As a child, we all got hit with the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” We always answered with the most inspiring roles that we looked up to & that we can think of as a child. Maybe when you were really young you said things like police officer, doctor, astronaut, veterinarian, or firefighter. As we got older and more of our passions set in, you would maybe respond with things like actor/actress, singer, counselor, writer, and movie director. As we continued to get older, most of us lost track of those first couple of career paths we thought we wanted. We got lost in the story of life and wrapped up in the programming that did not allow us to really pursue those dreams. Maybe you said actress but growing up, being in theater was “uncool” so you stopped…maybe you said singer but your best friend who was in choir with you stopped singing so you did too. The programming and need to fit in as a child was real.
Now for some of us, that wasn’t the case! I’m sure there are many who wanted to be an actor, singer, doctor, or police officer from the very beginning and that was their path and that is exactly what they’re meant to be doing in this life, they have pursued it or are pursing it and they love it unapologetically. That in and of itself is pure magic…. following your dreams from the very beginning and knowing exactly what you’re meant to do and then some.
However, I’m more talking about the ones, like me, who at one point had no clue. Who truly got lost in the daily question of, “what do I want to pursue in this life?”. This group whom lies in the same boat as myself when this question arises I can guarantee become the smallest they can be the moment they hear it. It’s such a daunting question when you think about it because it implies that you have to be “one thing”. I mean, we all have kind of been programmed to answer that question with one thing when you think about it, you know? For me, I felt like I wanted to be ALL THE THINGS.
I had great passion for music, theater, art, english, writing, nutrition, fitness, archaeology (i know super random), research, fashion, and dance growing up. It felt like my interests and passions were almost threatened in a way. When being asked this question it was a thought process of, “I’m not supposed to want to know ALL THE THINGS, I need to choose one forever and that is it”. It felt as if multi-potentiality was a limitation and needed to be overcome in some way.
Let me say that term again, multi-potentiality.
“Multi-Potentiality is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability and preference of a person, particularly one of strong intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields.”
Essentially, this term means, good at all the things. This subject absolutely intrigued me and directed me to start reflecting on all the things I wanted to be when I grew up… what I answered that question with. It really had me digging into my past experiences and seeing how much I found myself identifying with the label of a multipotentialite.
Ask yourself, HAVE….
You had diverse interests and passions, which can seem random to others?
You flutter from one field to the next?
You found when a topic catches your eye, you start to really absorb as much as you can about it & then find a calling to become an expert in it?
You noticed you tend to move on after learning what you need from that subject?
You had a talent for connecting the dots or piecing the puzzle together in ways others can’t see because you’ve been exposed to a variety of experiences?
I found that I relate to these questions so much more as an adult now & I will say, it legit blew my mind. I can relate to this idea as an adult the more I dive into my younger self & getting to know her more. Its funny because being more aware about myself and the world now, I found that this concept almost challenges the modern way of thinking that when people give up, society believes it’s because it’s too difficult when in actuality, it can mean they are just not being challenged enough anymore and are onto the next thing. Saving what they’ve learned in their back pocket for a later time in their life.
Growing up, when faced with this question, I first answered it that I wanted to be a nurse. I felt in me I was a care giver, an empath, a healer. The only way I could identify with this version of my soul at the time, was labeling it as becoming a nurse. As time continued, I decided that although I felt deep inside me that I was a healer, becoming a nurse and going through the motions of learning modern medicine, was not my path.
I started to really enjoy reading and writing, which was very odd at the time cause it was “uncool” to read. However, I found myself journaling, researching, reading, and looking up to people in the news who got to visit so many different places of the world sharing stories of the people. It was at this time that I wanted to become a journalist. I wanted to learn to write and captivate people by sharing others en-devours and successes. With that being said, feeling this passion inside me, the only way I could identify with that aspect of my soul at the time was to answer the question with journalist. Again, I found that going to school for many years to become a journalist was just not something that fueled me enough to pursue it. Lets be real, anything that was really more than 5 years of schooling I just couldn’t do.
Modern form of education was just not my forte. I got bored to easily, I wanted to change majors and classes and schools way to many times. I froze up any moment a test was presented to me… & MATH don’t even get me started on MATH that was just an entirely different part of my brain that physically just cannot compute.
My point being that stepping into myself now, I’m able to know where all of this from my childhood stems from. The urge that I felt of wanting to become a nurse was in fact the empath version of myself screaming at me. I’m now in the ‘know’ that I’m a healer. I’m someone who’s entire life was that soft place to land for others. I have always been the person people ran to when shit hit the fan, when they needed advice, or when they just needed to cry. I was always there to hold that safe space for them and heal them with my insight, my words, or just my presence. I have found that although becoming a nurse would be beautiful, my path was leading me to heal in other ways. I can say the same with my writing. The urge for becoming a journalist was just not as strong as the urge of creative writing for self-development and spirituality. This has become such a large part of me the past couple of years and I now understand where it has stemmed from. With these two large parts of me comes the birth of this very blog. Something that didn’t need over 10 years of school for, but came out of passion, multipotentiality, and by allowing myself to really step into ME & just … be ME.
It doesn’t matter what your answer to that question was when you were 3 … 8 … 15 …. 21 …. or 35 years old. What matters is what you can dig up & learn from through your experiences, your passions, and your life as you hit every single one of those milestones. It’s okay to be someone who changes their mind all the time or someone who wants to become an expert at everything. At the end of the day, you’re pursuing the things that fuel you the most. If that doesn’t require you going to a 2 year community college that really takes you 4 years then transferring to a 4 year that really takes you 6 then pursuing who knows how many more years of school and debt after that. Just because that is the majority, doesn’t mean that needs to be you. I had to learn that the hard way and was really able to sit down with myself and dig deep as to why I was not like everyone else around me and become okay with that.
Dig deep, ask yourself the right questions & find out what your answers were. What used to fuel you as a child? What sparked your interest and made you light up inside? Can you pinpoint a moment or activity or experience where you were deeply invested in something that you lost all track of time? How did it feel? Why do you think you stopped letting yourself have that experience? Can you bring that back into your world now? – With every answer reveals a layer you may not have even realized. Allow yourself to feel who you are and let yourself be YOU in all the things that make you – YOU.
Having these revelations of knowing that I’m a healer, a writer, a creative – has brought much clarity to my purpose in life. My purpose of sharing with the world everything that I’m learning along the way to raise awareness and consciousness in everyone I meet. It’s brought me to strive to build a community of like minded individuals that share the same story and want to create an impact within their own life and the life of others. It has given me the confidence that it’s okay to want to learn all of the things and while yes, that may take a lot of time, effort, education, and energy – its for my purpose. It’s becoming an expert at each passion that fuels me and integrating each one into something significantly bigger than anyone of us, a shift the world needs – a ripple effect.
Listen to who you are inside and answer that question with, “I just want to be myself” Because being yourself – stepping into your highest potential is really what creates the bigger picture and shifts the universe to act through you. Listen to your intuition and use the gift of multipotentality to create value to yourself and your work and just be okay with flowing through life in what FEELS right rather than what everyone THINKS is right. Be you because there is no one else who can do you better than yourself & there is no one in this world that is more you, than you.
BeYOUtiful, be patient with your path and let yourself shine:)
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