Clashing Time talks Multipotentiality

Right now, I am sat in Espresso Library (an amazing cafe in Cambridge), looking at the world go by, taking some time to myself to sit with my laptop and listen to a podcast. Today, that podcast happens to be The Courage Makers from That Hummingbird Life. This is a 'weekly podcast for creative and passionate, mission-driven doers, makers and world-shakers designed to inspire and encourage fellow courage makers, and spark a movement of women who are choosing themselves.' I know, it does sound pretty 'deep', and as if it is women just chatting away; but in fact this is an incredibly motivating podcast to listen to when you want to work out where your head is at, to find out what you are doing right or wrong, or even to just listen to a topic of conversation that you don't know much about and you want to find out more. Recently I have really struggled with the concept of being too busy. Anyone that knows me thinks that I am crazy because I am always out and about, going to new places, meeting friends and family, starting new projects or courses, and the end result is that I am hardly ever at home. Being this sort of social butterfly has lasted for a good few years, however all of a sudden I am feeling this intense desire to slow down - or at least get more organised about it. I often feel guilty about not doing certain things or seeing certain people, and this causes me to want to try and fit absolutely everything in. This is not healthy though, you tire yourself out, spend all your money and then still end up feeling bad because there are genuinely never enough hours in each day to achieve all that you want to achieve. On top of all this, in the last few years I have developed a need to learn more and find out more about the world - how on earth do you fit all that in when you don't have a moment to yourself to sit and open a book? Coincidentally, in this podcast today, they are currently talking about the concept of multipotentiality. 

Originally this was recognised as a word to associate with gifted young people who were just too damn clever to fit into one career path. Nowadays this word can be used more generally when speaking about someone who has many interests, may be good at quite a few different things, has never really known their true calling and has instead drifted to and from different careers or had different ideas about how life should be along the way. I am the definition of a multipotentialite. I am not in any way saying that I am amazing at loads of things, but instead I am quite an independent, creative, resourceful individual that does not like to look at my life as if it only has one direction. I saw a great saying from Ki Healing's website recently saying: "For a multipotential, the pursuit isn't so much about excellence as it is about wonder, exploration, expression, growth and even adventure". I completely agree, my life has been one constant rollercoaster and I have no intention of stopping my life being like that, but instead I really want to concentrate on allocating time to different things and ensure that I am doing them to the best of my abilities, and then also allocate time to myself - to sit in my pjs and watch netflix with no guilt whatsoever. I am a very fortunate person in the fact that I have fantastic friends, lots of lovely people to surround myself with, so why on earth would I not want to spend time with them? 2016 needs to be the year of being a little bit more selfish though. If I want to do things in my life (and do them well), I need to chill out a little and think about myself. Stop feeling bad about being a multipotentialite and embrace it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking lots of different things, being good at different things, and at the end of the day, still not knowing how on earth you will make it all work. One day, it will click and it will be totally worth it. Sorry for this waffled declaration of my thoughts. Sometimes the best realisations come from the most unexpected places.

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tags:lifestyle