Why some of us don't have one true calling?

Early morning today, I checked my phone to see if there were any calls or texts (like always). Usually, I don't have any of these - Forever Alone - There was a text today however. It was from Eva, my co-fellow at Teach for Nepal.

The text read as,

Since ur so damn over talented and equally confused u might lik tis - ted talks - emilie wapnick why some of us dont have one true calling

She always teases me for trying out different things. At first I was annoyed, but took it easy. I was used to it. After having my breakfast, I checked out the Ted talk that she mentioned. Now I have to be thankful that she shared this with me. :)

I got emotional listening to the talk. And as I am an emotional ass, I shed some tears too. :')

***

I could relate myself to the talk. I don't have that ONE TRUE CALLING. I don't know what I want to do in my life. My two years are with Teach for Nepal, then what? I have no idea what I will be doing. May be EVA is right to say that I am confused. Or may be I want to do whatever comes my way and not have a fixed path to my life?

I remember saying, "I want to be a doctor when I grow up." I joined Science, did Biology, didn't find my passion in being a DOCTOR just for the sake of being one for my parents. I joined Computer Engineering,could relate much than with MBBS at least - completed my Bachelors, worked for almost 2 years as a Software Developer. I loved writing codes. But, something was going wrong. May be I was feeling less creative, may be I was feeling used less, may be I wanted to do something that touched lives, may be CAREER and FINANCIAL STABILITY wasn't my thing.

That led me to join Teach for Nepal.

As you can see, a guy who wanted to do MBBS ended up doing Engineering. A guy who has a Computer Engineering degree now works as a Science teacher in a government school away from quality life that I could have pursued. My life is taking a very zigzag path. I love being NOT SURE about what I want to do. I like being confused. I will do whatever comes ahead of me.

Yet again, thanks Eva for sharing this. Thanks Emilie for the talk. I don't feel something is wrong with me anymore. :)

***

The following are excerpts from the Ted talk Why some of us don't have one true calling by Emilie Wapnick - some lines are a little modified.

Have you ever been asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

I'm someone who's never been able to answer the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

See, the problem wasn't that I didn't have any interests -- it's that I had too many.

This continued after high school, and at a certain point, I began to notice this pattern in myself where I would become interested in an area and I would dive in, become all-consumed, and I'd get to be pretty good at whatever it was, and then I would hit this point where I'd start to get bored. And usually I would try and persist anyway, because I had already devoted so much time and energy and sometimes money into this field. But eventually this sense of boredom, this feeling of, like, yeah, I got this, this isn't challenging anymore -- it would get to be too much. And I would have to let it go.

But then I would become interested in something else, something totally unrelated, and I would dive into that, and become all-consumed, and I'd be like, "Yes! I found my thing," and then I would hit this point again where I'd start to get bored. And eventually, I would let it go. But then I would discover something new and totally different, and I would dive into that.

This pattern caused me a lot of anxiety, for two reasons. The first was that I wasn't sure how I was going to turn any of this into a career. I thought that I would eventually have to pick one thing, deny all of my other passions, and just resign myself to being bored. The other reason it caused me so much anxiety was a little bit more personal. I worried that there was something wrong with this, and something wrong with me for being unable to stick with anything. I worried that I was afraid of commitment, or that I was scattered, or that I was self-sabotaging, afraid of my own success.

We are first asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" when we're about five years old. And the truth is that no one really cares what you say when you're that age.

It's considered an innocuous question, posed to little kids to elicit cute replies, like, "I want to be an astronaut," or "I want to be a ballerina," or "I want to be a pirate." Insert Halloween costume here.

And at some point, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" goes from being the cute exercise it once was to the thing that keeps us up at night. Why?

All they hearis that they're going to have to choose. But it's more than that. The notion of the narrowly focused life is highly romanticized in our culture. It's this idea of destiny or the one true calling, the idea that we each have one great thing we are meant to do during our time on this earth, and you need to figure out what that thing is and devote your life to it.

But what if you're someone who isn't wired this way? What if there are a lot of different subjects that you're curious about, and many different things you want to do? Well, there is no room for someone like you in this framework. And so you might feel alone.

You might feel like you don't have a purpose. And you might feel like there's something wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with you. What you are is a multipotentialite.

A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits. It's a mouthful to say. It might help if you break it up into three parts: multi, potential, and ite

Barbara Sher refers to us as "scanners."

It's easy to see your multipotentiality as a limitation or an affliction that you need to overcome. But what I've learned through speaking with people and writing about these ideas on my website, is that there are some tremendous strengths to being this way. Here are three multipotentialite super powers.

1. Idea synthesis: That is, combining two or more fields and creating something new at the intersection.

2. Rapid learning: When multipotentialites become interested in something, we go hard. We observe everything we can get our hands on. We're also used to being beginners, because we've been beginners so many times in the past,

3. Adaptability: That is, the ability to morph into whatever you need to be in a given situation.

So with that said, if there is one thing you take away from this talk, I hope that it is this: embrace your inner wiring, whatever that may be. If you're a specialist at heart, then by all means, specialize. That is where you'll do your best work.

Embrace your many passions. Follow your curiosity down those rabbit holes. Explore your intersections. Embracing our inner wiring leads to a happier, more authentic life. And perhaps more importantly -- multipotentialites, the world needs us.

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via paidtoexist

The question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” implies that you have to BE one thing.”

Sure, some people are happy choosing a career, committing to one path and following through. But many of us simply aren’t wired this way. We have many interests and we’re good at a lot of different things. And you know what? That’s okay… It’s normal too.

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