The Multi-Passionate Mastery podcast is BACK for season 4! 🎉 In our opening episode, we're diving into a topic that was inspired by my thinking about the multi-passionates in my life and realizing that some of them aren't multi-passionates at all, they're hobbyists.
But wait, aren't they the same thing? That's what I thought at first, but NOPE. There are some major differences and that's what we're going to chat about in today's episode.
Understanding whether you're a hobbyist or a multi-passionate can impact your career path, where you invest your time and energy, and even the financial investments that you make. Big stuff!
Tune in as we explore the surprising similarities and, more importantly, the substantial differences between these two groups. It's not just semantics; it's an essential distinction for anyone navigating a multifaceted life and wanting the RIGHT type of support along the way.
Listen in to learn:
Have a question or reflection after listening to this episode? SEND ME A VOICE NOTE and let's chat!
⬇️ SHOW NOTES ⬇️
✨ My Coaching Program for Multi-Passionates is open for EARLY ENROLLMENT until Thurs 9/21 at midnight: Bring your Big Ideas to life without overthinking, overworking, or stressing out from trying to do "all the things" by joining me inside of Prioritize and Thrive. Learn more + apply HERE.
📌 Never miss a new episode! Sign up for my email list HERE and opt-in for podcast updates.
📜 Access the automated transcript for this episode HERE.
⬇️ RELATED EPISODES ⬇️
Are you a Multi-Passionate Creative? Here are 5 Ways to Tell
Time Management is NOT the Answer to your Problems as a Multi-Passionate
How to Stop Feeling “Flaky” as a Multi-Passionate
-
Please note that any of the offers mentioned in this episode are no longer relevant as my business is closing. If you'd like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn!
The Multi-Passionate Mastery podcast is BACK for season 4! 🎉 In our opening episode, we're diving into a topic that was inspired by my thinking about the multi-passionates in my life and realizing that some of them aren't multi-passionates at all, they're hobbyists.
But wait, aren't they the same thing? That's what I thought at first, but NOPE. There are some major differences and that's what we're going to chat about in today's episode.
Understanding whether you're a hobbyist or a multi-passionate can impact your career path, where you invest your time and energy, and even the financial investments that you make. Big stuff!
Tune in as we explore the surprising similarities and, more importantly, the substantial differences between these two groups. It's not just semantics; it's an essential distinction for anyone navigating a multifaceted life and wanting the RIGHT type of support along the way.
Listen in to learn:
Have a question or reflection after listening to this episode? SEND ME A VOICE NOTE and let's chat!
⬇️ SHOW NOTES ⬇️
✨ My Coaching Program for Multi-Passionates is open for EARLY ENROLLMENT until Thurs 9/21 at midnight: Bring your Big Ideas to life without overthinking, overworking, or stressing out from trying to do "all the things" by joining me inside of Prioritize and Thrive. Learn more + apply HERE.
📌 Never miss a new episode! Sign up for my email list HERE and opt-in for podcast updates.
📜 Access the automated transcript for this episode HERE.
⬇️ RELATED EPISODES ⬇️
Are you a Multi-Passionate Creative? Here are 5 Ways to Tell
Time Management is NOT the Answer to your Problems as a Multi-Passionate
How to Stop Feeling “Flaky” as a Multi-Passionate
-
Please note that any of the offers mentioned in this episode are no longer relevant as my business is closing. If you'd like to stay connected, come find me on LinkedIn!
