At first glance, being “more specific” can sound limiting—like narrowing possibilities too soon. Yet specificity can be freeing because it reduces anxiety and comparison. When you choose a clear direction, you stop auditioning for every audience at once. A small anecdote illustrates this: someone might say they want to “work in tech,” but only after naming a role—say, “UX researcher focused on accessibility”—do their learning, networking, and daily decisions become coherent.
That coherence matters because it shifts ambition from performance to progress. Instead of asking, “Do I look like somebody?” you begin asking, “Am I building what I actually value?” [...]
