Have you ever taken one of those career-placement tests? You know, the ones that supposedly assess your strengths and interests, apply a mathematical formula, and spit out your ideal job? How did that work out for you?
…Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Multipotentialites don’t have “one true passion”, we just don’t. In fact, some of us have so many passions that it’s hard to keep track of them all.
How do you know which interests to focus on and which to keep on the back burner? And how do you figure this all out and design a life around many of your interests without becoming overwhelmed?
Start with a Blueprint
You can’t live a life based around your many interests, without a clear picture of what those interests are. They can change and evolve, that’s fine. Your days can have flexibility and freedom built into them to make room for any new interests that emerge, but we have to start somewhere. Saying “I’m interested in everything!” is a cop-out. You know what you love (and at the very least, you certainly know what you hate)!
Lets get the good stuff down on paper so that you can consciously construct a schedule that includes everything that’s important to you.
Soul Searching
Abe and I have put together a worksheet to help you figure out exactly who you are and what activities light you up. Consider this step one in designing your ultimate scanner lifestyle.
Make sure you write down your answers. There’s nothing quite like seeing a complete picture of YOU right there before you. Having it on paper makes it more objective, more real.
And if doing it alone sounds daunting and/or annoying, how about following along with us!
In Today’s Episode of Undeclared for Life…
Abe is our honourary guinea pig. Listen in as he goes through all 10 of the exercises and we learn a little bit more about the Abraham.
Listen to the Episode
Subscribe or review in iTunes or RSS
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What are some of your true passions? List ‘em in the comments!
Great concept you two! I love the worksheet concept too, it’ll be interesting to see what other people get out of it.
I like that you guys put an actual post in here too. I don’t have time to listen to a podcast when I’m going through my feed, but this works. Looking forward to listening to the podcast a little later today.
Thanks James! Yeah, that was the idea. I wanted to put a little something on the blog for people to nibble on, just in case they don’t have time to get to the episode right away.
Do come back once you’ve listened though and tell us about a couple of your passions! I have a feeling that yours in particular are going to be rather fun to hear about… :)
I haven’t had a chance yet to listen to the podcast, but will:)
I like the worksheet compared to others I’ve seen of a similar focus because of the variety of questions.
Passions:
Photographing ordinary life
Cooking from scratch and creating recipes
Exploring the woods without trails
Learning about neurology
Dancing
Talking with old (over 75) people talk about life
Oh wow, your interests are awesome!! I’m really into creating/modifying recipes too. Unfortunately I’ve got some food intolerance, which are super annoying, but at the same time lead me to get into creative cooking. And that’s been totally amazing. My latest obsession is zucchini pasta (I just got a spiralizer!) and I invented curry turnip fries a while ago, which are a favourite of mine. Yum..
Thanks!
I have been meaning to try Turnips in a “kid-Friendly” form, fries would be perfect. Can you point me to a recipe or is it easy enough to share here? Also, Zucchini, we love it here, but I’m curious about making it into pasta too:)
Yup, you just chop up your turnip into fry-like strips, throw them in a big bowl, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and however much of salt, cumin and/or curry powder you like. It’s up to you how you’d like to season. I usually add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tablespoon cumin. You can also make it with nutmeg and cinnamon, which tastes awesome in the morning with eggs. Mix it all with your hands, lay them out flat on a pan and bake for 30-35 min at 350.
Let me know how it works out for ya. :)
Thanks! Will do.
okay! Just listened to the podcast… thanks for sharing Abe. I’ve always loved case study based learning for some reason, makes it easier to relate to than a five point list of abstract concepts. I think it’s interesting too how with all your interests, you’ve got one overarching passion that you’re heading towards. I suppose I can relate, with the marketing side of things.
alright! my (very much not all inclusive) list of passions.
1. community. One of the most energizing parts of my life are planning and brainstorming sessions. I love working with teams of people who are all committed and excited about what’s going on. Even more importantly, I love seeing friends and contacts benefiting from the work we do, especially if I get a brilliant case study out of the deal.
2. I’ve found myself talking a LOT lately about dream building and alternative mindset stuff. I even grabbed rich dad’s board game to try and help some of my ‘normal’ friends think differently about life.
3. bringing business grade analytics into everyday situations. I assume this is just because I’m a gamer, but I love stat tracking, and I’m really excited at the moment about applying game theory and per-student tracking to education reform.
4. When I die, I want people to call bull on the stories they hear about me. (woah, woah, woah. No way James had a cat living on his shoulder for six months. There’s no way he was a shaolin monk for a year and never even mentioned it. He seriously worked on the marketing campaign for *insert awesome direct response marketing program here*?).
5. my main thing though, is I love being around passionate, grateful people. Life is beautiful when living around people with an ikigai. (Okinawan concept, meaning ‘reason for being’). Networking plays heavily into what I want my life to look like, and it’s been really fun to see how the Jeff Walker Product Launch Manager experience has opened a lot of doors for that.
I’ll also second he ‘woods without trails’ love. Travel and new places in general appeals to me quite a bit. I have a dream of working for a month up on a mountain somewhere, from an ipad with satellite internet.
Amazing James! Thanks for sharing.
I wonder if you might want to start a second blog one day that incorporates more than the health/food/lifestyle stuff you write about on Adventures in the Raw.
