• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Front page
  • Archives
  • About
    • About
    • Site author Douglas Eby
    • About product links
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Related sites
  • Interviews
    • Interviews – audio
    • Interviews – text
  • Resources
    • Selected Articles
    • Resources for Creative People
    • Books For Your Creative Mind
    • Emotional Health Program
    • Emotional Health Resources
    • Products & Programs
    • RSS Feed
  • Online Papers
    • The Creative Mind
    • The Inner Actor Daily

The Creative Mind

Information and inspiration for exploring your creativity and personal growth

  • Programs for health & creativity
  • Developing Creativity
  • Personality
  • Sensitivity and Introversion
  • Self-esteem
  • Mental / Emotional Health
  • Actors – Performers
  • Writers
  • Creative women
  • Developing Multiple Talents book
  • More topics
You are here: Home / Personality / Having Multiple Passions and Interests Is Not a Disorder

Having Multiple Passions and Interests Is Not a Disorder

 

My room of My Studio (PaintMonster ArtStudio)

“I can never stick to anything.”

“I get bored as soon as I know how to do something.”

“I keep changing my mind about what I want to do and end up doing nothing.”

Those are some of the challenges we may face having a wide range of creative interests, even “too many” of them.

Maybe, like many of us, you have never “settled down” into a well-defined career. Maybe you think you have ADHD – and maybe you do, but you may really be what Barbara Sher refers to as a Scanner.

In her video below, she notes it may not be the best term, and there are others such as “Polymath,” “Renaissance Soul” or pejorative ones like “Dilettante.”

In her book “Refuse to Choose!” she lists a number of ways we may think about having so many interests – including some self-limiting judgments such as those above, plus others:

 

“I work at low-paying jobs because there’s nothing I’m willing to commit to.”

“I can’t pay attention unless I’m doing many things at once.”

“I pull away from what I’m doing because I’m afraid I’ll miss something better.”

“I’ll never be an expert in anything. I feel like I’m always in a survey class.”

Sher comments:

“If you’ve ever said these things to yourself, chances are good that you’re a Scanner, a very special kind of thinker.

“Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, you’re genetically wired to be interested in many things, and that’s exactly what you’ve been trying to do.”

She warns, “Because your behavior is unfamiliar — even unsettling — to the people around you, you’ve been taught that you’re doing something wrong and you must try to change.

“But what you’ve been told is a mistake — you have been misdiagnosed. You’re a different creature altogether.

“What you’ve assumed is a disability to be overcome by sheer will is actually an exceptional gift.

“You are the owner of a remarkable, multitalented brain trying to do its work in a world that doesn’t understand who you are and doesn’t know why you behave as you do.”

Video: Introduction To Scanners

~ ~ ~

Books by Barbara Sher include:

Refuse To Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams.

It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now.

I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was.

Some related articles on this topic:

I Want To Do It All: Creative Polymathy.
One of my favorite quotes on this topic is from a number of years ago by actor Abigail Breslin: “I want to do wardrobe. I want to do hair. I want to do makeup. I want to do writing. I want to do directing. And I want to do producing. I want to do all of it. I like it.“

Multitalented: So Many Choices.
One of the myths of creative and “Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, you’re genetically wired to be interested in many things may be that they can choose whatever personal and career paths they want. Having many interests and abilities can make for a rich and satisfying life, but also be a source of stress, especially at crossroads like choosing college majors.

Underutilized Talents, Too Many Aptitudes.
One kind of “dilemma” is articulated by actor Emma Watson: “The difficulty for me is that I’m interested in so many different things. I could never really imagine myself doing one thing.”

Interested In So Many Things: Creative and Multitalented.
Creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says, “If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.”

Resources For Multi-Passionate Entrepreneurs.
One of the resources: Emilie Wapnick possibly originated the term “multipotentialite” and developed her Renaissance Business system “for the Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur.”

~~~~~~

More resources for your creative life
Creative Mind Publications
The Self-Acceptance Summit
The Stress Mastery Program by Heidi Hanna
Emotional Health Resources page

Filed Under: Personality
By Douglas Eby: Resume | Facebook/The Creative Mind page

About Douglas Eby

Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the Talent Development Resources series of sites including High Ability; Highly Sensitive and Creative; The Creative Mind and others - which provide "Information and inspiration to enhance creativity and personal development." Also see Résumé.

Primary Sidebar

The Creative Mind Network

The Creative Mind is part of a series of sites by Douglas Eby - providing information and inspiration for exploring your creativity and personal development.

The Creative Mind Daily
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • pinterest
  • vimeo
  • tumblr
  • soundcloud
  • feedburner
  • youtube
  • linkedin
  • instagram
  • menu

Popular articles/posts

  • How can you reclaim your creative dreams? How can you reclaim your creative dreams?
  • Relationships and actors Relationships and actors
  • Are you passionate about your creative work making an impact? Are you passionate about your creative work making an impact?
  • Biofeedback and Wearable Tech for Stress, Meditation and Fitness Biofeedback and Wearable Tech for Stress, Meditation and Fitness
  • Unfocus To Be Creative Unfocus To Be Creative

search this site

search ALL Creative Mind sites

More Creative Mind Sites

Talent Development Resources

Developing Multiple Talents – the book

High Ability

Highly Sensitive and Creative

Actors and acting

The Inner Entrepreneur

Personal Growth Information

Emotional Health Resources

Anxiety and Stress Relief Resources

More sites & Facebook pages of Douglas Eby

Copyright © 2019 · Lifestyle Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · on WordPress