7 Signs You're a Multipassionate Entrepreneur (and Why That's Awesome)
What does it actually mean to be multi-passionate, and what are the signs of a multi-passionate entrepreneur or individual?
We’ve heard it all the time, follow your dreams and your passions, if you do what you love you’ll never have to work a day in your life!
But, what does living by your passions actually look like?
This is a topic that I am so passionate about because I am can identify as someone who is multipassionate. I know firsthand what it's like to put yourself into a box and try to follow all the rules in order to build a business and then promptly feel bored and unfulfilled. For a very long time, this exact cycle kept me trapped in my nine to five for way too long. You might be feeling the same way, and you’re telling yourself that you can't possibly leave a “safe job” until you’ve reached some specific societally informed milestone.
The thing is, if you’re a multi-passionate individual, no amount of milestones will matter if you do not already feel fulfilled in the job you’re doing. In society’s eyes you may be making the “right choice” or living your “best life”, but when it comes to people who have such varied interests, it’s pretty much impossible to stick to one thing for too long.
There is no one way to do something
One of the biggest myths I think that we tell ourselves as multipassionate entrepreneurs and individuals is that we have to behave and make all our decisions in a certain way.
We tell ourselves, we have to be this certain person who makes certain decisions which only leads us down a path of comparison, which you and I both know actually doesn’t help you at all. Oftentimes this person we envision we have to be is informed by societal values, or even well-meaning coaches, courses and resources that have filled our brain space with this reinforced message that we're supposed to think, act, feel and succeed in a specific way. The truth is, there is no one way to do anything - especially if you're a multi-passionate person.
Our brains are already hard wired in such a way that linear thinking and behavior isn't what is going to benefit us at all. Mentally, we don’t have the stamina or the motivation to stick to one thing long enough if we already begin to lose our passion or interest in it. Oftentimes the path that multi-passionate entrepreneurs take looks like a roller coaster with various ups and downs that the average person wouldn’t even dare to venture on. But for us, the ones who love to dabble into a little bit of everything, those ups and downs just come with the territory and ultimately it’s okay to not follow a linear path.
What does being multipassionate look like?
Alright, so you might be thinking that’s great and all, but what does being multi-passionate look like? Well, here are some questions you can ask yourself.
Are you capable of becoming passionately excited about a wide variety of subjects and they don't have to be totally related? For example, you could be super into baking, roller skating and astrophysics.
Do you have a hard time choosing between one interest and another?
Do you find yourself interrupting yourself by dropping one task to pick up another before you finish it? This might look like starting a blog post only to leave it halfway through because you’d like to focus on finishing your painting
Do you find that when you really understand how something works, or you master a new activity, or a skill, you quickly feel bored and need to start something new?
Do you struggle to trust your decisions because you naturally tend to change your mind from one thing to another?
While these questions aren’t wholly conclusive, they should give you a good indication of whether or not you can identify as someone who is multi-passionate. On the surface, you might feel bad about identifying with any of these questions, and it’s natural to want to place a negative connotation of being multi-passionate, but you shouldn’t because it’s totally okay to have varying interests!
It’s important to remember that these facets of our personality, the inability to choose the fact that we get bored, that we're constantly searching for new challenges- this is the reason that we can create, innovate and bring unique gifts to the world in so many ways. In fact, there are so many people in the past that were multi-passionate brains, for example Nikola, Tesla, Oprah, and even Maya Angelou. So if you consider yourself a multi-passionate person, consider yourself in good company!
Signs of a multi-passionate person
Now that you’ve identified yourself as a multi-passionate person, we can go deeper into looking at the signs of this personality trait and some of the challenges we can face.
The first sign is being excited by so many things at once that you often struggle to choose one thing to focus on. In fact, it feels awful because anytime you try to make a decision, you can often second guess yourself or you struggle to actually follow through with your choice.
On the flip side, multi-passionate people love new challenges! You can easily master new skills, and you love learning new things It’s easy to hyper-focus on mastering one skill and then leaving it behind to learn something new.
Yet a big issue for us is actually feeling trapped once we get into the routine of something. This can show up as fear of commitment, but in reality, it is just your brain trying to protect yourself from feeling suffocated and being trapped into.
Sometimes multi-passionate people do not have a lifestyle that matches their desired success or goals. This can look like underperformance or not living up to your potential. On the flip side, some multi-passionate people are living a life that looks awesome and fulfilling when internally they feel stuck and disconnected.
Ultimately, there is still a stigma around being a multi-passionate person. We’ve all heard a jack of all trades is a master of none, and this label makes it seem like what we’re doing is not good enough but have you heard the full quote?
A jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one.
So next time you think being a multi-passionate person is a drawback, remember this. Being multi-passionate just requires a commitment to you to develop your self-awareness so that you can understand all the facets of who you are. The most important part is the concept of self-celebration and the ability to truly see your strengths and your traits as a superpower and not a setback.
