I know I don’t have to say this, but we’re living in a moment.
I’ve noticed something interesting–if perhaps unsurprising–since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of folks in my life and in our community have been reviewing and reassessing their choices and trajectories. People have been thinking seriously about what they want in life, both personally and professionally. They’ve been reflecting on their values, changing course or experimenting with new projects and directions.
This makes total sense, especially because so many of us see the way we make money as intrinsic to who we are. So many people have lost the ability to work in the industry in which they’d been working. I’m thinking of my friends who are actors, performers, public speakers, event planners, etc., but folks have been laid off or lost business in almost every industry.
In addition to all the economic upset, we’re also dealing with the human realities of this situation. Many of us are filled with anxiety, stuck at home, and/or living with an ever-present sense that life is just…off right now. We tend to reflect on what matters when our lives have been upended. Even if we haven’t lost our source(s) of income, and especially if we’ve had extra time at home to think, there are many reasons we might be considering the big picture right now.
On societal level, we’re reviewing and reimagining institutions, policies and systems, and thinking about how they can be made more equitable. All of these reassessments and steps forward, from micro to macro, are happening because of groundwork laid in the “before times,” and many of them are long overdue. But there seems to be a unique kind of space for questioning now.
How are multipotentialites handling all this reimagining?
The process of reassessing priorities, pivoting to new areas and initiating projects is something we multipotentialites are very comfortable with. We tend to be okay with the discomfort of being a beginner at something, and we’re skilled at taking knowledge and experience from our past and applying it in novel ways. Most of the multipods I know absolutely love starting new things.
That’s not to say that this moment has been easy for any of us. These are super stressful times, and honestly, if you’re simply surviving right now, that’s totally understandable and okay.
But I’m thinking a lot about what multipotentialites can bring to the table in a world that’s changing so fast, and I wonder how our individual lives are morphing and pivoting right now.
So, I am curious…
Have you been reviewing different aspects of your life, either out of necessity or because your circumstances have changed? How are you moving toward what’s next?
I would love to hear about some of the realizations you’ve had and how your goals or plans for the future are evolving.
Please share your stories in the comments below. We might publish some of them in a future article, so let us know if you’d rather we not include yours.
Sending lots of love to you and your loved ones,
Emilie
The best part of multipotentiality in the pandemic is being engaged with a wide variety of groups (medicine, law, design, architecture, education, social work, in my case) and seeing that the patterns and timing of emotional response is very similar across the groups. It normalizes the abnormal experience and highlights our common humanity. It’s also really interesting that this is one of the rare cases where I have been a standout specifically because of my multipotentialism. Usually it’s something that’s viewed as a quirk to be tolerated and now it is a strength. I’ve been invited to participate in some hard-charging, cross-sectional projects specifically because I see across boundaries.
It’s solidified something I’ve known about myself for at least 30 years, and has finally given me the push to go all-out for the life I want to lead. That, in turn, has given me an idea for two books and three business projects! I’m just getting started, but I’m determined to make it all work.
Honestly, pivoting and learning isn’t a major problem for me. But then, the world being gloomy is. Not having control over what is happening is unnerving. Also having to do things that are not my interests but are inevitable such as child care and homeschooling is affecting the balance previously created. I am so used to working on my interests and balancing them so not having that pleasure is pretty hard to cope with. Not also knowing when the world will return to “normal” is disturbing. As a summary, juggling multiple things is not the problem but juggling multiple things that that you would rather not be doing is pretty challenging.
Yes! Nicely stated. Being stuck in survival mode prevents you from self actualization (to use Maslow’s terminology).
Yes!! I’ve had to shift my plans because I had to reckon with my current survival state and how that has really stinted some of my more intuitive strengths, like creativity, and organization – those things become so much harder in what feels like constant survival mode. Yet, I am grateful to be back here because I think it helps me get in touch with what some of my clients are feeling! It ain’t easy!
