Multipotentialite, Polymath, Scanner, or an old-fashioned Renaissance Person?

I created this blog about a year and a half ago, when I first decided to accept the fact that I have more than one interest.

Like a lot more.

Like...a whole lot more.

One of my first posts was the blog graveyard where I discussed all the very, very various blogs that I'd created and then abandoned, sometimes without so much as a single published post.

The idea behind triple V was that I could post ANY of my various blog post ideas right here, even if today's post has nothing to do with yesterday's. To some extent, I think I let that get away from me. I started these series that I felt guilty about not following up on, which made me avoid blogging altogether.  For that, I apologize. (Mostly to myself - my most loyal reader!)

I say all this because I was doing some digging tonight about people who have a hard time committing - not in relationships (at least not just in relationships) - but in all aspects of life, including careers and even hobbies. I have known I am this way since about middle school. Probably since the first time I heard the term "Renaissance man" explained. I remember once around the age of twelve describing my "dream job" as performing every job there is, each for just one day.

What do I want to be when I grow up?

Leonardo da Vinci.

Or Leonardo da Ninja Turtle if the former falls through (j/k it's Donatello forever in my heart)

During this dive I stumbled across the website Puttylike.com which is all about so-called multipotentialites (a term coined by Puttylike's founder Emilie Wapnick) like me who hold interest in a large variety of fields and are often looking to move laterally between these interests. These people are generally contrasted with specialists, who may have secondary interests outside their specific field (hobbies), but tend to be satisfied with a rather vertical career path.

This describes someone like my mom who never wanted to be anything but a doctor, and even though she gardens and does home improvement projects on the side would never think of quitting medicine to pursue these hobbies more seriously.

Conversely, we multipotentialites are more likely to enter an interesting career, work it for all it's worth, then, satisfied with the experience, move laterally to something else - possibly something that appears to be entirely unrelated. These jumps often come when we're faced with the opportunity to make a vertical move, as when offered a promotion, or possibly upon receiving a job offer after finishing a degree program.

The truth is, before tonight, I kinda thought we all felt like that, but that some people just had more discipline than others and that we all had to figure out how to put up with vertical movement. Or else that there was the One True Calling for everyone and that I would find mine eventually. I just needed to try them all first to make an informed decision.

It never occurred to me that some people might just crave the straight path the same way I crave the windy one, even though I had obvious, concrete role models for that fact in my life.

(Yet another "straight" path I have no use for. In retrospect it should have been obvious...)

Indecision has paralyzed me at many points in my life. It does so every day, at least on a small scale. Then I make big decisions impulsively because the alternative is to consider every facet until I'm too exhausted to make any choice.

The fact is it would've been super useful to learn all this cool stuff about myself and how my brain works when I was in my twenties - that was when I was a neuroscientist after all - but it's better to figure it out now than not at all. Plus my kids are still young (hell the one is still t minus a few days yet) and I think embracing my multipotentiality has the potential to make me a much more effective mom, especially if we decide to homeschool my gal Friday next year.

Note: It's not lost on me that being a "multipotentialite" at all comes from a position that's privileged as fuck. When your kids need to eat and keep a roof over their heads, you can't mess around with your livelihood and in that sense, many people out there hustling do simply have the discipline to only worry about making ends meet, because they have no other choice. Ennui is for those living in relative comfort.

In fact though, these thoughts are what motivated this tangent I'm currently on. I'm a smart, capable person who is happily staying home with my kids while my husband (also a multipotentialite) pursues a career. I rely on him to make sure our family's basic needs are met, and while I support and believe in him, who knows what the universe has planned for us? So while I'm sitting here in my position of privilege, it seems only prudent to use this time to explore ways to make my multipotentiality work for me, or at least to work along with it instead of fighting it, and being able to earn what I need to support my family at the same time - in case the time ever comes when this particular privilege runs out.

If you're looking for more information on how to make money as a multipotentialite, check out Puttylike's post on that exact topic.