PART 7: What Are You Encoded For? How to Find What You Are Meant to Do

What does it mean to be encoded for something?

To be encoded for something is to have a durable, built-in capacity for it, a natural aptitude that lives in your construction rather than something you bolted on later. Collins calls these encodings, and his claim is powerful: you do not create them and you do not learn them. You discover them. They were already in you. Everyone has them. They are your particular genius, the things you can do exceptionally well relative to all the other ways you might spend yourself.

Being good at it is not the same as being encoded for it

This is the distinction that reframes everything. The question is not what you are good at. Competence is broad, and by 50 you are good at plenty of things you do not love. The better question is, what are you encoded for? Think of it like being right-handed or left-handed. You can learn to write with the other hand, and with effort, you will get passable. But why fight it? When you work from your encodings, the effort stops feeling like friction. That ease is the signal, not a sign that it does not count.

You discover encodings, you do not invent them

There is enormous relief in this if you let it land. You are not required to manufacture a brand new self or chase some passion you are supposed to conjure from nothing. The work is quieter and simpler: to notice what was already true about you. Often, it is the things you dismissed because they came easily, and easy things rarely feel valuable until you meet someone who cannot do them.

Follow your encodings, not just your passion

Follow your passion is thin advice, because passion is a feeling, and feelings move around. Encodings are steadier. They are what you are made to do well, and doing them well is usually what produces the passion, not the other way around. So the instruction here is not to find your passion. It is to follow your encodings, and let the fire follow them.

What if you do not trust yourself?

Here is the obstacle. Discovering what you are encoded for does little good if you do not trust yourself enough to act on it, and self-doubt runs deep in women who have spent years being quietly told to stay in their lane. If that is you, you are not alone. It is worth doing real work on self-doubt itself, because trusting your own read of yourself is the ground on which everything else stands.

I reviewed one of the best and most recent resources I know on exactly this. Listen to the podcast or read the short review of Dr Shadé Zahrai’s self-doubt book, anchored on trusting your own read on yourself.

Coming into frame

Collins has a powerful phrase for what happens when your life lines up with your encodings. He calls it coming into frame. It is the feeling of doing the thing you are built for, not for the money, but because it feeds the fire. And here is the encouraging part for anyone reading this after 50: coming into frame often happens after the hard knocks, a layoff, a loss, a divorce, a windfall, the very jolts that shake you loose from who you were supposed to be and free you to find what actually makes you tick.

Your first, next small step

You do not have to discover or rediscover all your encodings today. You just have to get curious about the things that have always come a little too easily for you to take them seriously. Start a list. That is a real step.

When you are ready, meet me in Part 8, where encodings become something you can actually build a life around.

Quick answers

What does it mean to be encoded for something?

It means having a durable, built-in aptitude you discover rather than create. Collins calls these encodings, and everyone has them.

How do I find what I am meant to do?

Look for what comes easily to you and what you do exceptionally well compared with other things, rather than chasing a passion. Those natural strengths are the clue. If you want a guided way in, Suzy Welch’s Becoming You walks through exactly this, and my review explains how it can help.

What is the difference between being good at something and being encoded for it?

You can be competent at many things you do not love. Being encoded for something means it fits your nature, so the work feels less like a source of friction.

What if I do not trust myself enough to change?

That is common, especially for women taught to stay in their lane. Working on the self-doubt directly is part of the path, not a detour from it.