You can say that again. It’s hard!
OMG, Emilie! You’ve almost read my mind. I had been thinking in the past few days that this pandemic has somehow created a world where multipotentiality is welcomed. I can see soooo many people starting up side hustles. It is the ‘in thing’ now. As multipods, we are already extremely good at hustling. And now, finally everyone is realizing the value of having more than one passion. Although, the uncertainty of the pandemic still haunts me (not as much as before, because the vaccines are already showing good results), this change in the social mindset is giving me hopes for a better future for us, multipods.
Personally, I’ve started multiple projects to work on. I was a sequential multipod before pandemic, and in a jiffy, I’ve become a simultaneous one! I find this quite overwhelming, but I’m learning.
Pre-pandemic, I was pondering a major career pivot. The problem for me is that the things that I want to do, and even some of my options to make money if my first-choice options don’t pan out immediately, have been affected by the pandemic. So I’m in a holding pattern that is forcing me to reevaluate my future plans. What will the post-pandemic normal look like in terms of career choices, and how do I fit into that?
I totally relate to this. I’d been planning to make a career pivot and had spent months making a portfolio website and learning more about my next field. I’d just started to apply for jobs when quarantine hit. It totally derailed my job hunt process…one interview I had the week of the shutdown went well and then they shelved the position! My motivation to fill out applications also got derailed as for a while it seemed pointless. I’m thankful I still have my current job, but I feel overdue on moving onto the next thing. I’d nearly started filling out applications to go back to the field my degrees are in because it seemed safer (although maybe not at the moment since it’s the field of education…ha), but instead I think I’m going to pivot into more freelance work for the time being. The feeling of being in a holding pattern is not fun for a multipod, so I empathize for sure!
I had awful low energy April, May, June. I was on track to do a bunch of things, but they all fell by the wayside. I sewed many masks for nursing homes and rehabs. We had severe PPE shortage in Massachusetts. But that’s all I did, many days just did the bare minimum to feed the family. But in July I buckled down and set some personal goals that I am working towards every day. I organized everything I want to do into 57 goals with deadlines. Every day I work on learning German and Machine Learning (right now just Python) and organizing old photos. Strategy is three pronged. 1. Set intention every day for what I will do, and review at the end of the day. 2. Limit social media. 3. Do one thing at a time. I guess there is a fourth one and that is do the important things.
Thanks for your strategy! I’ve been in a bit of a slump in terms of overall productivity, and your tips are practical. Learning to code, getting in shape, and practicing French are my current focuses, so I’ll learn from your experience and get organized again. Hopefully, a schedule will get me back into my usual groove. Good luck with prioritizing machine learning and German!
A while back I accepted a job out of (perceived) lack of different options, new house purchase, and a promise of a nice team. It ticked the boxes in terms of a great team to work with, financial gains and lack of commute. However, the work itself has more often than not been mind numbing and with no clear results from my input. I’ve been feeling like I’ve worked a whole lot with close to nothing to show for it. Slowly, I started looking at other options. Once the pandemic and working from home started, I had an almost panicky realisation of how badly I am losing my valuable time, days flying away and evenings daydreaming about spending all those hours differently, no clear answer as to how exactly, but for sure not like this. I’m now in the process of exploring this further, and as much as I feel there’s no concrete plan, my whole body screams that I for sure can not leave it as is. Thanks to the pandemic (?) I might actually take some riskier steps and free myself from the trapped feeling I created around my current situation.
This has been a once-in-my-lifetime moment to exist & dream & do for me – solo quarantine is sometimes terrifying but crazy empowering! Lots of time for reflection & re-calibration, for unlearning & learning, for fear & hope. Since my office went remote (for the first time ever!) it’s been a fascinating journey of trying different routines & methods to explore my passions & self-care practices. I went into quarantine with a go with the flow perspective and living out that philosophy has led me to making a loose plan for the next few years! I’m excited to say the least 🙂 To be real though, if it were this plan or another plan or no plan at all, I’d feel really grounded & connected to it, because I’ve never felt more grounded & connected to me. Hoping I’m not the only one who’s feeling this stuff during these unprecedented times. Hoping we’ve collectively found time to love ourselves & each other a little extra because of this.