so I was driving in my car the other day and I was thinking about the multi-passionate in my life. I was thinking about them, but the things that they'd like to do and their different personality traits. And then as I was listing people in my head, I found myself going, wait a second. That person isn't quite a multi-passionate, they're more of a hobbyist. And as I thought about it more and more, by the time I was pulling up to my apartment and parking my car, I was like, oh my goodness, these are some major differences. And if someone thinks they're multi-passionate, but they're actually a hobbyist or if someone is a hobbyist and they're actually multi-passionate, they could be missing out on some really key information that can help them with knowing what to invest in, and helping them to get to know themselves and to know what their unique struggles might be, what they might need support with or how to keep this thing going. If you're a hobbyist, how to keep that going, how to make sure that you always have this space in your life where your hobbies, or if you're a multi-passionate how to dive into the myriad of unique, struggles that multi-passionate is, tend to have, because it's less about making time for a hobby and more about this more integrative experience of wanting to express multiple passions in multiple ways throughout your life. So that is kind of what inspired today's episode, thinking about people in my actual life, people that I know and sort of putting them in these two categories. Now I'll preface this by saying although we're going to talk today about the differences between multi-passionate and hobbyist. I absolutely do not feel that one is better than the other. I think that both are totally fine. There's no wrong or right way to be. I of course do identify as a multi-passionate. I am a life coach specifically for multi-passionate I create solutions for multi-passionates. So even though I absolutely could say, you know, oh, I'm team, multi-passionate all the way. This is not a podcast about why one is better than the other. What we're going to talk about in this episode are some of the core differences. And similarities between multi-passionate and hobbyists, but it's not of this versus that. Hobbyist and multi-passionate are similar in many ways. So they both have varying interests. Although a hobbyist might fixate on one specific area of interest and that's okay. They tend to be quick to pick up new skills. Even if a hobbyist is learning a new skill in that specific area, they want to dive deep and keep learning and learning and learning multi-passionate might want to learn about a bunch of different subjects, for example, but both love to learn new skills and they both love having creative outlets in their lives. And I would say that they're both passionate people, right? So a hobbyist can be passionate. About whatever their hobby is. Let's say that they are someone who loves to watercolor paint, or does embroidery or thrift shops, or, you know, has. An eye for vintage items. They're going to feel very passionate about that. A multi-passionate person is going to feel passionate about a lot of different things. But they're both very passionate people. That's kind of where the similarities end though. So for the rest of this episode, we are going to be focusing on the differences. And the differences understanding kind of where you fall, where you feel that you resonate the most can determine what it looks like to create space in your life for the passions that you have, the type of investments that you're likely to make and so much more so let's get into it. So here's the first difference. Hobbyists tend to think in terms of having their core lifestyle. And then having their passions. As two separate entities. So, for example, a hobbyist may have a very clearly defined career path in a specific industry and feel good about that. They know that that's the path that they are on. And then they have their passions or their hobbies on the side, or just in addition to separate from that career path. Which offers them some variety in their lives and is an outlet for their creativity. But they enjoy keeping the two separate having that outlet be separate from their core lifestyle is what makes it a hobby. Now multi passionates cannot separate what is their core lifestyle from the things they are passionate about? They're deeply intertwined. So multi-passionate person isn't just passionate about many, many subjects, many topics, or has many interests. They want a lifestyle that allows them to express those passions and share them with the world in some way. What I've learned from working with many multi-passionate clients is that we also tend to want to impact others in a meaningful way. There are some type of. This positive ripple effect, I should say. Then multi-passionate it's would like their work to have. That's something that I noticed. So. A traditional career path. Or this kind of core lifestyle. Is likely to feel somewhat confining to a multi-passionate because they always need some room for possibility present. Where another one of their passions can be utilized. So, for example, when I worked at a startup, I started out as a social media manager through an agency that had placed me with this company. Then they asked me to come and work for them in house. They saw, I had really strong communication skills from delivering assets and giving feedback and keeping track of their entire social media calendar and all of that. They saw that I had those skills. And so they asked me to come onto their team as a project manager. So I said, yes, one of the best decisions I ever made by the way, because it totally transformed how I run my own business. So I ended up being the project manager. But I also took on additional responsibilities, like building up the company culture. And I use my passion for building community and graphic design to create a company newsletter that I designed and wrote myself and distributed to the entire company. And it became a big morale booster because everyone had awareness of what was going on each month in the company and we were highlighting certain employees and all of that. So this was a job where yes, it was a specific job, but when I interviewed for the position and the CEO said, you know, do you have any questions for me? I asked if they were willing to let me do tasks outside of my traditional role in order to honor some of my other skills and passions. I learned the hard way that I had to ask that question, because otherwise I could not be happy working for anyone in any way. If I wasn't allowed to also do more than one thing, even in the traditional job.