How to Leverage Having “Too Many” Interests
Own your curiosity and go with the flow
When I was a student, I didn’t know what I really wanted to major in. The question of “Who do you want to be?” constantly gnawed away at me because giving an answer to that felt… almost confining.
Even though I loved writing, having to choose only one thing to be — to specialize in — went against all the ways my curiosity could be easily sidetracked. I wanted to be a writer, yes.
But I was also interested in psychology, and philosophy, and foreign languages, and playing the piano, and UX design, and trading, and… I could go on and on, but it wasn’t a surprise that I found myself changing my mind on my future career on a whirlwind basis.
I used to hate myself for it because it seemed like a major disadvantage: “Why can’t I just decide and specialize? What’s wrong with me?”
It was only later that I would discover it was normal to be like this — in the sense that there are millions of people out there who also faced this same confusing pull from various directions. Barbara Sher called us “scanners,” defined by “intense curiosity about several unrelated subjects.”
Emilie Wapnick came up with the term “multipotentialite” (as opposed to specialists). On a more practiced level, those who have reached mastery across many domains were called polymaths.
Over time, despite having gained more focus on writing, this seemed to be a part of myself that I could never really change. But instead of accepting it, I was constantly fighting against it — when I could just have gone with the flow and turned it into its own kind of strength.
Here’s what I wish I could have internalized back then:
Accept that you’re always going to have multiple interests
This goes against the grain culturally because we’re repeatedly told that we’re supposed to have only one overriding passion or purpose in life or career.
Even during introductions, we choose a specific label to simplify ourselves with: “I’m a [insert clear-cut role that other people can nod easily to].” In school, we’re usually directed to a specific degree or concentration, and many job roles involve doing the same thing repeatedly, even all day.
In reality, we’re not that linear — career-switching or integrating different skills is now more common than ever, and despite what the stories seem to say, perhaps people with one all-consuming passion are actually quite rare.
So the first step starts from within: be okay with who you are. There is nothing wrong with you. Revel in seeing so much wonder in the world that a single lifetime can never satisfy your interests.
Give yourself permission to choose an alternative path, one that accommodates as much as your heart wants rather than fencing yourself in what you think you should be doing — just because it’s what you see around you.
Consider the T-shaped approach
Two stereotypes seem to be prevalent here: the generalist, who dabbles in a lot but doesn’t have a deep competence in any, and the specialist, who knows one field deeply but hardly has any significant experience elsewhere.
The happy ground between the two would be the T-shaped person. Like the letter T, a T-shaped person has mastered one area — but they also have a wide range of shallower knowledge in others.
In fact, this seems to be the current model that’s the most advantageous in the 21st century, when the speed at which we learn and adapt is more important than ever. It also works well for multipotentialites because they can enjoy the benefits of deep competence without sacrificing having multiple interests.
Out of all your interests, consider which one you’d like to invest the most in for now. But you won’t be doubling down on this with blinders — even as you keep coming back to this interest again and again, you have free range too to explore everything else you want to.
Track your activities
Multipotentialites can be prone to being paralyzed because they have so many choices in terms of passions. “Which one do I pursue for now?” is a common question.
If you’re frustrated because you don’t know where to start, you can try keeping a mood tracker for all your activities. This works similarly to the exercise found in the brilliant book “Designing Your Life,” which is written by the co-founders of the Stanford Life Design Lab.
Every hour, jot down what you’re doing, then rate it based on how it makes you feel, with +5 as ecstatic and -5 as downright miserable.
Even if you do this for only a week, you’ll get a lot of interesting insights! Cutting down on the activities that consistently make you feel bad while increasing the activities that make you feel good can change your life.
You can then check which three to five activities received the highest ratings — and pursue those first because they have the greatest impact on you. For example, you might like both web development and data science, but if you derive a lot more enjoyment from web development, that probably merits your attention first.
Seek out new experiences
People who have several distinct passions often score high in openness to new experiences. You can invite them to a road trip, a quirky fusion restaurant with menu items that make your eyebrows raise, a martial arts class, a VR convention, a sourdough baking session at your house — and chances are, they’ll feel at least remotely intrigued.
If anything, a common source of frustration for multipotentialites is that there are so many compelling things out there, but they can’t possibly do all of these. New experiences revitalize them and make them perk up, while being stuck in a never-ending routine can make them extremely restless.
If you can resonate with this, then let yourself seek out new experiences. If following your heart has become a cliche, then — as Elizabeth Gilbert said— follow your curiosity.
This excerpt from Sylvia Plath’s diary speaks straight to multipotentialites:
“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”
Work on personal projects
A fun way to build something concrete out of your interests is to work on your personal projects. Since you have total creative direction on these, let your imagination go wild — do what feels fun. You can even merge your interests to come up with unique ideas:
- Video-editing + interior design = make a Youtube channel reviewing interior decor
- Painting + baking = craft paintings based on your latest creations in the kitchen
- Gaming + running = research on games for running and jogging and test each one for fun
- Travel + stocks = attend out-of-town conferences and events related to finance and investing
While the result can be whimsical, it almost always ends up being memorable — and you might even end up continuing it indefinitely as it leads you to unexpected opportunities.
Back when I was considering becoming a developer, I played around with making a small app where you could click on squares to uncover fragments of a story. Blogging on Medium also turned out to be a synthesis of my fondness for writing and psychology or personal development.
Take classes for accountability
Multipotentialites get a rush of energy when they’re starting a project or dipping their toes into an interest — but they’re less likely to follow through with it because they can be easily distracted. The danger here is that you might get stuck at the level of a beginner with everything that you’re curious about, never taking enough consistent steps to make progress.
For interests where you know you’ll have a hard time pushing through, you can make it less likely that you’ll flake out by joining classes or groups that will force you to be accountable.
Learning Chinese definitely counted as that for me because it’s such a complex language, so I ended up taking classes on the side for six months. Aside from being around people who shared my interest, I managed to get through an entire textbook and pass an official exam — which I don’t think would have happened if I’d labored away on it by myself.
Don’t compare yourself to others
As a multipotentialite, you’re bound to feel out of step with the world sometimes. After all, we were never given an instruction manual on how to deal with wanting to pursue many paths — so we end up having to figure that out for ourselves through trial and error.
What’s important to remember is to not measure yourself by other people’s expectations. There’s no absolute timeline for when you should be achieving milestones, however you define them, and just because someone else seems to have plans set in stone for their future while you’re still testing and exploring doesn’t mean you’re behind.
The truth is, nobody really has it all figured out. Your life is your own narrative, and there’s no prescribed format for it — so wouldn’t you rather shape it into something that’s uniquely yours?
And as you give your heart to many different passions at once, think about what Steve Jobs said in his famous commencement speech:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
If you roll with it, having “too many interests” can be leveraged into a huge advantage — Emilie Wapnick even describes multipotentialite “superpowers” such as adaptability and fast skill acquisition.
Maybe it’s at the exciting intersection of seemingly unrelated ideas that you thrive. Maybe you have a talent for being able to shift topics effortlessly in conversations, with the confidence that comes from being able to talk about so many things under the sun.
Maybe you’re overflowing with wonder and there will always be something about the world that will fascinate you as if you’re opening your eyes for the first time. However, it shows up for you, lean into it. Wield it. Make it your own.
