Today’s post is the transcript from my debut YouTube video, “My Journey as a Multipotentialite | A letter for multi-passionate creatives”. As someone with seemingly infinite passions and curiosities, I hope my story can offer encouragement and some peace of mind to any creative who is struggling to find their place in this world. The world isn’t quite designed for the way we think and work, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be our endlessly inspired selves! Thank you for watching and reading. Feel free to share your own stories in the comments, and share with a fellow creative friend. ♡
My life has been a winding path. I’m constantly drawn to something new, endlessly creating, forever juggling one project after another. I tend to carve a path that detours from the typical 9-5 expressway.
I’m definitely the obsessive type—I immerse myself in whatever I’m currently excited about, just to turn my head and spy something new. I was never that kid who knew exactly what they wanted to do for the rest of their life. That was definitely not me, and it made me feel small and like something was wrong.
This creative lifestyle is both a blessing and a curse. As far as blessings go, I do have a list of bucket-list projects I am so proud to have achieved.
I run a fine jewelry company behind-the-scenes and have made a few engagement rings for my sister-in-laws. I also had the opportunity to market my company in a few issues of the British version of Vogue—a magazine called “Tatler”.
I wrote and self-published two poetry collections, one which I illustrated, and one which I wrote entirely by hand. I wanted it to feel like you had swiped my personal diary and were reading my journal entries. It was a dream come true to see that project unfold, and one I hope to pick up again and figure out how to best share with the world.
This past year, I completed my 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training certification. Now, I produce free sound baths and meditations for people on the Insight Timer.
I also ran an Etsy shop for a while and sold rare minerals and crystals to collectors all over the United States. I’ve been fascinated with crystals since I was a kid. I’d ride my bike to the local library where they had displays of the coolest minerals and crystals from all over the world. In between reading Sherlock Holmes chapters, I would go and just stare at those things. So, it was kind of a random dream come true to buy and sell those for people.
Most recently I’ve been painting and had the honor of sharing five of my paintings with a local art gallery. It was one of those things that just made my inner child sing—something I never even considered possible for myself. And yet there I was, experiencing a high like I’ve never felt before.
This resume feels like a reflection of me—someone with an insatiable desire to learn and experience my ever shifting inspirations. It’s something that feels so incredibly right and freeing, and yet it can also feel completely confusing and isolating.
Nowadays, I know that there are words that actually describe my traits: “multipotentialite”, “scanner”, “serial careerist” even. These are words that unlocked a whole world of self-acceptance for the way I am, but for most of my life, I’ve carried an unbearable shame and confusion.
“So, what do you want to do when you grow up? What career are you pursuing? What’s your dream job?” I have only ever had shallow, fleeting answers for these questions. I have this one specific memory from elementary school when I felt the first wave of anxiety as I pondered these questions. And as I grew year after year, my panic grew too.
I spent many sleepless nights distraught that I couldn’t figure myself out the way everyone else seemed too. My friends had big concrete plans and life goals. Their parents knew what to say when asked about what career they were pursuing. Mine on the other hand had a different answer seemingly ever time they were asked.
I spent my first few years as an adult blending what I really wanted and what society expected of me. I dropped school, got married, had kids young, and moved around a lot. I didn’t know it but I was fighting an internal battle between my creative passions and what I assumed others expected of me. I stayed home and began to build my own life—building that resume—but I was still terrified to not have a normal answer to that daunting question, “so what do you do?”
So, I perpetuated my own stress with one foot pursuing my passions, and the other frantically searching for a “stable, more secure” label that would satisfy my fear of what others would think of me. I was living the creative dream, experimenting with fine jewelry and writing my own books and selling crystals, but I would apologize for it when anyone looked too closely.
There wasn’t a magic moment when everything clicked and I didn’t shed my anxiety overnight. Rather, the last seven years or so have been a slow, patient journey back to myself. Back to that wide-eyed kid who just wanted to explore everything. It’s been a persistent fight to reel myself away from the goals I set just to please others, and to return to the heart-led inspirations, but each year the pull is stronger and I’m more aware than ever of my insecurities. I can catch the detours more quickly and gently than in the past. (I’m actually writing this right now after once again pivoting away from a fear-based, life changing goal—but more on that later!)
I guess I’m just sharing all of this because it’s the story I wish I could have heard. We tend to only recognize success in those who pursue one single interest—the ones with that laser-focus on carving a straight line forward. But for those like me, who would prefer to wander beyond the path slowly, don’t ever give up on yourself! There’s nothing wrong with you, and you don’t need to fit yourself in one box for the rest of your life.
We always hear the advice, “do what you love! Follow your passion!”, so in case no one has ever told you, this applies to the multi-passionate too. If your passion is creation or artistic expression, or simply experiencing new inspirations, your passion is valid! Your dream of simply being creative is enough.
The world needs your unique perspective, your enthusiasm for life itself, your innately creative eye. We are the multi passionate—the creative souls that reflect the beauty this fast-paced world can sometimes miss. We are needed here.
So, these are just some thoughts for you because they’re the ones I’ve thought about a lot over the years. It’s taken me a long time to not only be accepting of the way I am, but to also be excited about it. It’s exciting to stop and fully embrace that I just want creative adventures—new ones every other day. I want to work on one project for as long as it takes to finish, and then decide, “what do I want to do now?” I like feeling like my life isn’t perfectly laid out, and that the only known is that I’m going to find something to create no matter what I’m experiencing.
I want to end this by saying thank you. I’m dipping my toes back into video content, and I’m excited to connect with like-minded creatives. It can be a lonely world for us quiet introverts, so I hope to have brightened your day somehow; you’ve certainly brightened mine by being here!
So until we meet again, go have a gloriously quiet day. Bye!
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