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Hey there, it's Jenn Hulley and you're listening to Side Notes, conversations for the multi passionate entrepreneur, your go to space for all the things creativity, business, well being and life design, it's time to break free, find joy, and create success in your very own way. So if you're ready, let's get started.
Hey everybody, welcome back to episode two of season two, which is really episode 19. If you're counting, and I wanted to get us into a new habit of starting every episode with a card reading, if you're hanging around my Instagram page at Jennifer Holly, you know that I love to do a tarot card poll every Monday. And specifically from this deck, which is called the Muse Tarot. It's very, very different than a traditional tarot card deck. The suits have been renamed. The artwork is just it's very, very, I would say, what's the word interpretive, it's not so much literal. It's almost abstract and surreal. That's the word I'm looking for. It reminds me of like surrealist art, but it has this collage vibe. Anyways, I love tarot cards for not because they can predict the future but because they ask us questions. And they help guide our thinking, to shed light on things that maybe we're not aware of, or things that we're avoiding. And I just think they're another tool you can put in your toolbox to help you develop clarity and also their fun, right. And the reason I want to use this deck is because it's called the muse. And if you go to the Muse tarot, calm, I'll put it in the show notes. You can find out all about the artists and the deck and like what you know, makes it up and whatnot. But the description of this deck I thought was just so perfect for our community. And if you listen to this, I think you'll agree it says, The Muse Taro has a wildly eclectic spirit, and she is infused with bright magic and color for inspiration. She offers you the opportunity to explore your own inner worlds, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it keeps going and going. But it was that first line, the wildly eclectic spirit, the bright magic and the colorful inspiration. And I thought, What, like there's no better metaphor or description for a multi passionate individual, right? So that's why we're gonna go with these cards, and I'm not going to read you the whole thing, I'm just going to actually go instead of like, giving a whole reading and going, you know, on the internet, cuz I can't memorize them, right? Sort of going on the internet and reading you the whole thing. I'm just going to read you what's in this book. And it's written very differently. And you can take from it what you will, and you can let go, what you need to let go off, right? And I just thought, why not? Why not just set a little a little intention or have a little reflection before we get going? And I'm going to pull a card for us. Let me think, Okay, I have pulled the five of inspiration, which is the five of wands, and the five of wands in the traditional tarot deck, but in here, it's called the Five of inspiration. So I'm going to just flip through my little book, and get us started. I'm going to read it backwards. I'm going to start with the poem and then I'm going to read the words, because why not? That's the whole thing about being multi passionate, and going your own way and making your own rules, right. So the five of inspiration or ones if you want to go traditional, a war of bodies, brains and poses to win the titles, names and roses. And in the end we give too much of our own souls and joy and such. The key words in this are rivalry challenges, compare an itis or comparison itis. I need to collaborate in fighting or trying to outdo one another friendly competition. And the prompt it gives us is bouts of discord. Here's the little story right it comes a little storytime as well. It says the Muse looks down at the rivalry below the pushing and the pulling the comparisons. The not enough's. Sometimes she sees competition that hurts. And sometimes she witnesses healthy and productive competition that motivates she hopes to illuminate both the positive and negative effects that these challenges can have on your own life. find opportunities to work with others for the common good, and engage in friendly compensate them and engage in friendly competition that serves as a catalyst for your success. We're not going to edit that out, okay, we're just going to keep going. How do you compete in life? Do you lead with your ideas, your feelings, your charm, deep conversation, or perhaps it's your sexuality, distinguish the type of competition that makes you a brighter light from that which dampens your ability to shine and use this Muse his secret mirrors to see that the most important person you compete with is yourself. All of the external competition in the world cannot demonstrate your innate worth. You are already deserving of your own highest accolades and love.