\And if the CEO would have said, no, you know, we really lied to just have you be very focused and you're going to only be doing project management and we don't want to branch out of that. We want you to make sure you can just. Do that really well, that would have been kind of a red flag for me as a multi-passionate person. And I would have been like, Uh, okay, well maybe this job is not going to work out. A hobbyist. Is very unlikely to have a similar conversation in a job interview. A hobbyist is fine with the, Hey, I'm a project manager over here. And then in my spare time, in my free time and the time that I create. I'm an embroidery artist over here. Or whatever the hobby is, I'm using that as an example. So that's the main difference and most multi-passionate, won't be happy working for anyone else long-term I'm just going to be honest. Most multi-passionate said I know do you end up choosing an entrepreneurial path because it allows the most flexibility in terms of utilizing their various skill sets and their various passions. Multi-passionate it's do make great entrepreneurs. So to recap, the first difference between a hobbyist and a multi-passionate. Is it hobbyists and to think about their core lifestyle being in one area and then feels totally fine about their passions being separate from that. Whereas a multi-passionate. Cannot separate the two. It's all about this integration. They're deeply intertwined. And I have this desire to merge their passions or utilize the various passions. To impact the lives of others. The next way that multi-passionate and hobbyist are different from one another. Is that multi-passionate, it's tend to come up against having a lot of ideas. And feeling overwhelmed by the list of potential outcomes their lives can have based on which idea or project or life path they decide to take action on. When I was in my early twenties and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to focus on what I wanted to pursue. It became overwhelming because not only did I have a lot of interest, but I was good at a lot of different things. I had a lot of skills and I had a lot of desire to dive deeper in some of those areas. So I could see myself being a sign language interpreter that was one of the career paths that I almost went down. I could see myself being a school teacher. I ended up becoming a nanny and doing that for seven years and working with kids. I could see myself doing home decor, or I want it to be a buyer and travel all around the world. Looking for unique items will later, I ended up opening an Etsy shop selling vintage goods. I could see myself being a lead singer in a band. I did that for a little bit. Right. I had all these visions of my life and I could see them. I could feel them. They felt so real to me. And so in my early twenties, when I still believed that I had to choose. It was really, really, really hard because I did not want to choose something about that felt really wrong. And so, a lot of multi-passionate they're going to spend time trying to make sense of all their ideas, and trying to figure out how they can ever be successful. When they can't stick with one thing for very long. Or when they have all these different ideas of the paths they could take. On the other hand, because hobbyists have that core lifestyle. Which likely includes their career path. They think of their hobbies side journeys So they're not going to have those same struggles of having so many ideas, having so many projects that they want to start and seeing all these various outcomes for their lives and feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities. That's not likely a problem that hobbyists is going to come up again. So if you're listening to this and you like. True. I've never really thought about, you know, all the different paths my life could take. I'm cool with having my career over here and my passions over here, you might be more of a hobbyist and a multi-passionate. And that's totally fine. The next main difference between multi-passionate and hobbyist. Hobbyists can benefit from more straightforward time management systems in order to carve out a little more space in their day or their week or their month to fit in with whatever it is that they are passionate about, whatever their hobby is. So a hobbyist can do things like track their time and see how much time they're spending on each thing. And then do some time blocking and make sure that they leave space in their calendar for their specific passion, those traditional time management strategies, they're going to work very well for a hobbyist. Multi-passionate seen a much more holistic approach that not only addresses time management. But also helps sense of filter their ideas, create priorities, manage their projects and stay focused long enough to follow through and gain momentum in one area before they jumped to the next project. This is exactly what I teach my clients to do with my signature framework and cited by coaching program. Prioritize and thrive. I know firsthand from what my clients have told me. And also from being highly multi-passionate myself, that just tracking my time did nothing because it's like track your time and you'll see how you're spending your time. That doesn't help to filter through the many ideas that I have on an ongoing basis. Tracking my time says, where am I spending my time? And sure. That's valuable information, but what about when I'm in the middle of a project and I have the strongest desire to jump over to something else? Well, how do I manage that, that feeling right. But it's shiny object syndrome. So multi-passionate, it's need. Much more than just time management. And that's one of the main