Maybe when we start our intentional community, you could also start a blog that’s all about intentional living (or maybe we could do it together!) Holy cow… My mind is spinning now… We should talk…
Thanks Holli and James for sharing your passions, and Em for the recipes. Now I’m hungry! It’s funny, I read so many different articles this week on this particular topic. Everyone has a different viewpoint on finding/following your passions. I think I’ll follow mine, because when I’m energized by something I seem to make the biggest positive impact on others. All the other reasons for following something (money, obligation, peer pressure, societal norms, emotions) haven’t been sustainable for me, so I get grumpy and lose effectiveness really quick. Doesn’t feel too hot after a while :)
No kidding. I sat down to try to write a guest post today for a large blog that shall remain nameless, and I just couldn’t do it! It was like pure torture, trying to get the words out.
I realized that I was trying to write this guest post purely because it’s something they say you “should do”. The numbers for this site are great, but I’m not all that into this particular blog myself.
Anyway, I seem to have become allergic to doing work that isn’t fun. Which isn’t so bad, ya know… It’s a sign that my body knows what’s best for me.
emilie & abe!
You’ve raised the bar! I listened to the first podcast, on a scale of 1 to 10, hmmm! It was a 4, considering I listen to Jeremy too, of IBM. Now, I must say, there’s a lot of improvement. Keep it up folks.
While I was lost in the world of scanners I found emilie via @marsdorian. TY
My Passions
I love children, playing with them and wondering & wandering with them in their world. I like to connect with them
*I love tech as a tool to help folks.
*I smile when I can share a solution and it helps someone get alaong.
*connecting with people from different cultures and land gets me excited. That is why am working with a small team to organize a tweet-up here in W/Africa.
Someday, I would visit canada and get to meet emilie (bucket list). She keeps me coming back to the blog, she’s darn good and persistence.
There are scanners in africa too, consider us as one of your audiece. Cheers.
Thanks Jesse! Great interests. Meeting me is on your bucket list? Lol.. that’s um.. interesting.. heh..
Emilie,
I am glad to have landed at your site today. I love your honesty, your relaxed yet powerful vibe and your awesome words. Aside from speaking about a subject that is quite on target of how I view life you also have a great radio voice my friend and it is fun listening to you.
I believe that one should most definitely be open about having many passions and diving into all the oceans you feel like diving into without remorse or guilt. I particularly enjoy that you are not being superficial about the subject and are going into an area that few bloggers really go into -a live workshop. I enjoyed the guinea pig idea because it is an extremely practical way to really show us what you mean by each step in your exercise list.
This is a brave way to make sure your words go far beyond the typical “motivational” idea. I feel blessed to have found so many like minded people in these last few weeks and you are definitely one of them. I am excited about where you are going with this and really look forward to getting to know you better, learn from you and interchange ideas. Despite your age you are a wise soul. – un abrazo fuerte -Bernardo
Thank you Bernardo! I’m so glad we connected. (I have my friend Lauren over at TheMadtoLive.com to thank for that. :)
I appreciate all the kind words, especially the comment about my voice! I totally hate the sound of my voice, and I cringe sometimes listening back. Haha.. But I’ve realized that most people hate the sound of their own voices. And you know, there’s nothing you can do about it, so why let it hold you back from doing something you really want to do.
I really like your site as well! Great message and personality, and I love the format! I think it’s so innovative. We definitely have to stay in touch! xo.
I have printed the worksheet and am doing it tonight as soon as I finish this scholarship letter I’m mailing tomorrow! (Really hopeful about the scholarship! Squee!)
Great post, love the podcast as well!
Hi Ruby,
That’s cool! Let us know how it goes. Good luck on the scholarship! And thanks for the kind words. :)
The ‘ideal day’ exercise alone is powerful because most of your ideal goals are accessible RIGHT NOW (except if you want to be in a different location, but you can work towards that).
I did the exercise sheet last night, and this morning, I woke pretty early and was not rushing around and I allowed myself to relax and work on things that mattered.
Cool little exercise and great show as usual!
Very cool, Tom! It’s actually really exciting to see so many people taking the time to do the exercises. (Makes the mastery of rewritable PDFs all worthwhile, right Abe? ;)
I agree, the ideal day exercise is one of my favourites. It’s the vision I always jump back to when I’m in a slump and need inspiration.
btw I’m digging the looks of your “Just Enough” post over there… Gonna go take a read. :)
Thanks Tom!
Thanks Emilie, it sounds like you and Abe had a headache with formatting the PDFs? I’m using Preview for my Mac to read PDFs and I had no problems whatsover adding text, probably the easiest text I have ever added to a PDF file. Rewriteable PDFs for the win!
Heh no, I don’t think it was too tough. It was just a new skill for Abe to master… (Really, I just like teasing Abe though. ;) But I’m sure he’ll be glad to know that it worked out for you!
I love, love, love this episode! You’ve talked about some of the items from the worksheet before on your blog, manifesto, and through coaching, but I did every question anyway. Having things written down really helps you get a better grasp at what’s going on and what you want. This was a great exercise. Thanks you two!
Yey! That’s awesome!!
I remember taking a computerized career placement test in middle school. I took it multiple times and got a different result every single time! Those things are kind of ridiculous…
Thank you for sharing, Miss Wapnick!
Heh yeah, they’re definitely not made for multipotentialites!
Thanks to you, Magen. :)