What Is a Renaissance Soul and How to Kick Ass Being One
A few episodes ago I talked about the multipassionate person, an individual who isn’t bound by the normative nine to five routine or single hobby. A multi-passionate person is someone who loves challenges, is constantly finding new things to do or new hobbies to pursue, and often struggles with making decisions because something else catches their fancy.
Multi passionate minds are amongst some of the most brilliant minds, even if society wants to define as flighty or not grounded. Who cares? We love what we love, and we’re drawn to what excites us.
Margaret Lobenstine feels the same way. The author of one of my favorite books, The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One, has absolutely transformed my life with her wisdom on multi-passionate minds - or what she calls the renaissance soul. I love that term because it is such a magical way to describe this group of people (including myself!).
What is a Renaissance Soul
The Renaissance soul is a person who has a million and one ideas flowing in succession and all of them carry sparks of infinite possibility. That’s exactly what it means to be a multi passionate mind, to be what Margaret Lobenstine calls a Renaissance Soul.
This book is an amazing introduction into the multi-passionate mind and provides an excellent foundation for understanding who you are and how your brain works. The most important aspect of this book for me honestly, has been the validation that the way my and many others' brains work is totally normal! For years I felt there was something wrong with me and how I was hardwired becauseI always had a million and one ideas running through my mind and they all felt equally important and valuable.
If you consider yourself a renaissance soul, you’re in good company. Lobenstine goes into the history of other figures who were equally as multi-passionate, including Ben Franklin, DaVinci, Nikola Tesla, and more contemporary examples like Oprah. These figures didn't just contribute one thing, they did a lot of things, and they contributed to what I call the “joy zone.”
Making decisions as a Renaissance Soul is never easy
In her book, Lobenstine talks about patterns of concerns that her clients were always talking about. Each one constantly talks about the same headaches, the same problems, the same fears. She summarizes this by saying:
“...they tended to have trouble choosing whether the choice was a career path, or activities outside the realm of paid work. And the problem felt bigger than ‘what should I do to earn a living’, it almost felt philosophical and even existential.”
This section of the book really hooked me and pulled me in because I have been there, and my clients have been there. I have had so many clients come to work with me and question their decisions because it was never as simplistic as “What do you want to do?” “What business do you want to have?” “What hobby do you want to have?” Answering these questions is more philosophical ,that it feels like an existential crisis. Lobenstine describes this as something you can feel in your core being, you can feel it in your bones, this pressure to decide and this anxiety around deciding, almost as if, by making a choice, you're going to lose one of your limbs.
5 Signs You’re A Renaissance Soul
Curious to know if you fit the description for a renaissance soul? In her book, Lobensitne points out 5 signs you’re part of this club:
The ability to be excited by many things at once
You love mastering new challenges
You fear being trapped
A pattern of quick and sometimes unsatisfying hobbies and side hustles
A successful career that has left you bored and restless
Being multi-passionate is amazing. There's a lot of things that you contribute to society that are of value and you have the potential and capacity for a fascinating life. Sadly, we're also raised and living in a world that doesn't necessarily value the multi-passionate brain as much. From a young age we are taught that we need to know what we want to do when we grow up and we must stick to that. In reality, you can do whatever you want and you are not bound to one decision for the rest of your life. Renaissance souls benefit from flexibility and looking at their career and passion in terms of a tree, branching off into different and overlapping in certain areas. There’s a lot you can do with your passions and you should never limit yourself to one thing forever.
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And that was the line that hooked me and pulled me in because I was like, I have been there. My clients have been there and my clients are there when they come to work with me that question of like, choosing or that thought that we think like we have to decide and cut something off and get rid of it and only do one thing. It's this philosophical existential crisis that she speaks of like you feel it in your core being you feel it in your bones.
Hey there, it's Jenn Hulley and you're listening to Sidenotes, conversations for the multi passionate entrepreneur, your go to space for all the things creativity, business, wellbeing, 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.