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Got all the fields what a perfect card for what we're gonna be talking about today. Oh my gosh, I got goosebumps. I love that concept of competing with yourself. and understanding that like all the competition in the world isn't ever going to, you know what they said, shine a light on the amazing, wonderful, incredible human that you are. And because what are we talking about today? Today we're talking about like, what it actually means to be multi passionate. So what are the signs that you're a multi passionate entrepreneur, multi passionate, individual, multi hyphenate, whatever you want to call it. And we're talking about, what are the signs that indicate you are one of those people but also why that's awesome. Like, what's amazing about being like that, and why you should stop comparing yourself to other people, specifically those with a Zona genius mindset. So or not mindset, those with the Zona genius brainspace mind map, right the way that they their brain works. So yeah, let's just dive into it. Right, it's season two, I'm so excited. We're relaunching under this name, side notes. And we're focusing in, like I said, on critical conversations that we need to be having to have this happy and fulfilling life as a multi passionate person. That's why we're starting where we are today about like, what it means to be multi passionate. And this is a topic that I myself am so passionate about, because I am one, I am a multi passionate individual. And I know firsthand what it's like to shove yourself into a box. And to try to follow all the rules in order to build a business and then feel bored, unfulfilled and have to move on again, right like to be like, Okay, this isn't it, let me let me keep going. For a very long time, this cycle that I was in was exactly what kept me trapped in my nine to five, like, way too long, I felt like I couldn't possibly leave a air quotes safe job until, like I had landed on the one thing that was going to promise continual interest, for me energy, like those energy boosts that you need, and that, you know, energy drive to do the work. I didn't think that unless I had like the right idea, I would have that energy and that interest that was required to be able to stick with something long enough in order to make the money I needed. So I would spin my wheels in my job as a teacher and be like, maybe it's going to be this idea, maybe it's going to be that and I would buy a bunch of different URLs and like, come up with ideas for a million different side hustles. And then I'd realize Oh, like this isn't going to keep me interested forever. Okay, can't be this next. And what happened is, I didn't leave my job for a very long time, like a much longer time that I should have. I should have left like, I should have left after like year three. I should probably left in the first year. But I was living in England and I needed to get paid to in order to travel. But when I came home when I was living in Canada, I probably should not have stayed not let's back up, I definitely should not have stayed for 15 years in a job that drained me of the energy and life force that I needed to pursue my passions. And I should not have stayed there for 15 years, because I was thinking that I have to have this one idea that's going to make it work. And it's going to make it safe for me to leave. So I was a long side note. Anyways, the point is, there is a lot of crap and a lot of misconceptions, and basically a lot of bullshit that goes around and gets into our mental desktop, creating this idea that there's like only one way to do something, or like one way to leave your nine to five or one way to find fulfilment, in your work and in your job. And we think because there's only one way to do something, we spend so much time and energy trying to do that right thing. And one of the biggest myths, I think that we tell ourselves as multi passionate entrepreneurs and individuals is that we have to be something and like, what is that something? It could be anything, right? We tell ourselves, we have to be this thing. And we get this idea that we have to be this thing, this person again. Let's go back to that comparison itis if I could say that appropriately, compare comparison itis. Yes. Let's go back to the comparison. itis that the five of inspiration five of wands talks about is that we compare ourselves to this idea that we have to be this thing, this version of a person or an entrepreneur or businesswoman whatever. We tell ourselves that we have to be that and backtrack. It's also like well meaning coaches resources, courses, podcasts, things that we have filled our brain space with. They also reinforce this message that we're supposed to think, act, feel and succeed in a specific way
Unknown Speaker
in order to ensure safety, acceptance and success in our lives, right and so we spend all our energy on this pursuit of like fitting in and Doing the right thing so that we hit those levels of success that we really, really desire. So that when we hit that level of success, we're gonna be like, Okay, now it's okay to step into my life. And now it's okay to show up as me. The shit part of this, the ship part of this is that this is exactly what gets in the way of you building that life and that business and that way of being that you dream of, you never hit the level of success or the feeling that you're chasing after, right? Whether it's success, power, freedom, whatever, you never hit that, because you're working against your strengths, trying to achieve it, you're not working with them. So, you know, I say like enough is enough call bullshit on the bullshit because multi passionate people are like an integral part of our development as a society. And frankly, we have a hell of a lot to contribute to this world. There is so much to dive into. There's so many myths to bust, there's strategies to unpack and there's inspiration to share. And that is the aim of this podcast going forward for this season. So do you have a multi passionate friend, if you do, I would love for you to share this podcast with them and encourage them to subscribe so that they can expand their brain and begin to include different ways of thinking, feeling and acting to support themselves in the process of like designing a life that they actually want to live in. And now we're ready to get going. We're ready to dive in. We're going to talk today about what the 411 is, what are the deets? What are the what's the FAQ of what a multi passionate brain is. And I would like to like before we even get into this say, you know, there's a lot of terms floating around that mean basically the same thing. You might have heard multi hyphenate, you might hear a renaissance soul, multi pod, multi potential light, polymath, they all mean the same thing. It's different labels for describing the like amazing uniqueness way that our brain and our energy and our passion flows within our being. We're all very, very different. Like you can't take one multi passion and compare them to another multi passionate and they'll be the same, you're going to be incredibly unique. But there is this one thing that's going to unite all of us. And it's the way that we harness and express our energy, and the impact that that has on the world and the people that are around us. So today we're going to be talking about seven signs that you're a multi passionate and why that's awesome. Because I truly believe that there's liberation in a label. And once you find an appropriate label for yourself, it just feels fucking awesome. So I am going to challenge you in this episode to stretch your thoughts and shift away from negative self talk labels like stop using the term flaky squirrel brain impossible to please and start looking at every single facet of who you are as being a super strength. Now a book that I have picked up that I am like obsessed with. And we're going to do a deep dive into this in a future episode when we do some book club formatted episodes. But this book is called The Renaissance soul. And I'm going to put the details in the show notes, I believe the author's name is Margaret Logan Stein, you can go and you can get a copy of it or listen to it or whatever, just check it out. But like I said, we're gonna go next month deeper dive into the whole book, because there's so much in it. But it's a great resource to have in your toolkit and to extend your own learning and self awareness. So I recommend yak getting a copy of it. And although some of what we're going to talk about today comes from that book, The Renaissance saw. And what I want to do is, read us a little excerpt from that book, before we get going to help you to determine if you are a multi passionate individual or what Margaret says, are called as a renaissance soul. So this is and I've got an e reader here on my remarkable and I'm going to just fire it up. Give me a sec. Okay, let me go back. Okay, so I'd like us to read an excerpt from the book, The Renaissance soul, and it's a much longer quiz. There's a like a ton of questions in this book, to help you determine if you are, in fact, a multi passionate individual. But I want us to just read a few of these before we dive into it to help you determine if like, Yeah, I'm in the right place. This is me. I want you to feel seen. I want you to be like fuck yes, that's me. So here are some questions from her book.
