multipotentialite

Multipotentialite, as Emilie Wapnick describes it, is someone with many interests and creative pursuits.

I came across the term in my mid 20s and finally felt seen.

I grew up doing everything. I was regularly involved in 3 or 4 sports and 3 or 4 arts programs in Elementary and Middle School. In High School, I was in at least 7 different clubs- even though I didn't regularly attend or execute on most of them.

In college I finally began to learn to limit my commitments. It was a very difficult realization- I wanted to do and see and learn about everything.

In my mid 20s, I came across a Ted talk by Emilie Wapnick that changed my life. In a world where I could never commit my attention to something for long enough to see progress, I found others who could not contain their interest and successfully utilized their stance to build successful lives and careers for themselves.

At this point I shifted my approach from seeking to specialize in one thing (ie: Production Design for Film) to seeking to utilize my Jack of All Trades skillset. I landed a role in a marketing agency as a producer which relied on my experience in script writing, production design, scheduling, networking, communicating, negotiating, directing, animation, audio design, recording, coaching, and productivity. I was on a new project nearly every month and was able to dive deep into a topic, utilize that understanding, then switch it out for another topic and expertise about a month later.

I have since been able to see my footing in this approach as a factor of my ADHD which has allowed me to build up more structure and support for executing on long term projects. I don't want to lose this Multipotentialite approach, it can be a super power when wielded in the right direction.