I’ve always found that I was working dead end jobs for which I was overqualified. I would get bored and end up changing jobs often. I recently just came back from living in Japan for two years where I did translation and interpretation. I thought that it was what I wanted to do but I got bored with that, too. So after long discussions, my husband and I agreed that I would not go back to work and instead would be a “housewife” while working on getting my fiction published. Although he lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic, my husband is lucky to work in the IT field where remote work is easy to implement. It makes more sense for me to be at home, taking care of the house, cooking, etc than having me go work out of the house for meager pay. When we both worked, we ate less healthy, the house was messier, and we tended to overconsume. Now that I’m home, I have better control over things and we’re healthier and thriftier. And happier, too. All this to say that this choice would have been unthinkable to use before the pandemic, but now we find that it actually makes the most sense.
This pandemic and the need to stay at home made me realize that I am a multipotentialite, because I began to review what I want to do with my life and make lists and then I was in the middle of this flood of things I want to do and learn. But, after I found your TED talk, I was totally amazed and it really helped me decide a path for my life. Well, I decided to go back to my literature course (what was I doing in pharmacy?). Being at home and having to deal with my own doubts made me go through this journey of self-recognition and I learned a lot about myself. Before, I was always feeling guilty towards my desire of wanting to learn about various aspects of life, I felt like I was lost in some way, and it was exactly when I found out that there were other people like me that I really felt at ease with myself. Thank you.
Spending more time at home I realized many of the items/furniture/clothes I surrounded myself with no longer worked for me. I’m donating these “things” and making more room in my environment and life. This is a time for re-evaluation for me.
You’re certainly right about the rethinking/reimagining – and our love of starting something new. The need to peak under the thinking and find the feeling is at the forefront for me – for my normal excitement about starting something new has disappeared. Maybe it’s because I’m older. Maybe it’s because I’ve got a whole lotta lived life behind me and maybe it jaded me. Maybe it’s depression. But, I can no longer can find an interest that interests. I think the real reason is that the bubble that held my faith in our society has burst. I do have many, many interests, but in order to turn those interests into paying work I am forced to shift my priorities to things that don’t interest me. More than that, to things that repulse me. Or I have to exist in environments that cause illness. Or I am being admonished to treat life as a game and join in on the pawn manipulation. Or I have to be on stage and in character at all times. Whatever it is, it requires more energy than I have. The most disturbing pressure is the pressure to make more money than anyone actually needs for a nice life. When I was younger, I somehow ignored the dark side of modern work and naively, quietly, and mostly stubbornly, stayed in my well-curated bubble. As anyone who has witnessed a bubble burst knows, it doesn’t bounce back and become another bubble. Burst is burst. I think that’s the reality of where I am. Seeing the world as it is and wondering how I can contribute while making a modest, yet reliable, pleasant, life-affirming living. And there-in lies the rub: How can I happily do my own thing when the world clearly needs help getting its priorities straight? All the misery I see, is unnecessary. It’s fixable. Yet no one believes.
First time ever replying on something like this.
So, around a few months ago, before the pandemic actually got out of control, I was busy creating little skits with a couple friends over discord. One of whom was from Romania and another from Indonesia. As someone who is on the spectrum, and usually stays in anyways, I spend a lot of time on the computer, either playing games, listening to music, watching YouTube, the list goes on. But creating these skits with these people has actually grown into a passion I never thought I had: Writing! I’ve been hard at work creating more of these scenes for myself and helping my buds come up with their own, and this set one big goal in my mind. That goal, is taking what we actually wrote down as skits, and put them on the big screen as an anime and on paper as a manga.