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Are you capable of becoming passionately excited about like a wide variety of subjects and they don't have to be totally related. Like you could be super into baking and then rollerskating and then astrophysics and accounting. Right, maybe thing is do you have an equal amount of passion or a really intense amount of passion for a variety of things, you don't really focus in on one area that just fills your bucket? Do you have a hard time choosing between one interest in another? Because you have these passions that you're really jazzed up about? If someone said to you okay, like pick one or even you would you have to pick one to focus on one day? Do you have a hard time determining which one you're going to laser in on and which ones you're going to get rid of? Do you find yourself interrupting yourself dropping one task to pick up another before you finish it? You know, you might start your blog post or your you know, a book outline for something that you're writing. And then you're like, Oh, I gotta go do this. And it's something completely not related to what you were doing? Do you find that when you really understand how something works, or you master a new activity, or a skill Do you like really quickly feel bored? And like, you need to start something new?
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If you went to college or university, or post secondary, did you look for interdisciplinary majors or multiple majors? And after a year or two of something studying a hobby working? Do you feel the itch to move on? And this one, I find the last ones the kicker? Do you distrust your own decision making ability, because you definitely knew you wanted to be an x. And then you definitely knew you wanted to be a y. And then you definitely knew you wanted to be a Z, and so on, and so on. And that is the one I hear the most from people. I mean, I hear like, I don't know how to put all the things that I love to do into my business model or my life or whatever. But I hear a lot of chat. From clients inquiries, people I talked to on Instagram, about not knowing how to trust their gut, because they're like, I was so sure about this before. And then I did it for like, three months. And I was like, I can't fucking stand this on board. And we tend to think like, we're flaky, or we think like, we can't commit, or we just sort of attach all these shitty labels to us. But I want you to know that, like, if you were listening to that list, and you were listening to those questions from the Renaissance soul, and you were like, yes, yes, yes. You know, maybe you're like Jaws wide open. And there's like, little cherubs blowing trumpets in your mind palace being like, Oh, if you heard those things, and you were like, Oh, my God, that's me, then my friend, you are multi passionate. And that's amazing, right? Multi passionate brains. Like I said, they are a force in this world. We frequently be right ourselves. And we put these negative labels on ourselves. But it's important to remember that these facets of our personality, the inability to choose the fact that we get bored, that we're constantly searching for new learning and new challenges. This is the reason that we can create and innovate and shift and change and bring unique gifts to the world in so many ways. And in so many different opportunities. There are so many people in the past that are multi passionate brains, you know, like Nikola, Tesla, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Ben Franklin and Marie Forleo. Like, all of these people, they're all very, very different, right? If you think like Nikola Tesla and Maya Angelou, or like, What the fuck does Ben Franklin have to do with Marie Forleo? Right. What they have in common is that they did all the things, right, they might be well known for like one thing you might think like, Oh, Ben Franklin, you know, playing with, with a key out in a lightning storm. But there was so much more that he did in his life. And when you look at their trajectory of their life, you will see these endless shifts and changes and passion projects that they had on the side along the way. But that's why they were such a force in this world was that they brought all these things to the world that maybe we're not talking about, but are a big part of where we are today and what is in our world. So if you're in this company, you're in good company, my friend, right? If you are multi passionate, you're in good company. And what I want us to do is to dive into the seven signs that you are a multi passionate brain. Alright, we did the little quiz, you're probably like, yes, you know, if you said yes to any of those questions, there's a good chance you are but in case you're still on the fence, let's keep going but with the seven signs that I'm going to give you it's not so much just to say like hey, I'm multi passionate it's also to be like, Yeah, I'm multi passionate and that's fucking amazing. Like stop being shitty to yourself and stop saying that there's something wrong with you. We're going to challenge these thoughts and look at why these are actually like where the gold is in this
Unknown Speaker