inspirations for my coaching program is that I realized that traditional time management is not the answer. And there needs to be a new approach. And so I created one. Hobbyist. If they were to join my program. Might be like,"oh, okay. This is really cool, but I like, I don't know if I need to necessarily. Filter through so many things. I just need to know how to carve out a little bit more time in my schedule for my hobby." so there are two very different approaches to what on the surface. Look like time management and that's a difference between hobbyists and most high passionates. So I hope you're starting to see some of these differences and why this is important for you to know where you fall on this spectrum. The next key difference. And this is something that, again, as I was driving in my car and I was thinking about the people that I know, in my life, and who's a multi-passionate versus who is maybe a hobbyist. I realized that multi passionates often find themselves on a self-acceptance journey. And I don't know that hobbyist encounter that same journey. Multi-passionate are plagued with this feeling of being all over the place, being flaky and wishy-washy. And a lot of that is due to this constant pressure that they feel to choose one thing to go all in on when really that's not. The way that's not the way for a multi-passionate to move through the world. So a key part of their identity is that they're multi-passionate, it's who they are. But if they haven't come across anyone's sharing why that's a good thing. Or how to embrace that, the specific tools you can use to make sure that you're not overwhelmed by all of your passions in your ideas... Then they might feel like having so many talents, having so many interests. Having this desire to share all of their big ideas with the world. That might feel like a burden. A heavy burden to carry. Instead of an amazing gift. That does not feel like a problem that a hobbyist is going to have, because again, they're not as concerned about integrating their core lifestyle with their hobby or their hobbies. Keeping those separate. That is what allows them to clearly define their time that they have for their hobbies. And so it's very unlikely that they feel shame or that they need to go on a self-acceptance journey about a hobby that they have. Does that. I'm hoping this makes sense. This one is a little harder to explain because it's more of like coming from a feeling place. So as a multi-passionate myself, before I could ever start developing. Frameworks to help myself stay focused, to help myself be more organized, to filter through ideas. I first had to accept that being multi-passionate is okay. Without that without saying, you know what, this is how I am. So what are we going to do? How are we going to rock with this? Because I'm not going to change. I'm not going to conform. I'm not going to be someone that I'm not. So let me start experimenting with different approaches to. Prioritizing different approaches to focus different approaches, to filtering my ideas and knowing what to start with first, and then what I could do next. Let me figure out how to stop jumping from project to project so that I can gain momentum. All of that came after saying. I'm multi-passionate and that's okay. And anyone who feels like I'm just all over the place, doesn't get it. And that's on them. Right. So self-acceptance came first. When I think about a hobbyist and again, you know, maybe a hobbyist needs to create space in their life for their hobby. I don't think that they're like, I'm a hobbyist and need to accept that about myself. And it does not feel like it carries the same weight. If you identify as a hobbyist and I've got this completely wrong and you feel like you are on a self-acceptance journey based on a hobby that you have, you're more than welcome to send me a voice note. I'd love to hear your story. It's linked down in the show notes Of every episode where you can do that. You can send me a voice note if you have any feedback on this. But. That is something that I don't feel hobbyist go through. And. I think it's important too, to share that. So if you're someone who feels like there's a part of you, a part of who you are at your core, that you still need to learn, how to accept before you can ever even think about managing your own projects or filtering your ideas. That is a multi-passionate problem. That's a, multi-passionate feeling. That's a multi-passionate journey. That's self-acceptance coming first. If you are like, I'm good with myself. I just need to figure out like where to find a time in the space for my hobby, or I just want to know how I can go deeper into it. Or maybe I want to turn into a side hustle. That is more of the hobbyist, experience. So I hope that makes sense. It took me a while to formulate those thoughts, but I think you understand what I'm saying. So we've been talking all about the differences between hobbyists and multi-passionate. We've talked about the fact that hobbyists have their core lifestyle and their passions or their interests on the side. where multi-passionate take more of an integrative approach. We've also talked about how multi-passionate, it's come up against having a ton of ideas and feeling overwhelmed. Whereas a hobbyist is not likely to experience that. And how hobbyists can benefit from our straightforward time management systems. Whereas multi-passionate, it's meet a more holistic solution. So we've gone over so much. I felt like a genius when I made this next distinction. Um, and this is important for your wallet. This is important for how you invest with your time, but also literally how you invest with your dollars. Let's take a quick break and then we'll discuss. Welcome back. So, A hobbyist. Is going to invest heavily in their hobbies. Or their passions. They're going to purchase top of the line supplies for that embroidery. All right, that they're doing. Or they're oil paintings, maybe there's splurging on an extra large canvas and saving up for that so that they can create a painting at a larger scale. Right. Or maybe they're taking a kayaking class to get to the next level so that they can go on even more intense rapids. I'm