Hi, everybody, welcome back. We're doing a really cool episode. This week, we're doing what I call a My Favorite Things kind of episode where we just get to dive into a book a talk or resource that I'm really loving right now. And I want to share with you because I know it's gonna change your life. Side note, I wish I was like Oprah and that these favorite things episodes could be ones where I'm like, you gotta go are you gonna go or but we're gonna table that for my vision board for a future episode, because one day we will be like sponsored as book or something, and I'll be able to give away tons of shit. But for today, we're talking about my favorite book right now called the Renaissance soul by Margaret Lowenstein. But before we dive into that, let's do our tarot card poll. I love to pull a card from the Muse tarot deck that I have, it is a beautiful deck. For those of you that have not heard of it or check it out. I firmly believe this is a tarot card deck that was designed with a multi passionate mind. In in their mind. Right, so let's get a card. And it'll help give us a frame to engage in this conversation today and just ask these cards, what do we need to know? What do we need to be thinking about today as we dive into the Renaissance Soul Life, and I'm going to pick this one. Alright, what do we need to know today before this episode that we're going to go in and talk about all sorts of things being a renaissance soul, multi passionate, multi potential light, I have pulled the page of inspiration. It's a beautiful card, a woman with rainbow colored hair, there's a cat. There's like a cloud in the sky. That's all sorts of rainbows mixed together. It's called the page of inspiration. Which member I remember a few. We talked about this a couple episodes ago, the creator of this deck has renamed the suits. So the inspiration deck is actually wands. So I gotta go to my little book here. Okay, the page of inspiration, a million sparks of ideas, all the enthusiasm at the beginning, brainstorming and planting seeds for new projects, futures successful starts, the vibrancy of youth, a zest for life, ideation, creativity, exciting possibilities. The rain clouds of creativity, a cloud of ideas, blooms overhead, popping with excitement of what could be, this page of inspiration really can't help herself. She always has 1,000,001 thoughts flowing in succession, and all of them carry sparks of infinite possibility. She laughs at the thought of putting each one of them into action. She will be the first to tell you that she will gift you inspiration, a thought a reason a bright rain at the end of a drought. But it's not. It's not her zone of genius to make that idea of reality. Oh, I'm laughing. This is your job. Her rainbow hair sways in the wind. Another idea pop ups pops up effortlessly this time for someone else. As she drizzles a symphony of solutions, answers and potentials. She shares them freely. But now it's your turn to take root into your belief, hope and faith and take action to make them real. And I'm laughing because literally like I do not cheat. I'm not picking words that are perfect. They just happen to have been perfect every single week. I'm laughing at the fact that they said the zone of genius because we talk about that a lot on these episodes, the zone of genius versus the multi passionate mind. And this page of inspiration just it screams to me the Renaissance soul, right she has a million in one ideas flowing in succession and all of them carry sparks of infinite possibility. And that is what it means to be a multi passionate mind to be what Margaret Lowenstein calls a renaissance soul having all of these ideas and almost laughing at the idea of putting all of them into action and being like, I can't do all this, what am I going to do with it? So, again, what a perfect, perfect introduction to this conversation we're going to have today we're talking again about one of my favorite books Renaissance silver mic by Margaret Lowenstein, I'll put a link in the show notes so you can get a copy of it, I really recommend this as a foundational book for you to understand who you are and how your brain works. There's a lot in it, take from it, what you need, you know, let go what you don't need. But for me, the most important or I say transformative part of this book, for me and for others has been just the validation of how your brain works and what you like to do, how your mind works, how the things that you struggle with, and it's so important to have yourself represented in something that you're reading, right to be like, Oh, my God, that is me, that is me. And to understand that it is okay that you have like this rainbow hair girl, the page of inspiration, millions and millions of ideas, all of them that are like shining and luminous and seems so exciting and equally interesting and to feel like, I'm not gonna be able to put them all together. And this book, it's huge man, it is 400 pages over 400 pages. And it is what I feel the right mix of theory, information, there's thought prompts, but there's also like tactical, on the ground strategies for you to find solutions to help you live this multi passionate life in a way that's going to you know, make you money so that you're not broke and bouncing through jobs or never getting your side hustle off the ground. But do it in a way that works with the way your energy flows, and you're not going to burn out because you're not going to be shoving yourself into strategies that do not work for the way your brain works. It's over 400 pages. It's broken up into five sections. The first one is really the theoretical introduction to the who the what of this concept, the Renaissance soul, she really dives in and she blows up myths. She's like cracking open your brain to a new way of thinking about who you are, and why it's fucking awesome. She talks about historical references of people that were multi passionate, she goes into like Ben Franklin, she looks at De Vinci, Nikola Tesla, but then she also has some more contemporary examples like Oprah, and just really