Hard To Find A Gap In A Chasm

I remember reading somewhere once, I don’t know if it’s true or not though, that if the Earth was the size of a golf ball it would be almost entirely smooth. Holding it in one’s hand we would not notice any mountains, the Grand Canyon would be indistinguishable and so would the deepest ocean trenches.

Seen from a great distance or a different scale, the massive seems inconsequential. Yet from inside the Grand Canyon, you’re dwarfed by what’s around you. On a workshop once, a postgraduate researcher shared with me that they loved their research field, but that they were struggling to find something to focus on.

“After all,” they said, “It’s hard to find a gap in a chasm.”

Looking Around

I get this. Doing research you’re in the chasm. You’re looking around and there is all this space to explore around you. It might be beautiful, exciting – it might even be dangerous – but it might be difficult to see the spot that’s right for you. It might be difficult to find your niche to exist and explore in. You can’t tackle the chasm, you can’t have it all.

I’m interested in this at the moment, this idea – but I don’t know exactly where it’s leading. I think it might be useful to have some questions to lead into a conversation about finding your gap in the chasm. But I’m not there yet. How about you? Have you found your gap? Or have you been helped to find it? If you have, what questions or concepts helped to get you there?

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)