MULTIPOTENTIALITE

Emilie Wapnick first coined the term "Multipotentialite" in 2010.

Multipotentialite — A person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life. Multipotentialites have no “one true calling” the way specialists do.

Being one myself, I have received taunts about my multipotentiality since a long time. This article is for the everyone who believes that not pursuing one path is being confused.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

I believe that everyone has been a multipotentialite till a point in their life. I would like to ask everyone out there, Did you decide what you want to do with the rest of life on the first go? Is the first career which you explored or got attracted to the one you're now earning a living out of?

If you are a specialist at heart, there's nothing wrong with that either. You can dive deep into ideas and bring your knowledge of that field into action. You specialize in it. It's not wrong if you knew what you desired to do as soon as you came out of the womb.

But if a person has various interests one after the another and is exploring them all, Is there anything wrong with that? They're exploring all they can about everything. I know the society believes in sticking to one path. But, they're looking for something that makes them happy in the long run, something that includes all of their interests. Is that wrong?

Looking at this from a practical side, they're exploring all they can. Doesn't this solely increase their knowledge about all that there is? And as for if they're earning a living out of it or not, if that's what they want to do with the rest of their life they ultimately will earn something.

For example, have you ever bought a chair? Did you buy the first one you saw? Exactly, one likes and tries so many different chairs until they find THE RIGHT ONE. One chair after another, one tries every chair which either pleases their eyes or is comfortable enough to them.

They're finding something they're passionate about and keeping themselves tremendously interested in it. They're doing everything and anything they desire.

We are not confused or feckless or scattered, but one thing which we are is happy. As George Matthew Allen said and I quote — " People with many interests live, not only the longest but the happiest. "

So yes, people can have many interests.

We are not immature. I would like to ask the people all around to stop trying to make us pursue something permanent or something ordinary. I believe that a happy person is a creative one. Let people do what they want and what pleases them.

Being a multipotentialite might seem like that you're never bored as there's always something to explore. Unfortunately, It doesn't work that way. We explore one thing till the point we get bored of it and then live until we find something else that piques our interest again. This is the cycle that goes on.

Now one will say that this doesn't sound like a person's living in the real world.

But, A multipotentialite does the unexpected. They connect the various dots that they explored, find a link and pursue all their interests at once all the while gracing the world with something new. They innovate something unexpected at the intersection of their fields.

For example, Sha Hwang and Rachel Binx created Meshu combining their interests in the fields of cartography, data visualization, mathematics, design and travel.

Or take niche bloggers, for example, Travel writers combine their interests of writing and travel.

Multipotentialites are perfectionists at adapting. They adapt to all of their interested fields and create their own version.

These are some of the skills multipotentialities excel at and also some they might lose if pressured to narrow down their focus.

Being a multipotentialite doesn't only mean having many interests, it also means being content in what you do.