This is something I’ve been straight up excited for, for quite a few months now, and it is one dream I want to see come true! All through the pandemic, this taught me one thing: When others are stuck at home and unable to do much in terms of work, I think their hobbies actually kick in more often and grow bigger and bigger until they eventually combine them all into one big project. That is what I’ve been thinking about with acting, writing and even art, getting into creating my own series since I have access to campaign editors in games and other things like that. The road down this path is possibly not going to be easy, but in the end, I want to make this a reality, and the folks I am working with want this to be a reality as well. That is my dream and I will fulfil it, no matter what.
Even before the pandemic, I had reservations about my job—for a few years, really,–but I found a way to adapt along the way, rationalize with myself, and before I knew it I’ve now been there for nearly four years. There are parts I like about it (I’m a junior-level book editor), but when it’s bad it’s pretty damn bad, and when people would ask me “Do you love your job?” I’d say “Well, I LIKE my job…” Unsurprisingly, the way I’ve learned to cope with it is by making sure I make time for other pursuits like a true multipotentialite. 🙂 But the pandemic turned everything on its head for me. I keep thinking about how it’s exposed the reality underlying our lives this whole time–the fragility of our jobs, the rampant inequality, etc.–the things we’ve been ignoring, basically, and that goes for our personal lives too. Unsurprisingly, my job working from home became *unbearable*–I was sobbing like every week lol–so I decided to sit down and reevaluate. Coming across this site in the midst of that process has been a god-send, actually. Because now I feel assured that making a switch from this career many people covet isn’t crazy–it’s just not for me right now, and I want to do other things anyway. So now I’m currently working toward applying to teach English in South Korea! I visited Seoul for the first time last year and knew one day I had to live there. There are many reasons I’ve alighted upon this option, but the best part is that this job (if it is as advertised!) will give me more time to pursue my other projects on the side, unlike my career now. I’m hoping will make me a happier multipotentialite and person overall, and that makes me pretty excited. So while the pandemic has been brutal (to say the least), I’m hoping to rise out of the ashes like a phoenix. Hoping the same for others and the rest of the world too. <3
During this pandemic I started considering the possibility of having two careers, the one I’m currently in (Technical Writing) and the one I’m about to start with my masters (International Development) I still don’t know the answer but I’ve found out that is not enjoyable to have two full time careers so I’ve been coming to terms with the possibility of having one of them as a side job. I also hope to find a role that allows me to mix skills of both roles, once I learn more about Development Studies.
Besides, I’ve started to invest times in other activities such as writing, coloring, reading, and learning Arabic.
I’ve also imagined how my life will look like and I decided want to live on my own, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the same city or in a different country. Having all this time to think reminded me of all of those things I want to do at some point in my life – and that I need to work towards them now because everything can change in a minute.
My life hasn’t changed much with COVID. My family business is health related and my own business is completely online, so I never stopped working. But then, not being able to see my friends, going out, go to a store and shop, that has made me feel different. As a multipotentialite I guess I’m able to feel part of many communities and groups, but with all this changing I just suddenly felt part of nothing. Not all groups were affected but I felt like it, I guess I need all my world to work and not just a part of it.
Man. Ya know, its funny because I was just starting to reassess the way I was approaching and creating my business. Things were off, and I recognized the need to slow my roll, pause, and re-evaluate some deep s***. And then COVID-19 became a thing like 2 weeks later. And so now I’ve been having to re-think things AGAIN, in a different way. So for me, it’s been both. I’ve been reassessing from an internal recognition of the need, but the current circumstances have really shaped where I’m putting my focus, what are my priorities, and what *might* my timeline look like. It has been hard! Sometimes I get sick of the shifting….but! No use resisting what is 🙂 Thankful for my diverse and deep skill set which always gets me through !
My particular circumstance here in London UK is that my role as senior creative producer and design was made redundant march 2019 and despite my 20 year career,experience and broad skillsets I have barely managed to get a short contract and some freelance projects in the past year.
Most job applications get no reply and this is all before covid. With covid things are even worse for my job hunting. Being 54 now I suspect age prejudice is a factor on top and I believe time has come for me to really push hard to work for myself as next step, but need help as I’m not great at business
My skillset a in graphic design,motion design,web design, video, 3D are my passions but my photography has become an obsession with a large surge of me doing headshot and portrait shoots before covid I’m thinking to steer in that direction more than my design side.
I will flow as needed and see how things go and I am optimistic we can all find some sort of foothold and rebuild.
I think that being flexible is the characteristic of multipotentialites and now it can help a lot. All the time we need to design new strategies for combining all the things that we are fascinated by. Unfortunately our freedom right now is limited by ‘survival’ issues, however skills are the same. I totally get the idea of changing or maybe modifying our career path, because we as people change with time and new experiences. It’s useful to reassess our needs but normally we don’t have enough time to do this. When you’re obliged to be at home due to illness, lockdown etc., it’s a great opportunity to just stop running and contemplate. I experienced this even before pandemic, because after quitting my job, I had health problems so I couldn’t just start looking for new one at once. It wasn’t easy for me to slow down. Physically I couldn’t do even housework what was very frustrating for me. It was very difficult (mentally) but fruitful time. I could reassess my priorities which surprisingly changed and create a new vision for my life, happy life of course!
Hi Emilie!
Well, it seems as I’ve been pandemic my whole life. This is now my time for relax and watch the others how they come with something to worry about!
Cause I’ve been there thousands of times. For me, pandemic hasn’t become a problem. As I am altogether an architect, a graphic designer, an English Teacher and an artist, now some of these things are still needed, some have gone on-line (which I do since 2000) and some will have to wait for normality. So, you see: It’s great to be a Multipotentialite! Take care! Martín
I’ve been dissatisfied with my professional life for over three years but I didn’t know what to do about it. During this pandemic I started a personal project that might help me move in a new direction career-wise. If it doesn’t, at least I’m doing something that makes me happy.
Hello, for me the pandemic has meant a radical change in my life. On the one hand, I decided to change course, after 24 years working in the same company, I took advantage of the pandemic to study application programming, without ever having had the slightest training. After about 4 months studying I decided that I wanted to leave my company and dedicate myself to living off my new passion, programming. In the middle of this I discovered a training school to be able to work in a digital way, traveling and I decided to enroll and train in an entrepreneurship school to be able to create my own digital business.
Once inside the school, in a masterclass, a teacher showed me multipotentiality, which I never knew or had never heard of, and it changed my life. I discovered that I was a multipotential person, with interests as varied as walking, hiking, playing table football, studying graphic design, programming, yoga, meditation, among more than 100 disciplines that I have been doing with different degrees of motivation during my life. (I had to make a list to create my purpose within the school).
Now that I have created my purpose, I have decided to dedicate myself to studying multipotentiality in order to know myself much better and to be able to help others, it is my life project.
When I look back, and see what my life was like before I discovered multipotentiality, I do not believe all the change that this has brought about in my life. I don’t feel like a weirdo anymore, I don’t feel ashamed for not finishing things, I don’t feel bad for always being a beginner.
And for all this I have to thank the school I go to, and to have seen Emilie Wapnick’s talk at TED.
Thanks for everything
a greeting
Jordi
P.S. Sorry for my English, my level is not very high and I have used a translator
Thank you for getting me thinking. It is interesting to observe the states of mind that many of us have passed through during lock-down. Yes, it is scary not knowing what the future holds and therefore being unable to plan. Polymaths have the additional problem of having to choose where to focus their energy. I have spent a lot of time procrastinating, worrying about money and being depressed about the distress that the music industry is in. In July I decided that I must just do what makes me happy (as well as a something sensible that could lead to future employment).
