What If Your Strength Isn't Just One Thing? On returning to writing and discovering a life that doesn’t fit in one lane
- Haide Giesbrecht
- Mar 27
- 2 min read
For much of my life, I believed that clarity meant narrowing; that to be successful, focused, or credible, I would eventually need to specialize in one clear direction. Yet my experiences have consistently told a different story. I’ve always been drawn to many things: writing, learning, connecting, observing, questioning. For years, that breadth felt like a flaw rather than a strength.
Recently, I’ve been returning to writing in a way I hadn’t in years. What began as a tentative
step onto Substack has become something deeply energizing and unexpectedly life-giving. Through writing, I’ve found myself reconnecting with parts of my identity that had quietly slipped into the background during years of intense work, study, and raising a family.
This renewed relationship with writing has also led me to reconsider a question I’ve been asked often: What is your niche? The more I reflect on my life and my patterns of curiosity, the more I find myself wondering if the question itself is the wrong one for me. Perhaps my strength has never been in narrowing down, but in holding many threads at once.
In my most recent piece, I explore how this pattern has shown up across my life - from school to university to even something as unexpected as my Spotify listening habits - and how I am beginning to understand myself as a generalist rather than someone who simply hasn’t chosen a lane.
If you’ve ever felt pulled in multiple directions, or wondered whether your wide range of interests is a weakness, you may find something of your own story reflected here.
👉 You can read the full piece on Substack:
