Hoo boy. These sure are interesting times, aren’t they? I find myself wanting to seek out goodness right now. You know, like kindness, authenticity, sensitivity, quiet…
My tolerance for endless social media fighting is all but gone. There’s so much noise right now. I just want to be around nice, compassionate, intelligent folks. I want grown-up vibes!
The next few weeks are likely to feel pretty rocky, especially for Americans. Here at Puttylike, our mission is to support multipotentialites, so we’ll be publishing pieces that will hopefully provide you with some strength, comfort and a little inspiration, too.
In this spirit, I’d like to feature some of your wonderful #Puttylike10 posts from a few weeks back.
If you recall, I asked you guys the following question:
How has embracing your multipotentiality made you a better human?
There were so many great responses and unfortunately, there isn’t space to share them all today. But here are just a few that made my heart feel so full. Please enjoy these wise words from some of the awesome multipotentialites in our community.
Saba Saleem Warsi: Artivist, writer, entrepreneur, speaker and game designer
Alyson Wagner: Book nerd and fiction writer
“I grew up in a biracial, bicultural home and spent a good chunk of my childhood moving and traveling around the world with my family. This early exposure to different countries, languages, and cultures primed me for a multi-passionate mindset, an insatiable hunger for lifelong learning, and the ability to understand many different perspectives.
In recent years, I’ve also developed a strong desire to make meaningful connections with more and more people so that my compassion and humanity will grow. I love being a bridge builder, serving as a translator of ideas, cultures, and perspectives across differences.
Learning to wholeheartedly embrace my own multipotentiality—my colorful, ever-revolving kaleidoscope of interests, passions, values, strengths, flaws, contradictions, and quirks—requires self-compassion. I’m realizing that the more compassion I allow for myself, the more compassion I can give to those around me. And this compassion helps me to recognize that as humans, we are all multifaceted, multidimensional beings with unique gifts to give each other (yes, I mean everyone: both multipotentialites and specialists!).
So, I don’t know if I can say I have become a better human as a result of my multipotentiality, but I can definitely say my multipotentiality has helped to spur me on in my lifelong journey to becoming a better human. And to me, becoming a better human means becoming someone with more love, faith, hope, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, trust, and generosity. A tall order, no? That’s why it’s going to take the rest of my life to get there. But it’s worth the journey.”
Mark S. Merritt: Writer, musician, educator and improviser
Excerpt from Mark’s wonderful blog post:
“For however obvious my own multipotentiality has always been to me, I’ve also often resisted it, wishing it wasn’t there, wishing I’d specialized, still often feeling compelled to specialize. We live in a world that thrives on division of labor, on specialization. More insidiously, it encourages us to cut parts of our identities off from ourselves, and to cut others off from us. It encourages I vs. other, us vs. them. Our culture’s drive to divide and disintegrate is strong, and I’ve succumbed to it many times. But I’ve long recognized that, anytime any of us plunges parts of ourselves or others into the shadows, fundamentally no good comes from it. It can feel good, in certain ways, for a time. We can feel right — but only in the sense of righteousness, not true rightness. We can feel powerful — but only in the sense of power over others, not power with others. We can feel safe — but only in the sense of fighting fear and scarcity, not genuine calm and ease. The feelings that come from cutting ourselves off are half-hearted and skewed. And they come at a cost.
And the cost is too high.
At some point, with nothing about interest-and-skill-based multipotentiality in mind, I started to see the importance of acceptance all the parts of ourselves as crucial for cultivating emotional intelligence and maturity. Now, for me, multipotentiality is easier to accept — and is about much more than just interests and skills. It’s about feelings. It’s even about values. When we cling to limited identities, limited ideas about ourselves and others, we literally cannot see how much bigger we, and others, are.”
Sam Andrews: developer, designer, and maker
Vikki Coombes: coach, author and CEO
Gayatri: dental surgeon, clinical researcher and content creator
Make sure to click on the right arrow:
Bradley Clark: Artist and speaker
Again, click on the right arrow so you don’t miss all of Bradley’s awesome incarnations:
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure feeling some warm and fuzzies right about now! I love our community.
Your Turn
How has embracing your multipotentiality made you a better human? If you haven’t had a chance to share yet, please do so in the comments below.
Sometimes my partner gets stressed out by my “always changing” path, the seeming “lack of stability and predictability” and he feels like he never understands where I’m at. When this comes up, it really hurts. Of course, I don’t feel that way…. but the sneaky old self-doubt creeps in and I wonder… “Am I impossible to understand? Am I all over the place? Will I ever feel stable?” Then I come on here and I read articles and voices from other multipotentialites and it gives me a sense of belonging. Just knowing y’all are out there and you understand me and I’m not alone. You know, that whole thing of “being seen”. It’s invaluable. Thank you, Emilie, for creating this community and bringing us amazing, eclectic, diverse, interesting, and powerful people together!! (PS, we should lobby to get multipotentialite in the dictionary.)
Aw, thanks Allie. It’s so awesome to hear that Puttylike’s been helpful. If you haven’t seen this article, it might help with your partner: https://puttylike.com/help-my-multipotentialite-partner-is-stressing-me-out/