shines a light on the way all of these people's brains have worked and how No, they didn't contribute just one thing. They did a lot of things, or they contributed to what I call, you know, a joy zone where they're in a sphere that's under a certain topic or theme, but did 1,000,001 Things that you maybe didn't know about? That's part one. Part two is all about clarity and focus. And she talks about establishing your core values as an individual, what are your values right now, not talking about what you, you know, valued a month ago, or three years ago, cuz that's very, very different than who you are right now. And also not getting tripped up on thinking like, Who are you going to be next year, because you're never gonna know. And she introduces you to this idea of building your life like building an ice cream sampler, like maybe like a banana split or whatever. Like, I was like, in my way of talking, I would say like a wine flight, you know, like a tasting flight of like six different wines or shokudo. reboard putting all the stuff on it, the cheese and the meat and the sweets that you need, so that you feel satisfied. You have lots of options and combinations, different people, different ways of talking. But her visualization or her visual that she describes for you is this ice cream sampler approach to life. So yeah, Part One, who are you as a multi passionate, let's blow up some myths talk about why this is awesome and not crap. And let's go into part two, where we're talking about getting some clarity and focus about who you are your values and what your life's gonna look like. Part three, is all about the world of work. She talks about jobs versus J. O bees, and she looks at things called umbrella careers to for one's jumping ship. Like when is it time to quit? When is it time to take sabbaticals and take breaks? Like? What are the multitude of options that you have in terms of the world of work for somebody who's multi passionate, because this is probably the biggest struggle as you're an adult? Or even when you're in school? You know, that question of like, Who do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do? What's your five year plan? And she really presents solutions to you that, you know, you don't need a five year plan and you don't need one career. You can have two careers, you can have a portfolio career, maybe you need to get a job in the meantime, that's what she calls something a J, ob versus a job. And maybe you need to get something in the meantime, that helps you get something that you need time, money, resources, connections, or whatever, while you build one of your other passions. Part four is about committing to your cause. She talks about focus, momentum, how to like stay the course with what you want, and Part Five is all about mindset. So strategies to overcome internal resistance, anxiety, motivation, fear all the mindfuck swirl around in our heads, that's we're trying to build a life in a business that we're enjoying, but also profiting from. So that's like a high level overview of what's inside the book. And you're probably like, Oh my God, that's a lot. I suspect that she is multi passionate herself, because she covered so many things in this book. Like, it wasn't just like, how to get a job, if you're multi passionate, or how to identify if you're multi passion, she's like, I'm gonna go everywhere, I'm gonna talk mindset, I'm gonna type values, I'm gonna talk time management, like it's all inside of it. But that is why it's such an amazing resource for a renaissance soul, a multi passionate brain, there's so much in there that even if you don't read the entire book from cover to cover, and you just use it as like, I'm struggling with this, let me go through the index and find something that I can read, I am pretty sure I'm fairly confident that you will find something in the book that will help you. Like I said, you're maybe not going to sit down to read 500 pages, it's like 450 or something, maybe you're not going to sit down and read it, cover to cover. Let's be honest, you're not going to sit down and read it cover to cover because you're multi passionate, and I guarantee you, how many books do you have on the go right now, right? How many books I'm reading, like six, if you are reading one book cover to cover before you start the next book, I would ask you to question yourself as to whether you're multi passionate, because that is a telltale sign that we have like six books going at the same time. But she starts the book off, like I said, with this foundational approach to what it is to be a renaissance soul or what it is to be multi passionate, blows up those myths calls it some shit that you're probably have picked up along the way, and you be rate yourself with. And she talks about patterns of concerns that you know, float in and out of her office, she worked with clients, I can't remember if she was like a therapist or counselor or whatever. But she noticed that she was working with a similar group of people that were always talking about the same stuff, the same headaches, the same problems, the same fears. And she summarizes this by saying, you know, I'm going to quote her directly from the book, they tended to have trouble choosing whether the choice was a career path, or activities outside the realm of paid work. And the problem felt bigger than the what should I do to earn a living, it almost felt philosophical and even existential. And that was the line that hooked me and pulled me in because I was like, I have been there. My clients have been there and my clients are there when they come to work with me. Because we that question of like choosing or that thought that we think like we have to decide and cut something off and get rid of it and only do one thing or pick one thing over the other. It is never as simplistic as What do you want to do? What business do you want to have? What hobby do you want to have? It is it's this philosophical, existential crisis that she speaks of like you feel it in your core being you feel it in your bones, this pressure to