Okay, so multi passionate sign number one, you might be a multi passionate if it makes me think of the red green show. You might remember that Oh, Hang on, whoops, stop, we'll go back. Okay, Sign number one that you are a multi passionate individual, you become so excited by so many things at once, and then you often struggle to choose one. In fact, it feels fucking awful like gut churning where you're like, this is the wrong path kind of awful. Anytime you try to make a decision and you try to go down a path, your brain immediately like activates this dangerous cycle. That's like abort, abort, abort, stop, stop, stop. And this takes a lot of, or wears a lot of hats, it shows up in a lot of different ways. It can look like struggling to choose a major at school, as we learned in the quiz from the Renaissance soul, it can also show up in having a hard time deciding which side hustle to launch so that you could like finally, leave your nine to five like me, you know, obsessing over different side hustles for years. If you're already an entrepreneur, it can look like deciding what product or service to launch, you know, if you have the business going, and you're like, Okay, what's my next offer? It's the concept of like niche paralysis. Basically, this is like Paradox of Choice, weighing you down every single day in a million ways. And this happens, yes, because Paradox of Choice does exist, that is a legit thing, I did an episode on it. And season one, if you want to learn more about it, you can go back and listen to it. But so there is research that talks about like, the more options you have, the harder it is to choose. That's part of it. But the other side of it is that we have been raised and socialized and taught to believe that we have to choose, right Paradox of Choice is only a problem if you have to choose and eliminate everything else. And you know, you don't have to do that. That's where the bullshit is, is we think, Oh, okay, I got to choose, I choose one and the rest goes into the garbage. And I never get to see these things again. And that's, that's bullshit. Because you don't have to choose, you just have to adopt a different approach. Maybe you need to take approach of phases or focal points. I'm going to focus on four things this year, and I'm going to do the rest next. It's about applying a different strategy of life design to your life than what you've been raised to know or what you're getting shoved down your throat. Right in terms of, there's a lot of rhetoric that goes on like business rhetoric, entrepreneur advice and stuff. And it talks about this, like you can do one thing, and then we have a meltdown. So yes, Sign number one. You get that gut churning, like holy shit, don't choose, don't choose don't choose. You don't have to choose, you just have to focus. Sign number two is that you love new challenges. But once the challenges are mastered, you're like, oh, snooze board. Next, right? You are going to learn things quickly. You love the concept or the process of learning. I mean, that's what really gets you going is that mental engagement and the feedback and the energy that you get from tackling something that is difficult and hard and unknown, but once you've got it, and you've nailed it, or even like not nailed it, but figured it out your brains like, Okay, I'm done. Find me something else. Maybe, maybe you're like me, and you discovered like a photo collage embroidery course online. I got a course on domestica. I went all in, I bought all the things. I like fight like hyperfocused I learned how to do it. I was collecting samples on Pinterest and I gave it a whirl. I learned how to do a few stitches, like just a couple different stitches. And I was like, Okay, next is like, I didn't even need to make the entire thing. I still have hoops downstairs under my couch in the living room. But for my brain once I learned how to do a few stitches that looked cool. I was like, alright, good enough. I needed something else. Or like maybe you do a rapid cycle learning new languages. I did this myself as well. I was like absorbed with French. By default they make you learn French in Canada wasn't my choice. But I learned French through school. And then I went into Spanish and I learned Spanish like crazy really quickly. And then when I got to university, I was bored. And so I picked up American Sign Language for a few years. Never speak French to anybody never speak English. I've never speak
Unknown Speaker
English. Let me re record this section. You love new challenges. But once challenges are mastered, you're easily bored. And that's because your brain gets so much energy you get a kick off the process of learning, like just the elements that you go through when you're like tackling a challenge and trying to figure things out and looking for solutions and connecting the dots. That gives you so much energy but once you figured it out, you're like, Okay, this isn't good enough for me anymore. I need something else and Maybe you're like me, like, I discovered photo collage embroidery online. I was like looking on domestica. And I got this course. And I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. And I went and I bought everything. I got all sorts of thread, needles, hoops, tons of shit. I went into a hyperfocus learning how to do it, I was collecting samples on Pinterest. And then I was like, I'm giving this a whirl, I learned how to do a few stitches, just like a few different fancy ones, not like a straight line. And then my brain was literally like, next. Like that was it like, I didn't even need to complete the project. I didn't even need to start a project. I just needed to learn how to make a stitch and be able to create something that I had seen then I was like, okay, cool. Good enough. Maybe you've done that, right? Maybe you rapidly learned languages. When I was in school, I learned French. We learn French in Canada, by default, you have to. But then I went on to