Do i embrace a multi-passionate business model according to Marie Forleo or do i become a single-focused business person according to the rest of the world, plus other multi-passionate business people i know.

At the end of this video Marie Forleo invites us to comment with the people we know who are multi-passionates to join the list she shares complete with Leonardo Da Vinci, Maya Angelou & James Franko.

She also encourages us to share our journey.

And
So
I

Do…

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The multi-passionate people i know are 1) Tara Spice from Tara Spice Creative  2) Lucy AitkenRead from Lulastic and the Hippyshake  3) Pennie Brownlee from Dance with me in the Heart.

Interestingly they are all women. All from different generations.These women ALL inspire and in fact lead me. They look happy, they look creatively ‘realised’, they look courageous.

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Tara works as a graphic designer, loves Yoga, brings workshops to our community around leading a more kind, expressive, empowered life, and offers plant-based creative food for events.

Lucy works as writer (has self-published books and writes a blog and her articles feature in other blogs and publications), has her own TV channel, shares about how to parent kindly and consciously and oftentimes radically or at least non-conventionally, she’s an activist, she lives OFF GRID in a YURT. She loves style. She organises workshops with International speakers/writers/change-makers around parenting. She ASKS questions. She is open-hearted and prepared to share her fallibility and vulnerability with her audience, her people. She’s a wahine toa.

Pennie is a baby, child, young person advocate, or a Children’s Guardian. She is a visual artist. She is a gentle, unrelenting, activist with a sense of humour and a big heart. She is an ex-playcentre Mum, ex-primary school teacher, now grandmother. She is a writer of books, articles, a blog. She tours New Zealand giving workshops around educaring, parenting and education. She is a National Treasure.

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I am a Emily.

I am a sharer connector.

I am passionate about sharing ideas with people to so become aware, and providing momentum to make change. I write. I make transformational events. I bring people together. I listen. I speak. i observe. I research. I share via a blog, writing, film, photography, festivals, workshops, symposiums, talks, hui.

This is what i want to continue to do, and how i want to earn a living.

My own creative outlets are singing (especially kirtan) and knitting (especially scarves and hats).

I love running, laughter and kundalini yoga.

I love food.
I love conversation.
I love creativity.
I love kindness.
I love nature.
I love change.

I’m wondering if ‘having a single pointed focus’ is a masculine concept, almost penial?

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A significant man in my life wishes for me to ‘get focused’ and i believe he believes i will not be successful (which is probably both financial and satiated) without it. He refers me to the corridor principle. And infers my lack of focus is coming from a confusion, lack of clarity, and perhaps probably a lack of confidence and self belief. With what i’ve taken at its deepest core a depleted sense of self-worth, or worthiness. Big stuff. Still smiling in the heart, but.

Jack of all trades master of none?We can do or have everything, but not all at once!

Nathan Mikaere Wallis is a father (including a foster and step father) a grandfather, an ex primary school teacher, and ex kindy teacher, a guidance counsellor, a man who worked with the tough kids, he worked at the Brainwave Trust, and now speaks, writes and tours sharing about parenting, education and most importantly ‘How children’s brains develop and function’ and therefore what we could and shouldn’t be doing to maximise a healthy brain, and healthy child and indeed teen.

Nathan is multi-passionate. But did he do all this at the same time? Or did he wander down the corridor, until it led him ‘organically’ to another door to another corridor he mustered the strength and focus to go down?

I do observe I have a sense of frustration, or a sense of overwhelm in trying to do a lot, and maybe not managing to do ‘it’ the ‘a lot’ well, so getting a diminished sense of satisfaction (or perfection) from it. At the same time i feel i’m so focused on doing, on projects, on being in integrity and following through with what i’ve said i’ll do that there’s little to no time to stop to smell the roses, or seek pleasure and relaxation. Perhaps this is greatest challenge. Learning to STOP. Learning to say no (to more activity), in order to say yes (to more un-planned-for time). Perhaps this is still a version of focus?

I’d rather invite YOU or the neighbours around for a shared kai, or a crap dinner party where you have to help set up the table and peel the potatoes, than NOT invite you at all, and wait till my life is in more order and home environment (with 3 young kids) more conducive to socialising in calm, relax and style.

I’d rather cause a little more stress by chopping more onions, stirring more bolognese, soaking and scrubbing two pots, so i can deliver a meal to you when you’re struggling, than wait for when i’ve got my ducks in a row.

I watch myself seek challenge, and seek situations and people that encourage me to extend, to expand, to examine.