decide and this anxiety around deciding, like almost as if, by making a choice, you're going to lose one of your limbs. And like I said, I've been there, I get there all the time, I have not someone who's worked through it, it's like, I'm done with this, I never, you know, this is a problem, or a hurdle that you will come across multiple times as a multi passionate, where you're faced with a choice, and you think the pressure of having to make that choice just causes you to sort of like almost want to crumble, you know, with my clients, whether it's about finding clarity on like, How to Get a side hustle off the ground, or how to breathe life back into their business, there's some choice element that they're circling around, and we're like, I can't decide to launch this thing, cut this thing, whatever. It's, we get very, very stuck in the weeds, right? And it's because these questions of like, what product do I launch? Who do I speak to? What do I do with my content, you know, content strategy, or whatever, all those choices that you have to make? These questions are bigger to us than the logistics of the response, right? As multi passionate entrepreneurs, our values, our passions, our energy sources, all of that stuff is so intertwined with our identity, because we are what we love, and we are what lights us up, and we are what energizes us? And because our passions and our interests can feel like larger than life, and so much of our life, the thought of choosing one or the other is hard, right? And it can be bigger decisions in your business, like what product do I launch? Which ones don't I launch? And it can be the smaller decisions like what content am I going to focus on? Am I going to really focus on my email list? Or am I going to focus on video or should I be doing that because we want to do all the things right we're interested in all the things we're probably really passionate about writing and reading and speaking and art and does not like all of it. But in order to not run ourselves into the ground, we do have to make choices. I'm using air quotes. Because I don't love the concept of choosing, I think that choosing is a misnomer. It makes us think like you're in, you're out. And this is where the book comes into play. Because she echoes this sentiment that I have where you shouldn't be choosing you should focus. And that is the core of the the business planner that I sell to get it done business planner, we don't choose resolutions and goals, we choose anchors and focal points. And I think that's why I connected with this book so much because she was saying stuff that I firmly believe in for myself and have seen success with myself and with clients. And to hear someone echoing it, I was like louder for the people in the back. You know, I'm like, yes. So I really recommend grabbing this book, like I said, so that you can have it as just something to have in your back pocket to tap into when you need that support. And that reminder of like, it's okay to think the way you think and to love the things you love and to find certain things stressful, and here are ways to get through it. So this concept of like a philosophical as existential crisis around the concept of choosing, that totally unites the Renaissance soul, the multi passionate brains, regardless of what we do, you could be an innkeeper, a photographer, a designer, an author, a teacher, doesn't matter what your job is. That sticky point, anxiety, icky space of choosing is a common feature that unites us, but what else unites us, she keeps going, she continues into the book to say, you know, yes, you have trouble choosing whether it's a career or a tivities, outside of work like a hobby, you have a hard time choosing. But you also have this ability to become excited by several things at once. And you have this fear of being trapped for life in the same career or the same activity. And there's boredom that appears after the challenge of a new task has been met. So you have hard time choosing you love a lot of things, you're totally freaked out about being stuck doing the same thing forever. Entrepreneurs, this comes up in like niche paralysis, and deciding what products and services to launch because we believe like once we put it out there, that's it. I've launched my two services. That's all I can fuckin do for the rest of my life. And it can cause you to really hesitate to put stuff out there. Because we forget that we're in control. We can say like, I'm doing this for six months, and no, that's it. Now I'm doing another product. And we also get bored, right? I was talking about this. A while back on my Instagram, no did a real and I did there's an IG TV, if you want to go watch it about why boredom is good. Like we do get bored. When the challenge of a new task has been met, we learned something. We're like, I want to figure out how to do this. Whatever it's maybe you want to learn how to knit or you want to learn how to do something for your business. You get it, you get into it, you learn how to do it and their brains like man. Okay, now what? And I firmly believe that that boredom is what you want to hit, you want to hit that boredom because it's this marker points on your path that will either push you to learn it a little bit further and a little bit more in depth or it's going to pivot you on to a different road. So you want to hit boredom. And the fact that we hit boredom fast I think is great because we're not wasting time doing something that isn't for us. All right, let's talk about the elephant in the room. The fact that when you're a multi passionate entrepreneur, and you're trying to build a life in a business that you love, self paced, courses get you nowhere, and group masterminds are incredibly restrictive. This is because self paced courses are two hands off, there's no accountability. And when you join a group mastermind, you are stuck working at somebody else's pace, you have to stick to their schedule, and there is no natural progression of learning, or application that takes place for you. Designing a life in a business that