making all this up. I know nothing about kayaking. But they're going to invest in the skills or the materials that they need in order to dive deeper into that hobby. They may also invest heavily in experiences. So someone who is really into cosplay may invest in going to Comicon every single year, and then also invest in the best costumes and a great camera to take pictures of themselves or things like that. So that's where a hobbyist is likely to invest their time. And invest their resources, whether it be monetary or. Otherwise. A multi-passionate whether they realize it or not. And part of my work is to help multi-passionate it's realized this. Multi-passionate need to invest in learning how. To filter their ideas. And create clear priorities and stay focused long enough to gain momentum in one area before moving on to the next and introducing the next project. Without investing in learning these essential life skills first. Multi-passionate it's can make the mistake of investing like a hobbyist. Only to realize that they're never completing any of their projects. And they're constantly bouncing from one thing to the next, instead of gaining momentum. This is so important. I know that someone listening, it might be you you're thinking, oh my goodness. I've been investing like a hobbyist. I've been buying all these materials. I've been investing in courses to teach me about this topic. I've been investing in website domains because I keep getting great ideas. But I haven't invested in learning how to follow through. On my own projects. Or how to filter my ideas so that I understand what I can take action on first or what can be connected what can be integrated or what I might need to wait and do later. Without those skills, you're burning a lot of cash on something that you might not even ever get to, or you're going to be with for a little bit before you move on to the next thing. So if you are a multi-passionate, I'm pleading with you right now. Invest in these essential skills first and the best part about this is that you're already listening to this and I am the person to help you. I have created a signature method called the priority mapping method. That is something that you get access to inside of my program, prioritize and thrive. I also teach my clients how to cultivate clarity through their human design, which is really, really powerful for decision-making and knowing who you are. And I even teach how to manage multiple projects the multi-passionate way. All of that is inside of my program. So the most holistic solution to this possible is what I do with my clients. Check the link in the show notes to learn more about my program and how we can work directly together. Because I'd love for you to get to the point where you can start investing like a hobbyist. Well, you can start investing in the things that you are lit up about and having those experiences. But first. Let's make sure that you feel at peace with having so many ideas. And that you can bring your next big idea to life without overthinking, without overworking. And without feeling this pressure to do all the things at once. Cause that doesn't work. Okay. So I'm here for you if you're like, okay. I feel very seen, and this is what I need. All right, let me climb down off my soap box and we'll go through one more difference So you heard me say that multi-passionate needs to invest in learning how to gain momentum in one area. Before they jumped ship and bring on another project and bounce something else. A hobbyists may not be as concerned with follow-through because there may not be an end goal in mind. The hobby that they have decided to invest in and that they utilize for that refreshing break from their core lifestyle. It's an ongoing expression of their creativity. It's very unlikely that it has an end result. So, for example, if someone is a hobbyist and their hobby is painting. They may not ever be. Pressed to have a gallery showing. They might have a studio set up in their home. They might invest in the absolute nicest setup that they could possibly have. They might hang their own paintings up in their home, maybe not, but there's not that same end goal mindset. That a multi-passionate it's going to have, because again, this is an ongoing expression of their creativity. On the flip side, multi-passionate tend to have many end goals in mind. And this is why multi-passionate tend to have a difficult time with following through on their big ideas, because they're constantly jumping from one thing to the next. They can see that end goal, but they don't have the skills all the time. Unless of course we've worked together. The usually those skills of follow-through of gaining momentum and then knowing how to manage multiple projects and have more than one thing going at one time, that's a skill set that needs to be learned. And without that, having so many different end goals in mind actually becomes overwhelming. So a hobbyist isn't likely to have that problem because there isn't an end goal. the end goal is to feel happy. To feel fulfilled to have a creative outlet. Multi-passionate. They can see quite a few different end goals. Even if the end goal is somehow integrating all of their passions into one business or one offer or. You know, Creating a collective of creating a non-profit or a private practice that utilize as many of their different skills or something like that. So, That is a huge difference as well. Again, I want to be clear that there is no right or wrong here. It's not better to be a hobbyist and a multi-passionate. However, there are very clear distinctions. That are going to help you understand where you could get support. How are you going to make investments and how to just appreciate who you are as a person. I hope that this is helpful for you. And as you were listening to this, if you identified with being a multi-passionate over and over again, I want to remind you that I'm here for you. I have created unique solutions as a fellow multi-passionate myself. And I would love to work with you. Click the link in the show notes to learn more about how we can do that. All right, that's it for today, I'll see you in the next episode.