I really appreciated this article. The WFH situation I found myself in due to Covid-19 and the huge uncertainty the pandemic created made me finally make the leap into a doing multiple jobs, which I had been wanting to do for a few years. I’m just starting a part-time grant writing job that’s allowing me to also do some contract consulting work, which will give me work variety that uses a lot of my different talents and interests. Even though I identified as a multipotentialite, I had allowed the “what will people think if I try to do different things” thinking to overrule my true desires. It took a pandemic, I’m sorry to say, to realize what was important in my professional life.
I’ve been soul searching for some years, and found that the root of some problems is very, very deep. You mentioned the “before times” and sometimes they date back generations as in my case.
That’s why roots can be very deep. I keep on digging untill I am sure I have the deepest part in sight before I pull this weeds out. I wanna know for sure that I didn’t let a tiny part grow again.
My lesson is that if there is a problem that you have to dig deeper and deeper to make sure you can handle it.
A lot of reflections, love your texts Emilie!
When the pandemic had begins, I started to live in my boyfriend´s house. I always was self-suficient, and thinked that like a temporary mesure. I don´t had considerate leave my appartment. Never!
After three months, the University cancelled the presencial classes until the next year and I started to panic. I need to return to my home, I miss my things, my desk, my beutiful chair, the University near, the Subway next, the organic fair.
In my mind I was searched for a excuse and I turned for him and said: you realize that, in two months, we gonna configurate in stable union? (Here in Brazil, the law says that five months configurates stable union, and thats similar to a marriage)
He laught and said: you realize that we already are living in stable union? You staied here all the january too.
I tottaly forgot! In january I did a surgery and he taken care of me in him house. I was chocked and turned to him with wet eyes (of desperation, I think): and only now you said me that?
After that, I staied thinking and thinking, I had some somatic diseases (my internal resistance was strong), and one month passed, when I finnaly had courage to propose to live togheter (well, we was already living toghether, but not officialy, not in my terms).
And we decided to marry.
I laught of myself because I am so brave in a lot of things, but was necessary a pandemic to push me out and have the guts to think (a lot) in abandoned my loved single life and my loved appartment, and focus in couple plans, rather than individual plans.
This was the huge change that pandemic brought to my plans. Without the pandemic, I would have continued with my very busy researcher carreer, my multiple plans of business and studies, I think too busy to stop and think beyond my self-sufficiency.
Whoa, Juliana! Congratulations!!!
Hello Emilie!
During the pandemic, a series of changes occurred in my life. Courses and seminars that used to be in person started to be transmitted online. Even the simplest personal deals that were previously done in person started to be done via the internet. In addition, the pandemic provided me with a better use of time for reflection, accumulation of knowledge and research.
I started to reflect more on what really matters in life. The moment I am living is also favorable for me to try to read books that were previously kept and that required a little care in the study. Although I never stopped doing my activities during the pandemic, I still got some time to dedicate myself to some research related to subjects such as: botany, human development and the arts.
I work in the festival industry as a festival director with a particular focus on engaging children and families, so this year has been very very different and difficult. Our festival moved online so I suddenly found myself producing videos of kids activities and sheets about how to have an at-home festival experience. But I didnt like it, and it’s led to me thinking a lot about a change of course. I have 2 children, 4 and 7, and have been at home with them, every single day, since mid March and it’s exhausting! But I have found some opportunities and “gaps in the market” when looking for things for us to do as a family, and things that would help. Picture books for example that dont have lots of people socialising and going out, or books that are incredibly hopeful and soothing. So I’ve written one! Never done that before! And I’ve got another one in my head especially for Christmas (a 2020 Christmas which we all expect to look quite different to previous years).
So I dont know if writing is my new path, or if it’s just a detour for now while the main road is shut, but I’m enjoying it, and I am hopeful.
Amy Bertaut
Wolverhampton, UK