you love is so much more nuanced than that it takes time. We already know that our path is not linear, that we need flexible working conditions that are going to allow us to lean into our energy states as we grow. But we know that we also need support, because real change comes when we engage in in depth conversations and allow ourselves to really dive into the material we're learning. And this is exactly why I've created two foundational programs for the multi passionate entrepreneur, and they are a mashup of the best of both worlds. You get self paced learning modules, support materials and tasks so that you can work through it at your own pace. Plus, you get ongoing support via group coaching and co working so that you get to clear out the mental clutter and start taking decisive aligned action and build a life and business that you are totally jazzed up about. No more joining group masterminds and you know having access to calls for a limited time frame because when you join us, you work on your timeline. That means you can take as long as you need you can move backwards and forwards and circle around again as many times as you need, because that is how learning takes place, you work at your pace your way. And still, you're going to be supported with access to twice monthly coaching calls for as long as you need. Awesome, right? Like, I know, you're thinking, Oh my God, tell me more I need to know, two options, we've got two of these mashup programs running right now. One is called Creating your clarity compass. And this is really focused on life design and getting clear on who you are as a multi passionate entrepreneur and individual, what you're here to do and what success is going to look like for you in all aspects of your life in business. It's gonna help you explore options, take aligned action, and push you to expand yourself in ways that you may not have considered. The other course is crafting your brand identity. Now, this is for people that have a focus, and they're ready to launch pivot or go all in this mashup program packs in everything that you need to create a business where you can show up fully as yourself and pull in the success and the results that you desire. It's going to help you ensure that you reach your people authentically, it's going to push you to pursue what lights you up. And it's going to help you eliminate the unnecessary so that you can tidy up the loose ends of wearing all the hats, you know, the hats that drain our energetic buckets. Now both of these programs have a one time payment of 1125, Canadian or 85 American dollars. And frankly, this is a friggin steal. When you consider the fact that yes, you have these courses, each one of them has about 13 modules in it. But you have access to ongoing support for as long as you need. Because frankly, an eight week mastermind is going to cost you more money than this. So you get to choose your path. It's Choose Your Own Adventure, you can join, creating your clarity, compass or crafting your brand identity. You were designed to create a business and a life that allows you to show up fully as your badass self. You were designed to be curious, investigate options and make aligned decisions. You were designed to live a life that you're proud of. And now I want to ask you, are you ready to design a life and a business that you love, one that fills your bucket and your bank account. If you're ready to join, I want you to tap that link in the show notes so that you can get all the details about both of these programs. And you can choose the path that is most aligned for you. Whether you decide to jump into creating your clarity compass, or jump into crafting your brand identity. I am so excited to get working with you. And I can't wait to get started as you dive into these core foundational subjects and topics that you need to master in order to build a life and a business you love.
So in the book, Margaret identifies five signs that you're a renaissance soul, right Renaissance soul is her verbiage for the multi passionate, multi hyphenate multi pod. And she firmly believes that these five things are your check marks. So if you have this, then you're good. You're a renaissance soul like her the ability to be excited by many things at once. Accompanied by the difficulty choosing Hands up if that's you, a love of new challenges once mastered, you're easily bored. My hand is up, I get very bored very quickly. A fear of being trapped in the same career or activity for life. Yes, absolutely. A pattern of quick sometimes unsatisfying, flings with many hobbies, or side hustles. Like, again, how many URLs have you bought in the last three years. And this one that's really interesting to me is a successful career that's left you bored or restless. And this one is interesting to me. It's my takeaway on this list is that is so important to pay attention to that number five, because we know we know that multi passion people get excited by a lot of things we know we have difficulty choosing, we know that we get bored, we know that we're afraid of being trapped and have commitment phobia, or whatever you want to call it. We know that we rapidly cycled through hobbies and side hustles and we seem like we're never satisfied. But the one that I think we don't talk about a lot is that number five, the fact that you can have a successful career that has left you bored or restless. And it's so important because it's that reminder that being a multi passionate entrepreneur does not mean that you're always scattered or underperforming. You can actually be smashing goals and hitting huge milestones making a lot of money doing things that optimally on the outside looks like you're fucking killing it. But inside you feel completely trapped, bored, Dread doing the work and it's becomes this thing you just have to do where you're like, I gotta get up and do this again. And I don't want to and that love that you had for this passion project of yours is now gone. You actually like come to dread doing the work that has brought you the success that you wanted so badly.
