Passion-weaving

One hobby to rule them all

For many years I waited in vain for my one true calling to strike me like a bolt of lightning. I used to wish for one of my interests to consume me, and I would have no choice but to practice a musical instrument or foreign language for years until I was the best in the world. I grew intensely jealous of child prodigies. Why was I not chosen by fate? Why had I not picked up a guitar aged six and be a virtuoso now?

Instead, I felt cursed to be a jack of all trades, master of none.

I was deeply affected by shiny object syndrome. I left a trail of unfinished projects behind me and leaped from horseriding to music to martial arts to painting.

My inability to stick with anything frustrated me and yet the excitement I felt with each discovery outweighed my fear of flakiness. I became addicted to new starts. Convinced somehow that the passion I felt stirring with each new interest could be maintained and at last, this was it — my one true calling — until inevitable boredom or another shiny object meant yet another hobby fell by the wayside.

This self-flagellation was not helped when people around me would say things like “success is about focus,” or “you can do anything you like, just not everything.” My personal favourite is always “chase two rabbits, and you will catch neither,” and more recently “saying yes to one thing means saying no to another.”

Daniel Goleman’s book Focus torments and shames me to this day. It is also highly unpopular in the self-help and business world to describe yourself as a multitasker. On and on it goes.

My multi-passion guilt and shame became debilitating, and I begin to shut down my shiny object syndrome with busyness.

By loading my day with to-do items, I would satisfy my need for variety, but keep myself too busy to explore new things. My fear was that yet another temporary passion would be unlocked, and I would be carried away for days, only to have it peter out like all the rest.

Then one day, I heard Emilie Wapnick speak. She runs a website called puttylike and talks about multipotentialites. She has discovered an entire tribe of people who suffer in the same way as I did.

Emilie made me realise that it’s perfectly reasonable to have multiple interests, in fact, it should be celebrated.

Living a lifetime of multiple interests means you have amassed a unique set of skills and experiences. By embracing these interests under the one umbrella and you can create a unique offering. You just need to look for themes or common threads.

So I did.

Receiving permission to be a multipotentialite from Emilie set me off on a course of self-discovery. Yes, yet another hobby or pursuit, but this one is designed to make sense of all the others. This one is the key to unlocking how I can allow all my passions and interests live harmoniously. This line of inquiry is about finding ways to weave all the different threads of my life together into one unique design.

I am on a quest to become a Passion Weaver and teach others how to do the same. Are you going to join me on this journey?