Doing All the things: Are you a Multipotentialite?
I learned a new word this year. Multi-potentialite. Never heard of it before? That’s okay, neither had I a few months ago. So there I was, scrolling through Tiktok and a face popped up on my phone screen and started asking questions. From the first one, I was hooked because YES, actually, I do. Then, I kept on saying yes to every. damn. thing. By the end of the video I had made a major revelation about myself. Let’s test them on you and see what you think.
Do you want to do all the things? Not just a few… like, everything you’ve ever had an interest in? Tons of things. All. The. Things.
Do you have a lot of skills and interests that make it difficult for you to decide what to do with your life? Does picking just one thing to do as a career make you break out in hives? Do you need creative pursuits in your life or you feel empty?
Have you always been intelligent and insanely curious? Do you collect interests and hobbies? Are you able to learn them fairly easily? Do you get bored often despite having a million interests and hobbies?
Have you been referred to as a renaissance man/woman? A Jack of all trades?
Do you switch careers every few years because working in a specialized trade or service that doesn’t allow you to use more of your skills and passions makes you feel dead inside?
Do you suffer from analysis paralysis? Where you have so many options for what you COULD do that you agonize over what you SHOULD do but find it near impossible to ever make a decision for fear or missing out on the things you don’t pursue (yes, our entire lives are one big case of FOMO) and so you procrastinate making decisions about what to do with yourself and end up working in a misaligned job or career for years?
Have you spent your entire life trying to solve the puzzle of what your ONE TRUE PASSION is? Believing like all of society that we are here to basically do one thing our entire lives? Has it left you feeling like there’s something wrong with you and that you will never discover what you true calling is?
Are you someone who sees the bigger picture? Who can solve problems that others don’t see the answer to because it requires seeing many different angles or approaches? Do you feel wasted in roles where you aren’t asked to look at the bigger picture?
Have you always felt different? Meant for bigger or different things than most of the people around you?
If you answered yes to all or most of these questions then surprise! You are probably a multipotentialite. And if you were wondering, I’m a HELL YES to every single thing on this list. By now you should have a pretty good idea of what a multipotentialite is: someone who fits that profile pretty well. Maybe they haven’t switched careers as much as I have (I’m on my 4th, wheeeeee) but stayed in jobs they aren’t happy in for way too long. Maybe they haven’t realized that the way they are is a gift and not a curse, and keep trying to convince themselves that they can be happy as a specialist. But the truth is, multi-passionates (another word for multipotentialites) are NOT specialists. We are generalists. Unfortunately, we live in a society that has normalized and rewarded the specialization of careers ever since the Industrial Revolution, and so true multipotentialites are often seen as misfits by the rest of the world.
Earlier in our timeline, most humans had no choice but to be MPs (multipotentialites) in order to survive. They worked in small social groups where most people were expected to contribute equally in order to meet the group’s needs and ensure their survival. Did some people hunt and gather more than they sat by the hearth and prepared food or cared for the young? Sure, it’s not like there was no specialization whatsoever, but you can bet your butt the hunters also knew how to build fires and grind grains and process kills and feed a wriggly toddler. Without the flexibility to step into a myriad of roles, our species would have died out long ago.
Today, it’s a different story. Societies expectation is for our citizens to learn a skill, leave the home, and support themselves through taking part in the workforce. When we were training people to work in factories to make machine parts so we could automate work that could free up millions of laborers for more complex jobs to “advance our society” did we care if they were fulfilled? If they would rather be doing ten other things to satisfy the urge inside of them to spread their genius around? Nope. We certainly did not. And thus, the era of the MP came to an end and people who were built to think in this non-linear way were often sidelined while the world sang the praises of those who would learn one thing, become a master at it, and do it for 5o years.
So what does one do in the year 2022 with the knowledge that they are a multipotentialite and possibly neurodivergent or a non-linear thinker? (While multipotentialite is a recognized term in psychology, and is often associated with neurodivergence, I didn’t see any hard evidence in my research proving that multipotentiality is a proven or recognized form of neurodivergence). My advice as someone who is still developing a new understanding of herself as an MP, is to allow yourself to say screw it to the expectations that you were probably raised with and are probably surrounded by regarding your profession, career, or life goals.
I am giving you permission to accept and celebrate the fact that your life probably isn’t going to look like your friend’s lives. If you’ve felt guilty for twenty years that you disappointed your parents by not becoming a tenured professor of economics at a respectable university because that’s the life they wanted for you but you just couldn’t do it without inflicting soul crushing misery on yourself day after day, I am giving your permission to forgive yourself. Ditch the guilt. Embrace the life that allowed you to combine your passions for art and organizing by creating your own business designing and developing new systems of decorative and efficient home organization. Whatever that means. I’m sure someone has done it. Let yourself swim in the possibility of a life where you get to do lots of the things that make you happy as part of your career and your personal life. Maybe you combine them into one fabulous and unique service, maybe you work three small jobs you love, maybe you have a job and several side hustles that keep things fresh and interesting every day. You get to figure out what it looks like for you. Just know that it. is. okay. whatever. it. looks. like.
I have a lot more to say on this topic, especially as it pertains to me, but I will spread it out for you into a couple of posts. But just to synthesize, since that’s one of my special talents. Here’s some more basic information on multipotentialites:
We’re the big picture thinkers. The problem solvers and innovators. The ones who can synthesize what everyone else is doing and see the larger paradigm. People who’s true destiny doesn’t lie in doing one thing well for the rest of our lives, but in combining our many skills and interests into a wider array of potential roles and services. We come with an umbrella of offerings. Where some are better at focusing on tasks, we are better at focusing on systems. We’re adaptable. We’re able to learn things quickly. We see potential everywhere. We’re just a little different but we’re freakin cool as hell.
Don’t think you know of any MPs? Here are some names you may be familiar with: David Bowie, Oscar Wilde, Hank Green, Jerry Seinfeld, Lady Gaga, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Benjamin Franklin (to name a few).
On a final note, I think the world is changing. I think there is a shift occuring at a fundamental level that is changing the way people are allowed to design their own lives and careers. I have a lot of hope that MPs will soon be recognized for their brilliance and essential gifts as an important part of our world. So don’t be upset if you’ve just made the same major discovery that I did six months ago. You’re a gift to this world and I hope this inspires you to go out and learn more about how you tick and how you can design the life of your dreams as a multi-passionate person. For starters, watch this famous TedTalk by Emilie Wapnick and let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading. Let’s talk again soon.
Follow me on Pinterest!
Thistle & Tulip Designs - Beautiful Bookish Empowering Stuff