I think It's also important to note that multi passionate entrepreneurs are not always people that have many jobs, or many side hustles. And many projects on the go, right? We talk about or not we talk about, you see a lot in media that the the multi passionate person, the squirrel, squirrel brain shiny object syndrome. And they give you this idea that a multi passionate entrepreneur is like someone who owns a cafe teaches yoga on the sides and is also doing violin, solo concerto, whatever, that's not even a term. Clearly, I'm not a musician. But doing like violin concerts on Zoom. And that is not true. That is one version of a multi passionate brain, you can have a million fucking things on the go, you can have like six jobs, you can be a dog walker, who's also a writer and hustles at a bar and is teaching kids English cool. But you can also be this multi passionate entrepreneur who operates in a joy zone, which is something that you love doing that lets you dip into all those skill sets and lets you do all those things within a space, right? You know, I talk about it, it's like a box with the lid off, you're in a box, you're contained within a framework of a theme, but the lid is off so that you can pull in new ideas, new experiences, new strategies, whatever, and have all those experiences within this little space. A example of this, you know, would be somebody who owns a shop, right? So you own an antique shop or whatever. I bet a lot of people who own shops do it because they love a lot of things like they love interior design, right? You get to set up windows, you get to make displays, you get to make lifestyle, your shelves, you get to do a lot of interior design work. You probably like writing in some respects, you get to write copy for advertisements, or you know, signage in your store or email newsletters that are going out to your customers. You probably like working with the public, like your store is forward facing into the community. So you get to work with people, maybe you have like events in your store, you have these community meetups or you host an open mic night, you know before pandemic and all that crap, like that's what you were doing because it fed that need and that passion of yours. And creativity, you're probably creative, right? If your store is not an antique store, maybe you're making pottery, maybe you're making furniture or whatever it is, you're doing all these things within the box of owning us a shop. And I love that concept. And I love that in this book, she talks about that. She specifically speaks to something that she calls an umbrella career, which is something that like overrides and encompasses all of your passions. I say, you know, the box the lid off, she talks about an umbrella career some people call them portfolio careers. And she tells a story of herself how she's an innkeeper or was an innkeeper at one point in her life. And was her zone of genius operating this bed and breakfast no like that wasn't she wasn't like totally jazzed up about the bed and breakfast market. But she had so many passions that she was able to dabble in on a daily basis. By owning an end, she was able to work in food and cooking through menu design because it was a bed and breakfast. She was able to dabble in interior design by establishing the room decor, the design of the shared spaces. She even loved like education and teaching and so she was able to run an innkeepers apprenticeship program through this in and her fine like she said she loves finances and she loves like bookkeeping, and taxes and stuff. So she's able to establish her own pricing, her bookkeeping, work on all the financials of her business, etc, etc, etc, like a million etceteras through this umbrella of being an innkeeper. And this concept, you know, she talks about the concept of umbrella careers. She talks about other career models that can work for a multi passionate brain something like a two for one where you actually have two different jobs. Or you know, section four, like this all comes up in Section four, I would call it making it work, I can remember exactly what she calls it because section four is all about navigating careers, side hustles and future opportunities. So the crux of this book or the main, not a thesis, but like her main belief in writing of this book is that be multi passionate is amazing. There's a lot of things that you have to you know it within you to contribute to society that is a value you have the potential and capacity for a fascinating life. We're also raised and living in a world that doesn't necessarily value the multi passionate brain as much I mean, it does because the society benefits from what has been developed and launched and provided by multi passionate brains. But we tend to teach people that you need to be a zone of genius person you need to, you know, be seven years old and be able to answer like, what do you want to be when you grow up? You're going to be a doctor awesome. Get on this doctor train and that's your life for the rest of your life and She acknowledges the struggle that comes when you're living like you're raised in a community or a society that believes that because you know, when you're a kid, like, all your belief systems are getting written down your brains. And like, this is a side note, again, about we're talking about subconscious development, but your brain wiring and programming is really getting written as a child. So we're raised in this society where kids are asked, like, from day one, what do you want to be when you grow up, and we're told that you get to be this one thing and pick one thing. And if that's not how your brain works, you end up struggling not struggling, because there's something wrong with you internally, and your life is a struggle, you struggle because the messaging that you're provided with from day one does not match up, like who you are in your brain structure. And she believes that, like, the biggest struggles that a multi passionate brain or Renaissance soul is going to have in their life are around the concepts of money, time and focus. Right? She believes that, like, you have to learn to make money. Absolutely. Like we you have to make money unless you want to be living in a box, right? You have to learn to manage your time and focus your energy if you want to get shit done. And those are the big things that she feels you're going to struggle with as a renaissance soul. And she provides a framework for how to support yourself with this. That concept of money, time and focus, being the biggest struggles, really sets the stage for the rest of the book that helps you navigate like how you can actually begin to make money through these various paths available to you, you know, the umbrella career, the 241 that she talks about. The Y is focusing on how you'll manage your time, and how you can set your mindset up to maintain focus so that you keep building momentum that you need. So everything that's