Perhaps too, different industries require of us to be multi-passionate in order to in fact be sustainable. Before being a mother, writer, event-maker, i worked as a teacher. Before being a teacher i worked as a theatre producer, and a theatre/screen actor. Many of my contemporaries diversified and ‘got another string to their bow’ in order to earn a living. Some became Drama Teachers, others Casting Directors, some Lawyers, others Musicians, some Photographers, others Make-up Artists, some Costume Designers others Gardeners.

I also wonder if we women expect to be multi-tasking, multi-passionate business women. For in our daily lives many of us mother, cook, clean, organise the home, gather people in for social occasions such as birthdays, christmases, neighbourhood BBQs, cook meals for people struggling, go to PTA and Playcentre meetings, visit Great-Grandma, beautify the home, put away the clothes which no longer fit person a, b or c, take the dog and children to the vet and doctors, dentists, osteos, body-talk consultants…+ work, + friend, + continue learning, + exercise…

All in all, i admire this significant other of the male variety, encouraging me to ‘get more focused’ because i believe he believes i will get more pleasure, i will fall more in love with (my) life, in this simplifying.

So in this wondering, I’m wondering if looking less widely will help me have more ‘flexi/me/relaxed/pleasure’ time?

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Do i choose from the viewpoint of what daily living looks like in that ‘project’ that ‘mahi’ that ‘work’?

For example:  When we camped for 3 weeks against the ocean in a DOC campsite up Far North Aotearoa, New Zealand, i felt very content, and most importantly connected and present.
– we lived with less (less toys, clothes, food options)
– we shared quality family time together

– we connected with other families and lived more like a village

– we helped other people and accepted help from others

– we lived closer to nature

– we saw more death (the dead bodies of a ferret, 2 penguins, a moray eel, multiple fish, baby seagull)

– we lived closer to animals (the horses locals rode along the beach bareback, the possum that ran across the top of a neighbour’s feet as the night light came, one-foot the seagull who stayed close, the bees in the hives up the hill)
– we lived with NO technology bar my camera

– we played cricket, ran, walked, swam in the sea, body surfed, boogie-boarded, played ukulele, sang, drew pictures together, read books out loud and silently, had quiet alone time in meditation or pranayama, made friends

– we looked at the night sky

– we heard the ocean always

– we lived in a storm

– we even got chicken pox (well one of the babes)

Would i choose a career or project that supported that LIFESTYLE, or not choose a project if it meant we couldn’t have this lifestyle i.e. i wouldn’t choose a job that required i was in the city 5 days a week?

OR

Do i choose from what i want my legacy to be?

OR

Do i choose from what brings me joy, am a smiling or frowning more in my day-to-day doing that ‘work’?

OR

Do i choose from “if i knew i couldn’t fail what would i do?”

OR

Do i choose to disagree with him – even though he appears to be financially & creatively successful through his ability to be focused, and he walks fully into the corridor, faces the pleasure and the pain in that ‘dark narrow space’ of business and creativity.

Is ‘get focused’ synonymous with ‘get serious’?Maybe i wanna get MORE playful, more in love with life and LESS serious?

Or is significant other asking me to be honest, to let go of what’s not serving me any longer or not passionate about, and then asking me to persevere through the dark corridor, through the pleasure and the pain of what i do give a s**t about.

As ‘We’re going on a bear hunt reports’: “You can’t go over it, you can’t go under it, you’ve got to go through it.”

As one of the comments left on Marie Forleo’s page suggests:

Instead of getting focused do i get more help?

Herein lies the question…

Special thanks to Viv and Tash from Ace the Gram for sharing Marie Forleo’s affirming video with me.

I’m keen to hear the names and ‘links’ of other ‘entrepreneurs’ or multi-passionate business people YOU know or have heard of. I’ve just thought of some more…

Eryn Wilson: Actor, Casting Director, Film Director, Musician. Father.

Leo Mufasa Murray: DJ, owner of Why Waste, Waste Minimisation Guru, Tiny Home builder, Director of Kiwiburn, Producer of conscious events in the Bay of Plenty.

Wilhemeena Monro: Director of Soul Centre in Titirangi Auckland, Dancer, Producer of retreats around the world, Teacher of various movement disciplines e.g. Chi Kung, Shin Yoga, Body Love, dreams of bringing International Festivals to NZ and opening a rural retreat centre.

Kim Cleland: Director of Night Owl Cinema, Partner in Cult Cinema Club, runs Done by People, Producer at Tauranga Arts Festival, Director of Diner en Blanc Tauranga. Mother.

Sheldon Nesdale: Board of Trustees Rep at Matua School. Standing for council. Marketing Director of TEDX Tauranga. Owner of Marketing First.  Designs and operates many websites such as Hot Pools NZ. Father.

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Written by a multi-passionate Emily with wild & grace

Photo credit: Andy Hall from Unsplash.