A map for multi-passionate, sensitive creative wanderers
Would you like to hear how watching Lord Of The Rings helped me to think about the challenges and pathways that multi-passionate, sensitive creatives navigate? Well then dear reader, don your woollen cape, grab your gnarled walking stick and let's set off.
Image by @boonpanthalany
'All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.'
(J. R. R. Tolkien)
At least once a year I find myself in a place where it is utterly essential that I rewatch the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. No matter what is happening in my life, I find comfort in losing myself in the epic high fantasy with all the potato appreciation, furry feet and sparkling wizard winks that it brings (even if I do always feel disappointed by the problematic representation that come with it too).
I'm incapable of watching a film without wanting to deep dive Google everything about it. It brings me a strange joy to learn random facts that have no use in real life (bar pub quizzes) and it helps to distract me from the anxiety of long, protracted battle scenes.
This year's research involved looking up the context of the famous Tolkien line 'Not all those who wander are lost' that we so commonly find these days on camping merch on Etsy. Apparently these are the lines of a poem written in a letter from Gandalf to Frodo to help him work out if Strider is in fact the lost king Aragon (which frankly feels optimistic of Gandalf since it took me at least the first two films to really get a grasp of that).
Like many people, I've always seen that line as very permission giving. 'It's ok to be on a neverending adventure!' it seems to say ' You don't need a plan or a strategy...just go where your heart takes you.' And of course as someone who longs for freedom and is deeply curious, that is exactly what I want to hear.
But when I read the rest of the stanza I saw that I had misinterpreted the line a bit. 'All that is gold does not glitter' suggests that real value doesn't always necessarily look sparkly, fancy and exciting. 'The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost' seems to be saying that to have a deeper connection with something is to be more resilient.
(I mean...what this is actually saying is that while he may look a bit rough and ready Aragon is a gem and his 'King' blood is still good despite 3,000 years of inactivity on that front...but I'm trying to find a fun metaphor here for the challenges of multi-passionate creativity, not write an essay on Tolkien!)
This is the dilemma lots of multi-passionate, sensitive, imaginative and curious creatives find themselves in often.
Where does the balance lie between following the new, exciting medium or idea that lights you up, while also wanting to feel that you are also contributing to forming a body of work or a meaningful career?
One thing that seems very clear is that some of us are not meant to be specialists. When we try to 'make' ourselves commit to one thing and force our creativity into a daily routine of predictable productivity we quickly become bored and unmotivated. I don't believe 'just choosing' or 'buckling down' is the answer to this...that mostly seems to make lots of unhappy multi-passionate creatives.
But at the other end of this spectrum when we give ourselves endless freedom we can end up meeting a few challenges:
Image by @ginnta
We feel like we are always on the runway, but never taking flight
We might have spent hours watching YouTube videos and online classes, bought all the materials we need and even daydreamed about how wonderful this new project is going to be. But often we don't have the time to throw ourselves into the 'making stage' because of our life commitments or other projects we have to wrap up. So when we finally get that window to do the making we discover all that excitement and motivation is just...gone.
Image from @campbellcreates
Something more interesting comes along that feels like 'The one'
If our turnaround of interest for new projects is quite rapid, we can end up feeling like we are always in the first heady stages of a creative passion, but before it gets to evolve into something more meaningful (or that we can share with the world as a finished project) a new, much more appealing options appears. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with this – for some of us this continual learning of skills and accumulation of interests is just what we love to do, and further down the line they can come together to form something richer and more exciting. But it can make you feel that you are on a non-stop merry-go-round of falling in love with a medium or idea, feeling like it is The One, and then moving on before you realise it in the ways you dreamt of. This can result in feeling frustrated and demoralised. My general rule is, if it's making you feel really unhappy, that is a sign that you might need to explore a different mindset, course of action or approach.
Image by @vdphotography
We feel like we are constantly starting at square one again
When the winds of creative change come along we often know we should follow them – it can feel like an almost magnetic draw to the new thing or learn the next skill. But one of the downsides of this can be that we feel like we have gone back to step one – we might have considered ourselves a 'skilled amateur' or a 'professional' in one area and suddenly we find ourselves back at 'beginner' like we hit a big snake at the tops of a Snakes and Ladders board. It can be difficult to communicate to others how our different skills combine and to find opportunities that acknowledge our experience, which can result in being repeatedly stuck in the role of apprentice, intern or newbie and struggling to find work that pays to cover our needs.
Image by @tashalyn73
We begin to believe that we are doing it all wrong
Over time these different elements can combine to leave multi-passionate creatives believing that there is something 'wrong' with them. Especially if find that we are comparing ourselves to successful specialists, or are repeatedly trying and failing to operate in that way. Added to this we might have friends and family members telling us how much we could achieve 'if we could only focus', or that we 'need to learn to stop getting distracted'. We might be told we are self-sabotaging and made to feel that this is all our own fault. All of which can led to low-self esteem, poor self-belief and a lack of any productive activity as we continually second guess everything we want to do.
So what can a confused sensitive multi-passionate creative do in the face of such challenges?
Well for this I shall briefly return to the theme of the Tolkien poem. What if we allow ourselves to wander, to explore, to be curious but we also do this with intention and self-awareness.
This might look like:
✨ Giving ourselves the chance to learn about who we are and what matters to us so we can bring this self-awareness into the choices we make and the paths we take, however numerous they may be.
✨ Looking at where we spend our time and energy in other areas of our lives so we can make the space we need to do the things we love. This might involve saying no more, setting boundaries and letting go of things that aren't actually right for us any more.
✨ Accepting that we are a person with many interests and passions, but acknowledging not all of these will be able to have our attention all the time.
✨ Finding three or four projects or mediums that we want to focus on in the short term to enable us to make the progress we long to, but also allowing ourselves the freedom to finish these and move on guilt free.
To me it seems that key for multi-passionate people to find what works for them is passion.
Multi-passionate people will struggle to thrive when they are doing something they aren't passionate about, no matter how hard they try to commit to it or receive external rewards.
Sensitive creatives will find themselves feeling lost and unfulfilled when they are doing something they don't care about deeply, however much they might berate themselves or try to conform.
When you are able to understand, celebrate and leverage your multi-passionate, sensitive super powers you can start to find the things that uniquely work for you, and feel that you are on the right path.
If you'd like to look at these ideas in more depth then you can access the replay of the July Sensitive Creatives Meetup on Multi-passionate Creativity where you'll find more info, I develop some of the approaches I've shared above in more depth and you can hear my responses to the real questions other like-minded creatives have asked.
Sending you kind wishes and creative magic on your quests,
Eleanor 🌠
Was this post useful to you? If so please help me to offer these resources to the sensitive creatives who need them! It's easy, just share it with someone you know who might appreciate it. You can send them this email as a blogpost with the link www.eleanorchaney.com/on-creativity/is-specialist-or-multi-passionate-the-right-path-for-you