in this book goes through a lens of teaching you or supporting you through these struggles of making money, managing your time, and staying focused so that you get shit done, and you're not just spinning your wheels. So everything in the book leads up to like section four, which is successful life design for Renaissance souls. She really believes like myself that traditional methods of life design do not work for multi passionate brains. And she looks at nonlinear processes that like which do what she calls unlocking your capacity for commitment, setting goals and managing your time. She suggests, you know, she blows up the SMART Goal Setting the you know, sma RT way of setting goals and taking action uses her own framework called PRISM, which she encouraged you to apply to your life, when you're deciding what your focal points are going to be. I always say like build your compass. Remember, she talks about the ice cream plate or the ice cream sampler. But once you've established your focal point, she suggests this process called PRISM that you put your ideas through to decide whether this is something you're going to go with like p being price, what's the cost of pursuing this time, energy money? Reality checking, like, what's the day of the day to day of this is going to look like and you actually going to enjoy it? I for integrity, is it in line with our core values? If you're not if it's not like Why the fuck are you even considering it? Because we can get really sidetracked and pulled in other directions. unknowingly. As specificity, she really challenges you to get specific. And this is something I'm always always driving home with my clients is to say something like I want to be creative, or I want to be a helpful person is not enough, you have to get really specific and be like, what does that look like? If your focus is to become a helpful person for children? What does that look like? There's a million ways you can help children get specific about the ins and the outs and the action that you're going to be taking. So then you can go back and be like, is that action in line with your core values? If not, do you need to shift it a bit? She ends it off with M for measurability, which you know, I love because she talks about data, she's like, You have to track some data, you need to know, how many hours are you going to be working, what products you're going to be selling? What are your income levels that you're hoping to establish through this. Because you have to be clear, again, to go back to specificity. The measurability they're tied together, you have some specific markers that you're measuring, so that you know if you're being successful, because when we set loose goals for ourselves and say like, I just want to be more confident, your brain is never going to establish like this is what confident looks like and say, hey, guess what? You're doing the right thing. Your brain is going to constantly move the goalposts. So you never really get there, right? Because that's just the shit that we put ourselves through. So she really pushes, like, get specific about your focal point, what does that actually look like? And how are you going to determine whether you're being successful? She takes us even further to like dive into a time management system that she believes in, which is less about scheduling and to do lists and checklists and more about these focal points that you established through her process and rotating through the focal points over the course of the week.
And you're probably like seem to be talking about this. And you're like, I know why she loves this book. My thoughts on this are like, I completely agree with the main struggles where she says that a multi passionate entrepreneur or multi passionate brain really struggles with commitment, goals and time management, like their struggles that we all know I've been there, my clients have been there, you're probably there right now with something, and you will dip in and out of them, you might get really good at one and then you sort of, you know, fall back into your habit of okay, I've lost my time management system again, for commitment, you know, we feel like we can't commit to one idea, go back to the beginning of what we were talking about in this episode, the concept of choosing and being trapped for life causes this existential crisis freakout. And so we feel like we can't commit to one idea, sometimes we can't commit, because we're not supposed to. Sometimes we can't commit because we need variety and change even when we have locked in the choice, right? When we've made a box, we need to keep some keep the lid off, like I say, so that we have some variety in our life. Setting Goals becomes overwhelming as fuck, like setting a goal is a point of such stress for a lot of my clients, and it can cause them to go into freeze mode. And it's like, I don't want to choose, you can't make me choose. So I'm gonna choose nothing. And when you choose nothing, you get nothing. So I always talk about don't choose focus, choose a focus, right? Or decide to focus, don't choose and say like I'm doing this and fuck the rest, you say, I am focusing on this in my the time management system that I teach, we established, like I said, the annual anchor, which is your emotional state or feeling that you want to live in the vibe you are wanting to establish in your life and your focal points. throughout the quarter create many focal points, you get to do a fuck ton over the course of the year through this system. Time management, right, what we're saying is it's like that's a whole other mountain mindfuck. Right. I created a real about this a while ago about how to tap into your energy like to go within and find out what energetic state Am I in right now, and to how to tap into that to plan your time better. I talk a lot about using a flexible, not a five year plan approach, but also taking the concept of time blocking and changing it so that it's not rigid. Get a pack of sticky notes, it's your best friend. I just wanted to say like if you feel like you struggle with these things, the concept of committing and setting goals and managing your time, I want you to consider this amazing new community opportunity that I have created, called the way finders network, and I've created it on the mighty networks platform. It's designed to be an online space to guide and support you through all of these things. It is a space to connect with other multi passionate entrepreneurs. It is a space where I post exclusive content and resources to guide you. It is a space for sharing and learning and stretching and supporting each other as we grow in our lives and business. community level membership is $149. Canadian for the entire year. That's $120. American, we're talking less than $10 a month and it gives you access to so much at that price point. It gives you the private community you know where we're having conversations and connecting the