Spanish, I learned that very quickly. And I was like, This is amazing. I'm obsessed. And when I went to university, I grabbed on to sign language. And I took it for a few years. And it was just like, once I got to a certain point where I could communicate at a certain level. I was like, Okay, next, I need a new language. And so funny, I've never used these skills. I don't speak French to people, I don't speak Spanish. I don't really use sign language so much in my day to day. But once when I was on a trip to Cuba, I ended up blending all of these things together. Because I met somebody who was deaf, it was a child, and I was able to like fingerspell my way through some Spanish to communicate with him. So the golden This is that yes, you love things that are challenging, and you learn them. And then once you've got them, you go on to the next thing, you are rapidly building this library of skills that you never know, when you're going to pull on things. And I think that's the important part to focus on. Not that you can't stick with it or not that you get bored. The fact that you are building and you are curating this library, like I said, have super skills that one day you might just be like, Oh, retrieve Doot doot. Okay, put these together, look what I can do, you never know how these things are going to come together. Just because you're not using it right then doesn't mean it's never going to come back again. Sign number three, you might be a multi passionate brain if you fear being trapped in the same career or activity or pattern for life. Commitment phobia. Right. A lot of the inability to choose that we talked about before stems from the fact that the thought of having to do the same thing for the rest of our life is incredibly suffocating. And this suffocation feeling or trying to avoid suffocating the feeling of suffocating can lead you to really not focus on anything because your body is wired, obviously to avoid danger or pain, discomfort, it can't tell if it's a big danger or a small danger or if it's just a little uncomfortable. So your fear of the mundane means that like your life choices are not going to look like anybody else's. You don't want the same thing over and over again, right? You don't want the same activity, the same pattern, your life choices are going to be different than other people's. And that can be lonely, or scary, or hella exciting depending on how you look at it. I myself went to London for seven years when I finished university because I wanted a change or I wanted to avoid stepping on what I call the conveyor belt of life. Right I just graduated university I was like I don't want to just get a job and then get into a house and then not that's that, like I'm stuck on this trajectory. And I'm just gonna keep going around in a circle. So I laughed, I was like, I'm going, I'm going to go not something that most people would do. Most people wouldn't just, you know, zip over to a different country to supply teach. And I have no regrets of going right I have no regrets other than staying in a crappy relationship too long.
Unknown Speaker
That's the only thing I wish I had left this relationship that I got into earlier but I don't regret staying in London that long. Maybe I regret like the Wanderlust that it programmed in my brain because I found when I got home it was like I'd been used to being able to travel and change my scenery like at the snap of a finger. And now we can't being back in Canada. It's a little bit different. I but I but also it's like maybe I don't regret that because I love travel. Like I love to experience new places. And that's me looking for a different pattern in my life looking for different activities. Variety, right so you can fear these things, but the fear of being stuck in an endless groundhog day cycle can prompt you to do some really cool shit. That is going to make your life interesting. thing right and memorable. And to me, that's important. And I think that's not to be diminished or ignored. Sign number four, you might be a multi passionate if a pattern of quick and sometimes unsatisfying, flings with hobbies, side hustles and adventures are part of your life. Like, seriously? And I'm laughing because I'm throwing myself under the bus here, but like, how many your RLS? Have you bought in the last 12 months? And how about the year before that? And maybe in your lifetime? How many Instagram handles? How many URLs have you bought? How many logos have you designed? I get emails from GoDaddy randomly throughout the year telling me that something's about to expire. And I'm like, What in the hell? When did I buy that? Like, I don't remember. And they make it so easy to do this because it's $1 to lock down a URL, right? And you have like, the next great idea, and you're like, This is gonna be the thing and I'm buying the website before somebody else does. You have this pattern of like quick flings sometimes they're unsatisfying, they might not be, they might be very satisfying to have this like rotating a revolving door, so to speak, of hobbies and side hustles and adventures and trying new things. It's not a lack of focus, right? This is where I say this is awesome. If you're doing that, and you're rapidly cycling through different pathways and possibilities. You're doing the thing, you're doing something called Wayfinding. And Wayfinding is an integral part to life design. That's a process we're going to dive into a lot this season. So if you're hearing me say Wayfinding, you're like, What is she talking about? Do not worry, we'll talk about that later.
