Let’s talk about common multi-passionate mistakes. Do you ever feel like you’re doing this multi-passionate thing wrong?

Everyone else seems to have their life figured out. They’ve either found their one big passion or a way to monetise every interest they have.

You? You’re always burning out the candle at both ends trying to do all the things now, but somehow nothing gets finished. Will you always be the odd one out?

These are just some common multi-passionate mistakes you’re making when you haven’t fully embraced their creative, multi-faceted nature yet:

[Below is a summary of the episode]

Multi-Passionate Mistake #1: Becoming A Specialist

It’s hard to be a multi-passionate in a world designed for specialists. Everyone wants you to pick one thing to do for the rest of your life. 

And so you pick something just to pay the bills – only until you finally discover what your one true passion is. Years go by, and you’re still stuck at that boring job, your soul dying a little every day.

Stop looking for that one big, all encompassing passion. Stop specialising and fitting yourself in a box that doesn’t fit you. It’s one of the worst multi-passionate mistakes you can make.

You’re multi-passionate. You’re meant to do all the things that interest you. It’s ok to reinvent your career every few years, start businesses that combine your multiple passions, or juggling a side hustle (or two) with a full-time job you love.

The world needs you to use all your gifts, not just one.

Multi-Passionate Mistake #2: Wanting To Do Everything NOW

Multi-passionates are impatient. When the passion bug bites you, you want to dive deep into a new project – even when you already have half a dozen on your plate. If you can handle it, kudos to you. Share your secrets with us, please. 

Most of us aren’t superhuman and can’t handle that many projects at the same time – not for long, anyway. Trying to fill every spare minute of your day with one more thing only leads to exhaustion and overwhelm.

At times like that, remember this: you don’t have to do everything this day, week, or month. You have an entire lifetime to explore all the things that interest you.

If the thought of prioritising one or two projects over all the others is enough to trigger a panic attack, you can dedicate certain days – or certain hours – to different projects.

You could write your novel on Mondays, learn Spanish on Tuesdays, and work on your start-up on weekends. Or you can dedicate the mornings to your business and the afternoon to a couple of passion projects. You make progress faster when you’re running a marathon instead of a sprint.

Multi-Passionate Mistake #3: Thinking You Have To Finish Everything

Multi-passionates love to start new projects. Finishing them is another matter entirely.

My house (and the internet) is a graveyard of unfinished projects: first chapters of novels that’ll never see the light of day, completed modules for an online course that’ll never be released, a Hungarian language book abandoned after a month of daily lessons, blogs I set up and shut down within a few months after that initial burst of passion fizzled out…

I used to beat myself up for not finishing anything (which wasn’t even true, I did finish a few things…). Now, I know those projects were never meant to be finished.

One of the most common multi-passionate mistakes is to think you need to finish everything you start in the exact same way a specialist does.

Multi-passionates are often starters, not finishers. We’re the one who come up with new ideas, challenge the status quo, and give life to projects – and then move onto something else.

Sometimes, someone else takes over your idea and finishes the project. Other times, it just dies a slow death. Either way, as long as you got what you wanted out of the project, your job is done.

Maybe you just wanted to learn something new and now that you’ve mastered it, it lost its appeal. Or you love the start-up phase of a business, but have no interest in the next growth phase. Or dig the chance to push your limit and then go look for the next adventure. Let’s redefine finishing to mean “whenever I satisfied my hunger for a project.”

Related: What To Do When A Brand New Shiny Idea Pops Into Your Mind

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Multi-Passionate Mistake #4: Wanting To Monetise Every Passion You Have

One of the most common multi-passionate mistakes you’re making in business is to want to make money from everything you even remotely like. I’m all for making money from your passions. If you love something and you’re good at it too, why not get paid for it?

But trying to monetise EVERY single passion you have? Take it from someone who’s done it – that takes all the fun out of it.

Once a passion becomes your business, you have responsibilities to fulfill. Clients to help. Employees to pay. It’s not just fun and games all the time. That’s ok. Way better than working a boring 9-5 you hate just to pay the bills…

But, you need a creative outlet. Something to do just for fun. Something that takes your mind off your work projects. Doing something you love for work and have a hobby you love for your free time – that’s having the best of both worlds.

Multi-Passionate Mistake #5: Doing It Alone

Being multi-passionates can be lonely. Where are all the other people like you? 

The creatives who are always coming up with new, innovative projects. The polymaths who are always studying and researching a new area of interest. The passionates who always jump from one thing to another with a child’s enthusiasm.

You’re not alone. You’re not a weirdo. There are others like you out there, with the same passions, the same quirks, and the same MO.

Go out there and find them. The more you surround yourself with people who are wired just like you, the more you’ll start to embrace your multi-passionate nature and build a life around ALL your passions.

Wrapping It Up

There you have them, the most common multi-passionate mistakes in business. Remember: you can do all the things you love – but you don’t have to do them all this minute, finish them, turn them all into a business, or pursue them alone. 

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