The Year of Getting Messy, and Four Things I Learned in the Sandbox

“Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.”   Gandhi didn’t say that; neither did Oprah. Tim Ferriss? Close, but nope. One of my all-time favorite role models, Ms. Frizzle, was an eccentric 4th-grade science teacher at Walkerville Elementary School. She drove her students around on a Magic School Bus, where they would sometimes travel back […]

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“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked a family member, doubtfully.

I was super excited about my plan. I was going to write a book, and do software development, and share about anxiety through stand-up comedy. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked a family member, doubtfully. And that was enough to utterly deflate me. One comment! And not even a harsh one—a simple question. […]

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How to Deal with the Fear of Being “Too Complex”

Hi, I’m Claire. I also go by Nyles. And no, I don’t have a preference for which name you use. This post is partly a Hello! to the Puttylike community–I’m the new Managing Editor for the blog, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself–but I also want to talk about this thing […]

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How to Explore a Curiosity Before Going All In

When I was a kid, we had a family friend who jumped from interest to interest. We’ll call him Bob to protect his identity (and also because I can’t remember his name. It was a long time ago). Bob was always onto something. Once, he went on a cruise and came back with an idea to […]

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Why You Should Embrace Your “Amateurish” Side and Get Over Yourself (Occasionally)

I just got back from my favourite place on earth: music camp. I’ve been going on and off for 29 years (since I was 5)! The camp is called Cammac, and it’s located in the woods by a lake, midway between Montreal and Ottawa. It’s a camp for kids, teens, and adults; families usually go […]

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“Every time I’m required to specialize, I feel trapped”

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to make a spreadsheet of my fears so I could score them on how likely they are to come to pass. (This probably says a little too much about me.) On this imaginary spreadsheet, there are plausible fears – perhaps a worldwide coffee shortage would rate an […]

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How to Deal with Imposter Syndrome

I was hosting our monthly multipotentialite mixer in the Puttytribe the other day and someone asked about imposter syndrome. You know, imposter syndrome! The “psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments, and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’.” (Wikipedia) Almost immediately, several people piped up in the chat: Yes! […]

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Which Multipotentialite Season Are You In?

There are times when we’re running full speed on a project (or a handful of projects). We’re deep in it and we feel the momentum. When new, random ideas pop into our minds, we push them to our “someday lists” without much angst. We’re too in love with our main thing(s) right now. There are […]

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