Unknown Speaker
Number five, Sign number five, that your multi passionate, your desired success and lifestyle does not match where you currently are. You could be underperforming, like someone could look and say like, Oh, they're underperforming, like visibly outwardly. Or it could be an internal thing where what you want to do and be an experience in your life is not matching up to what you're doing. And you're probably like, this isn't sound good? Like, how can this be a good thing? And why is this awesome? It's awesome, because it's part of the process, right? When we talked about Wayfinding briefly in the last point, it's about investigating options, things that draw your attention, things that you're thinking about where you investigate them quickly to get feedback, so that you can then act on the feedback or get an answer quickly whether the answer is like yes or no. But this process of like rapid way finding of figuring things out and not committing to them on the surface can look like laziness, restlessness, or the inability to be satisfied, right? Like there is an element of dissatisfaction. But it's not where you initially think, right? It's like your, your dissatisfaction comes from, you're not happy with your current scenario, when you think of like the ideal scenario, and you're like, oh, this, isn't it. Okay, next, next. So you get in this position a lot when you're Wayfinding, because you're going to hit nose very quickly, or, hopefully quickly. And then you're going to pivot and go on to the next thing, right. And that is what causes you to some people, they're going to look and be like, This person is underperforming, they're not getting anywhere. Or you could just become really fucking frustrated, because you're like, I am not living and breathing, eating and sleeping, what I want to do, but when you're supported through this process of Wayfinding, and designing your life and your path in your business, when you're supported, and you're channeled and sort of guided along the path, right, and it's not haphazard and all over the place, your restlessness that you feel is going to become the compass that orients you onto your authentic path, right? If you're unsupported in this path of Wayfinding, you're probably going to make like a lot of disconnected choices. It's going to extend the road that you're on, it's going to be a longer journey, you're going to get frustrated. But the question I challenge you to ask yourself is, if your desired level of success and lifestyle isn't matching where you are, and you appear to be underperforming to yourself or to other people, first thing I would challenge you to do is ask yourself in whose eyes are you underperforming? Is it your eyes? Is it you like? Are you looking and going, I'm not doing the best that I can or I'm not living up to what I should be, you know doing? Is that your parents is that your friends? And understanding whose values you're using to assess where you are in your life is really important, right? It's a really, really important thing to do. It's a side note, it's like why it's the beginning of the business life coaching programs that I offer. We established these values so that we can figure out what is on this person's compass so that you know exactly what you value. And you can measure your life success against that. So
Unknown Speaker
yes, when you're Wayfinding, quickly, you're going to be not completely in that zone of success and lifestyle where you want to be right, there's going to be that dissatisfaction that you have, like it's the dissatisfaction, like I said, it's the gas in the tank of your car. And the important thing to know is that when you're multi passionate, this feeling of like that you're underperforming or you're unhappy or agitated with where you are, it's going to be dialed up. And to me that is golden. Because you're going to figure things out quicker than other people or you're going to be come attuned to the fact that things aren't great, or they're not in alignment. So feeling dissatisfied. And like, this isn't great. No, it's not a great feeling. But it's a little bit of an internal compass that not everybody has. So it's a blessing in disguise. Sign number six is that, you know, maybe you're not underperforming. So this is like the the other side to the last post, or the last point, the last point was like, you're dissatisfied, because you're underperforming. And it looks like you're not making progress. But you might be a multi passionate brain, if you are super successful. Like if you are really fucking crushing it, and you have this mammoth career or business, but it has left you bored and restless. Like you have all the things and you're just like, This is not nothing like this is nothing. What is this? And this is such an interesting one, like I said, because on the surface, it looks like everything is a Okay, it looks like something everything is like more than a Okay, you've climbed a career ladder, right? Maybe in a traditional job. Like maybe you have a corporate gig or you're like in a service based industry, like nursing, teaching, whatever, maybe you work, like I said, in a corporation, and you have climbed the eff out of that ladder, you might have like won awards, you might have led leadership programs, you have like, been a mentor, you've got to the top of the pay scale, you've you know, had accolades and awards and all that. And you've done it all, but you feel dead inside. Like, you hate it, you hate it, it gives you no joy, no passion. But you're so far into the success of it that you don't know how the hell to backtrack without blowing it all up. And this happens not just in traditional employment situations, like I said, like teaching corporate, whatever it happens in entrepreneurship as well, like, you may have decided, I'm going to be an XYZ, and you have built one hell of a business, like you're making money, you've got the audience, you've got following, you've got leads and sales, like you've got products, services, whatever, doesn't matter what your business model is, you on the outside are like a role model to others, you have hit these mile markers that other people are striving for so desperately, and you fucking hate it. Right. And maybe it's not that extreme. Like, maybe I'll just say like, oh, you fucking hate it. Like, maybe it's not that bad. But when it comes to waking up every morning and getting in the zone that you need to be to do the work. You feel like a zombie and the passion project you were so invested in as you launched it and work so damn hard to get it off the ground, gives you know feels like nothing at all. Big success dead inside. You have external markers of success, but no internal experience of fulfillment. And this happens when you're multi passionate, because you have that drive to seek new learning new experiences and branch out and basically build the shit out of your career. But once you hit that level of success, there's nothing left for you. There's nowhere to grow, you're bored, because there's no challenge. You've become a master at something, you've become a zone of genius, sir. And it causes your brain to melt down very quickly. And the last one I'm going to talk about today is that you probably have negative self talk, if you're multi passionate, your brain is probably filled with negative self talk around this term, jack of all trades, master of none. And if you're like, oh, I don't want to talk about that, as I say it, then listen up because you probably feel fucking awful when you hear that that terminology is a bullshit. It's a bullshit quote. It's that concept of like pinning a zone of genius person versus someone with a multi passionate library of mastery, pitting them against each other and saying the jack of all trades knows nothing. But before we get into that, let's even like talk about the fact that the quote is just bullshit because it's not even the full quote like it's half the quote. It's just the beginning. And I'm not sure if you've heard the entire quotes. I'm going to read it to you first. The entire quote is a jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one. And it's funny that that better than the master of one park left off? Or is it is it just to kind of like, throw us under the bus?
