Has it really been six months since I've posted here?  My apologies for the sporadic blogging–it's a pet peeve of mine to start something and not continue with it.

While I haven't written about boundary crossing recently, the topic continues to pop up in my life. I see it with my coaching clients. Very often, they have another world outside of their day job that fascinates and compels them and makes time stand still. These other worlds tend to be more creative than the one that generates the paycheck–e.g., crafts, music, sports, writing. Photo by Sanjiv Vijay

The lucky ones are those who figure out early in life (before 30 years old) that they are meant to walk in two worlds and discover how those two worlds converge or how they can be a bridge. A few examples of people I've run into or read about:

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  A computer animation specialist who knew as an adolescent that he talents in both the arts and computer science. I met this twenty something at a happy hour.  He currently works for a social networking site aimed at tweens. This same example was brought up in a math awards ceremony that I attended with my son. The speaker was the Lieutenant Governer of Colorado and she talked about how some of the best jobs of the future require right brain and left brain thinking, including computer animation. Photo by Ramona Forcella

• A dramaturg. Say what?  If you Google this term, you'll find the very unhelpful definition, "one who engages in dramaturgy." Wikipedia gives more: "Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage."  I first heard about this discipline from a man, probably in his late thirties, sitting at my table for a wedding reception.  He has a background in both German literature and theatre and was hired by a major theatre company, not only to find new plays to stage, but to give historical context and accuracy to ones they were producing. A dramaturg helps to bridge the worlds of literature and theatre. There are probably less than 50 working dramaturgists in the US and this person considered himself lucky to have fallen into this field when it was first starting. 

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  Information-focused designer. This month's Fast Company magazine is their annual Masters of Design issue.  One of the feature stories showcases the work of Lisa Strausfeld. She majored in art history and computer science and later got a graduate degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A core question that I imagine Strausfeld grappling with is this: "How do we present data in a visual way that uncovers new insights and engages the human spirit?" Her work spans a wide range of projects, from visual mapping of the relationship among terrorist attacks to creating a new site for the Gallup Organization. to developing the user interface for the One Laptop Per Child computer. Photo by BruceTurner

Some boundary crossers immediately find their sweet spot in work that has become mainstream, like computer animation. Others pioneer a field over a number of years after trying out different things. (Strausfeld started out building architectural models, took a job doing layout design for memory chips,  before ending up at MIT's Media Lab.) And still others, like our friend the dramaturg, fall into a select group of specialists. 

The important point here is that all successful boundary crossers embrace their gifts. They find ways to use all of their talents in their work, not just the ones that are more traditionally oriented to a job. 

How do you walk in two or more worlds?  What does the convergence of those worlds look like? How can you begin to use all of your talents in your work?