Are you a multipotentialite?

Credit: https://www.swissarmy.com/ 

Dreams may come in all shapes and forms, but may not be achieved by everyone, unfortunately. And let us be honest: pursuing your dream may be highly frustrating at times, and unrealistic at best. This is why I prefer referring to finding one’s passion, rather than focusing on an unattainable and ever-eluding “dream”. But why is it so important to find our passions? Simply put: because it drives us!

Of course, finding your passion(s) goes beyond finding your “dream job”…although they can very well be aligned. For instance, some of you may have decided to obtain a specific degree because you had envisioned yourself as a brilliant researcher, entrepreneur, mechanic, or any other professional – thus aligning your dream job with your passion(s). For others, this alignment may not be straightforward; worse, some of you may not even know what your passion(s) is/are, let alone what you want to do as a career! Even more confusing perhaps, your interests and passions may be so diverse that it makes it hard to focus on what drives you most. 

For my part, I came to realize that I am one of those individuals that have many interests – some of those I would even dare call passions. However, having multiple interests or passions may make it challenging to narrow down a career path, let alone finding a “dream job”. Yet, despite what may seem to be perceived as a conundrum – i.e. finding one’s passions and aligning them with a career path – there is one thing that I have come to realize over the years: it is O.K. to have many passions and to be a “pluralist”. Or, as Emilie Wapnick puts it, it is not abnormal to be a multipotentialite!

In her TEDx talk, Why Some of us Don't Have One True Calling, Wapnick defines a multipotentialite as “[…] a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life”. Although she is a self-proclaimed multipotentialite and may not have the sort of “credentials” that some professionals would like to see when dealing with such matters (i.e. the letters P, H, and D following her name…in that precise order), she does bring an interesting perspective on what our conception of passion(s) and potential is/are, and what it could look like when embracing the various facets of our talents. In a nutshell, Wapnick argues that people that have multiple passions and talents are, among others things, quite skillful at shifting between different modes of thinking, quickly acquiring skills and synthesizing ideas, which grants them the ability to “combine disparate fields and create something entirely new at the intersection”. I would argue that this is not such a bad feature to have given the fast evolving world we live in – especially in the workforce!

In the end, it boils down to the fact that our passions are what help us get out of bed in the morning and soldier on when adversity strikes. Thus, when uncertain about what your future holds, whether you are a freshly brewed graduate student, a professional in the midst of an existential crisis, or simply trying to find your “dream job”, perhaps it would be worth pausing a second and trying to figure out what is driving you and what your passion(s) is/are. Doing so may give you perspective and most probably help you align your own values and passion(s) with the sort of job and workplace culture that fits you.

So, what is/are your passion(s), what drives you…are you a multipotentialite?