Unknown Speaker
Let me read it again, a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one, it was a damn compliment, right? Like, as a damn compliment about multi passionate people, it was not a you suck label to throw around at people, right? As a society, like side note, as a society, we're really good at taking half truths and making a bullshit rules for ourselves. Like saying, Oh, I'm going to hear the first part of this quote, and I'm going to use it to tell myself that I am scattered and a mess. And it's a half, quote, half truth, false hood that is rooted in this zone of genius mentality that permeates our society at the minute where it's like, I'm sure you've seen the quotes on Pinterest, you probably have gotten to professional development, things, courses, whatever, where they give you this shit, where they're like, everyone has their one unique gift to bring to the world. And it's your job as a human to bring that one thing that you're supposed to do master that one thing becomes so good, They Can't Ignore You show up as an expert in your field, just do the one thing you're here on this earth to do. And the successes and riches are gonna come rolling in. Maybe, but I want to ask you this, if that's true, doing something that you're good at, would you rather have one zone of genius, or a whole freaking library of mastery for you to dive into pick out when you need, you know, put on center stage and then rotate through? As an entrepreneur? Would you rather work with a coach or a mentor? Who has learned to do one thing really well, one way? Or would you rather work with someone who has an endless mental library of thoughts, strategies and skills that they can help? You know, help you create something that's totally unique? They can pull and put things together? Who would you rather work with? Would you rather work at the one person's like, you're going to do an email sequence? And this is the way you do it? Or do you want someone who's like, I know a lot about a lot of things. And I'm going to sit down and we're going to listen to who you are what you want to do. And we're going to figure out something that works. Think about it, like even from a product or service that you provide, right? Let me back up. Would you rather have for yourself or someone that you're working with one zone of genius, or a library of mastery, I would rather have a library of Master I would rather be that jack of all trades, because to me, that's like, like your Inspector Gadget. And you got all these like things that you can put together and make some really fucking machines out of and be like, oh, I need an extendable arm with a hook that also has a flashlight on it. Go right where someone's like, I came with an allen key because you can do everything with his Allen key. No, you can't. That's why Ikea furniture is so annoying. Built. Right? And I think it's just it's so important to remember that a jack of all trades, master of none. But oftentimes, it's better than a master of one, right? I think most of the time, it's better than a master of one. Think of yourself as an entrepreneur of like the work you do and the service and the product that you provide. How do you better serve your audience and your customers and your clients? Because you have that, you know, Library of stuff and skills and experiences in your pocket? Or you know, like I said the Inspector Gadget tools that you can pull together or on thinking Lego when you build stuff. And you're like, look at all these random pieces. Oh my god, it's an airplane and then you take it apart and you can turn it into something else? How are you better able to serve the people that you serve? Because you're able to do that?
Unknown Speaker
Or how are you better able to make a better product for people even if it's mugs? If you make mugs? You're like, why are my mugs better? Because I have this scientific knowledge of the ceramics and I have this artistic skill. And I also, you know, maybe you have a history in math or something like think about what it is that you do. And all the things that you know, and how does that come together to mean that you show up so much better for the people that you're serving? I don't know about you. But I would rather have the person in my corner that has a multiple multitude of skills, right? Whether they're my coach or my mentor, or the place where I'm buying clothing from or whatever, or someone that I'm supporting in terms of a product I'm buying. I would rather have that person in my corner that isn't a one trick pony. Right? That's more like if you're thinking if you're building a rider die crew, you want someone that can do a lot of things. So all that to say that being a multi passionate person and having a multi passionate brain is a blessing. It's not a curse. All of these things that we've talked to and talked about today, you know, like not being able to commit or getting really restless quickly. being super successful but bored and or feeling you know, I'm afraid to be trapped in something. All of these things that we've talked about are blessings in disguise, right, they require a little bit of a reframe. They also require a commitment to you developing your self awareness and your self acceptance. But most importantly, you have to commit to self celebration. And over the course of this podcast, being a multi passionate brain and a multi passionate person is a blessing. It's not a curse. All of the things that we've talked about today, the inability to choose getting really restless, feeling like you learn really quickly, but you get bored very quickly. All of those things are blessings in disguise, disguise, there's a lot of gold in there. And it just requires like a little reframe. It requires a commitment to you to develop your self awareness so that you can understand all the facets of who you are self acceptance, and that this is who I am, and I'm going to own it instead of self shaming. But the most important part is the concept of self celebration. And over the course of this podcast through this season and beyond. That is exactly what we're going to do here because it is truly time to see your strengths and your traits as a superpower and not a setback.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. If something really hit you in the fields and left you feel in like I feel seen. I would love for you to share this podcast so that we can continue to grow the community. Share it with a friend encourage them to subscribe post your favorite gems on Instagram. Make sure you tag me at Jennifer Hulley. Every little bit helps and by sharing this podcast with those that you know will love it. Your help to grow this amazing community thank you so much for your support and I'll talk to you soon
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