space where I'm posting exclusive content and resources for you. But it also gives you a quarterly webinar that you can attend completely free of charge that is designed to give you strategies support systems about things around mindset, goal setting commitment, action, taking all the things that you need to ensure that you are designing your life in your business in a way that supports your multi passionate brain. Not only does it give you that but it also gives you the interactive get it done business planning framework, which is over 70 pages of templates, organizers data collection sheets prompts, there's like 14 videos. Inside this program. There's coaching video, so it's sequence for you to watch certain videos at different points of the year to basically prime your brain and get you ready for the activity and the action that you need to be doing so it is beyond a planner. My gripe is when people feel that buying you know a beautiful planner at the local bookstore is going to change their life. It might make you feel better about writing down what you need to do that day because it's a beautiful space to work in. But complex issues and complex scenarios such as designing your life in your business dealing with commitment, goals and time management. They require more complex solutions than a beautifully designed notebook can ever provide. And so that's where this system has been developed from it is a self paced, guided supported business planning framework. It's like having a business coach in your back pocket. You then have the community that you can tap into ask questions, have conversations and support each other, and you've got access to these quarterly webinars that are going to keep you on track. It's an amazing community, I'm so excited to be launching it. It's something I've been working on for a very long time. And it's just, I firmly believe that these conversations that we're having need to be happening together, we learned so much when we connect with each other. So I really encourage you to come and join us and hang out in the network. It's Wayfinders community, it is on the mighty networks platform. And you can get details on how you can join us in the show notes. The biggest misconception I see in life as a multi passionate living in this world, you know, I'm thinking of like just a small town girl, it's just a multi passionate girl living in a Zona genius world, right? The biggest mindfuck that I see, I probably shouldn't be singing when I am like getting over a cold. But the biggest mindfuck that I see or misconception that I see is this idea that you have to commit set goals and take action only in January, right? If you've missed the boat, and you think you're fucked, you're like, I'm never gonna get this fixed. It's bullshit, you can change your life whenever you want. So the reason I mentioned this is because all that good stuff I was talking about that's in the community network. The very first webinar is happening at the end of March. And it's all about flexible time management systems and how you need to tap into your energetic states. And, you know, the other thing is get fucked on a post it notes ready. But by doing this, post it notes and tapping into your energetic states is one small change that may change your entire life. Quote from a current member of this program, she said on Instagram, I started doing your post it system and I feel so free.
If that isn't enough for you to join us, I don't know what it is, man. If you want in on this community as a founding member, join us this month, like I said, so you can tap into that first webinar. Like I said before details in the show notes sign up by the link and I cannot wait to see you there. So let's go back to the book to wrap up. What is the takeaway from the Renaissance soul by Margaret Lowenstein, it is one hell of a resource for the multi passionate entrepreneur, there is a very good section, a very large section that targets more people who don't know what they want to do with their lives, like people were like, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. And it talks a lot about schools and University College post secondary and like traditional careers being in a nine to five. And I'm not totally sure that that aspect is particularly useful if you're an entrepreneur. But I do feel that the foundational aspects in the beginning about just recognizing yourself as a renaissance soul, and a multi passionate person are so essential. They're foundational and fundamental reading for a multi passionate person, even if it's just as a way to shine a light on your unique way of being and interacting with the world so that you feel seen and feel a little more confident showing up as who you are the next day, you can read the beginning, you know, you can skip over that stuff about college and gap years if you want. And you can just head right into the life design section for a really decent overview of what you can do to start actively constructing a life that you fucking love and feel good about the details about this book, I'm gonna put them in the show notes as well. There's lots of stuff in the show notes. Always it's your little library of resources. So I encourage you to go there and get a copy of it. You can get a paperback hardback, I got an e book of it, that I'm reading on my remarkable tablet. And it is a really amazing guide, like I said to have in your library to dip into when you're struggling with something different, whether it's like confidence, you're struggling with confidence, you can just read that section or if you're struggling with time management, you can read that section. Or if you just want to have like who you are as a person affirmed and feel better about taking up space in the world the way you were meant to check it out. If you do get it, I would love to hear what you're thinking of it. You know, take a screenshot of this episode. Take a screenshot of it, post it. Tell me what you thought about it. Tell me what you think about the book. Once you've got it, tag me in it. I'm at Jennifer Holly, make sure you tag me so I can reshare your post and also I see that you've posted it. And that way I can like give you a little nudge and a little tap in the DMS and we can talk about it. We are all in this together right we are all multi passionate entrepreneurs who are kicking ass and I think it's so important that we connect so thank you so much for everybody who shares content and connects with me and just is open minded and open door policy about talking about these things with each other. It's such an amazing conversation to be having. And I'm excited to dive into this with you again next week. We'll be back with another episode. If you haven't subscribed, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Bye. 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. You're helping to grow this amazing community. Thank you so much for your support and I'll talk to you soon
