Growing up, I had varied interests. Like all little girls, at one stage in my life, I wanted to be a ballerina, gliding and pirouetting to Tchaikovsky’s nutcracker. Way before I thought of becoming a medical doctor, I wanted to be the lead at Broadway musicals. I remember watching Moulin Rouge and Smash as an adolescent and imagining myself as the star of the moment. I always thought I would focus on one passion when I was much older. That I would finally streamline and become monogamous, regarding my professional choices.
I was wrong.
High school saw me wanting to be a doctor. However, I also courted a serious affection for literature and languages. I knew I could not do everything at the same time at the university. I knew I had to settle. The way I saw it I could always write and learn languages outside the ivy halls. The rational option was obvious at that point.
I took my UTME* with Medicine (M.B.B.S) boldly written on my form. (Un)fortunately, man proposes and JAMB* disposes and that was how I finally had to settle for biochemistry. In university, I dabbled a little in music and learned how to play musical instruments. Post-graduation, I fed my love for psychology and philosophy.
I recently put a name on this continuous quest for novelty knowledge-wise: Multipotentialism
I am a multipotentialite or a scanner, according to the author and motivational speaker, Barbara Sher. We are also called polymaths or generalists. Our interests are so varied it is hard to pin us down. As born learners, we live for the challenge that comes with discovering and learning new things.
And boy, do we learn fast!’
That unveiling of previously unknown ideas excites us- and when that concept is as familiar as the lines on our palms, we look for something else to learn. This is the blessing- and the curse- of multipotentialism.
Multipotentialism is wonderful. Like streams emptying into the sea, your different interests color your life and projects and give them a richness that most people only dream about. As children, scanners are usually the stars of the class and excel in all their subjects. As adults, they know a little about everything and dish out random facts most people will never get to know. Despite how snazzy multipotentialism is, it comes with a truckload of disadvantages.
First off, you cannot seem to focus on one field. Much like the analogy of ordering something and realizing you want what your friend ordered after your order arrives, multipotentialites never commit to one passion. They always have a rotation of three or more interests. While this is not a bad thing, it makes the walk to mastery almost impossible and affects other areas of your life greatly.
Secondly, as we live in a world that emphasizes the need to streamline professionally, a multipotentialite’s CV is every recruiter’s nightmare. Finding a niche area for a graduate of microbiology with five years’ experience in content and copywriting, intermediate fluency in Spanish and Russian, a strong interest in econometrics, and experience in data analytics and web designing would be nothing short of herculean.
We all have limited time daily and there is only so much you can do with that time. Sure, you can try to give two hours daily to each of your seven different interests, but it would be draining and many other aspects of your life will suffer greatly for it.
At this point, you probably know if you are a multipotentialite or not.
If the thought of giving up all your passions and focusing on the one scares you shitless, then congratulations, you are a multipotentialite.
If you get bored when a certain passion no longer presents new and progressive challenges, kudos! You’re a member of this elite multipotentialism club.
You are probably wondering if you have to give up all your interests and focus on the one- and I know how scary that option is.
The good news is you don’t have to give up all your interests.
The bad news is you have to give up some and maybe get back to them at a different stage in your life.
Think of your passions as balls and you as the juggler. It is physically impossible for a juggler to juggle over 14 balls. 14 is the maximum and even then, the juggler would need so much concentration to make each throw accurate. In the same vein, the amount of passions you can juggle as a multipotentialite depends on the life you lead, how much of your social life you are willing to part with, and your daytime job. This would determine if you can practice judo five times a week, paint four times weekly, practice German, Mandarin, and Spanish daily, program, and practice whatever passions you have.
I am a firm believer that you can have it all in life. However, it may not always be at the same time- and that’s one lesson multipotentialites need to learn.
Glossary
UTME- Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations. (This is the Nigerian version of SATs)
JAMB- Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. (This is the body in charge of the above exam)
Originally published on Medium.
Are you a multipotentialite? Great! Check out The Pain of Wasted Talent: Review of A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Unicorn Called Unconditional Love.
Wow, just wow