work that way.
I wish my future self had told me something in July. I would have said, “stop with the small stuff, and focus on the bigger picture”.
August 2020 — I Thought Outside Everyone Else’s Box
Freedom!
Everyone in the UK decided to risk eating at restaurants for a cheap meal. I stayed indoors and felt sorry for myself while obsessing about pointless housework.
I’m not even going to go into detail about how bad August was. Even I know that telling everyone to go and eat in a restaurant without masks on is a recipe for disaster. Too many naive individuals didn’t spend enough time thinking outside the box. They saw 50% off food in restaurants and tore the box open without a pair of scissors.
I could save the government thousands of pounds on consultations. What I would have told them for an hour’s pay, is that letting people see each other spreads the virus.
September 2020 — I Thought Outside the Box
I spent too much time in September obsessing again over pointless stuff.
We wanted to downsize and become a one-car household. But for various reasons, getting a car that would suit all our needs was a no-go. I decided it would be an excellent idea to experiment with ways I could maximise the range on my car. Anyway, it turns out having the right tyres increased my range by 10%. Not a bad start, to be fair.
I decided I would turn into a teenager for the day and cut out some corrugated plastic. You know the kind cars drive through when they go off the road on the racetrack. I zip-tied some to the front of my car to make it aerodynamic. That got me up another 5%.
And so this weird obsession continued. It’s not like I even needed the mileage since I knew there would be another lockdown anyway!
October 2020 — I Found the Right Box
It turns out that a stranger I never met thought my botch-job car modding was worth reading about.
After a lengthy post on a forum, someone I had never met commented — “Your posts are helping me loads, do you have a blog I could read?”. My hours spent discussing mundane topics on forums weren’t a waste of time as I first thought. Turns out I was writing content all along, crafting my skills.
I even have two friends who are content writers for a living. Why I never thought of this as a career before I’ll never know. So like many this year, I set up my own business, with no real clue what to do. I began to write.
I say write, I tried thinking outside the box for the hundredth time, but all I got was a headache.
November 2020 — I Unlocked the Box
Thousands of people all over the country feared losing their jobs thanks to a virus you may not have heard of called Covid. Meanwhile, I’m sat in my box, repeating mantras in my head over and over.
I’ve been here before.
I was talking to a neighbour about Lockdown 2.0 recently. Everyone I know fears the future, just like I did back in March. But I’ve lived it. I’ve hit rock bottom. Twice.
Only for version 2.0, I’m getting my head down and building my portfolio. Much to my wife’s frustration, I’ve gone from being on a computer all day doing nothing, to being on a computer doing everything.
I’m securing the box, so it doesn’t break again. I’ll give it a rest tomorrow. Once I’ve posted this blog!
December 2020 — What’s Inside the Box (and Under the Tree)?
It’s still November at the time of writing. So I figured now would be a good time to “wrap up”!
That’s my tale of how I became a niche specialist. From blagging to blogging and selling to spelling, it’s time to start thinking outside the box. So let’s do this together. Whatever story you’ve written, there are billions more waiting in line.
Before you move to the next article, make sure you bookmark this blog. There’ll be more practical advice as well as my ramblings. Also, follow on social media to keep updated with the latest musings. All to help you overcome writer’s block.
That’s with an apostrophe, for the record.
Originally published at https://www.chargia.co on November 20, 2020.
