Why multi-passionate people need to approach mastery differently

If you are interested in many different things, perhaps you have many different passions and loves, and you want to master some of them. Yet, you're presented with this notion that, hey, you can't actually master this stuff until you intensely focus on simply one. Well, I want to tell you about an alternative approach, especially for multi-passionate people. My name is Joe Uli; I'm a philosopher. I am deeply obsessed with vocations and paths, and helping people to know which career path to choose with conviction. That's why I'm here on places like YouTube, Instagram, and Substack. I host a podcast called the "Career Archetypes Podcast," and I hold an online community that helps people to know the right career path with conviction by unearthing their very own career archetype. I believe that everybody should know what their calling is in this lifetime, and to not know what your calling is, I think, is a modern tragedy.

When it comes to pursuing your path, you will end up having to figure out this lane of mastery. If you have many different interests, you probably have seen this narrative of, "Hey, you have to just focus on one thing, throw away everything else, and you can't even look at that stuff. You have to completely ignore it, and you simply pick one subject, one topic, one skill, and that is all you can focus on if you ever want to reach or attain some level of mastery later on in your vocation." This perception, you know, the image that comes to my mind, is if you have ever watched a TV show where there's a talent show. There is inevitably some young kid, maybe they're like 9 years old, and they're trotted on stage. On the stage, there's a piano, and the kid will sit down, ready to play the piano. The judges, you know, they will ask them, "How old are you?" and the kid will say, "I'm only 9 years old; my parents are here." Then they will go on and begin playing some classical Mozart piece, and the whole crowd is amazed and stunned because this person was able to master an incredibly complex piece at such a young age.

This is sort of the perception that we have been given of mastery: that you pick one singular domain, you pick one singular topic or subject, and you just only do that until you are at this elite level. Now, this perception is one that is a little bit inaccurate. It does show us that this is one approach to mastery, and this one approach definitely works, but there are other elements here that are at play when we look at other people's paths and ways in which they've mastered their path that aren't really shown to us in the modern world in the way in which they're shown to us when you just focus on one singular path and just hammer on that until the end.

Multi-passionate people often have to contend with this image; they have to contend with this approach that says, "Hey, you should only focus on one thing, and if you focus on one thing, then you will achieve mastery. If you don't, then there's something wrong with you. Maybe you're a little bit broken; maybe you have to sacrifice forms of mastery in your life in order to pursue multiple different interests." There is definitely something to be said as well, so there's definitely a nuance here where if you just focus in on one thing, you can achieve a particular level of mastery in something, and typically at speed as well. So, there's a lot of pros for just, you know, focusing in on one skill set. However, they don't really talk about other forms.

Now, when I'm beginning to pull you into these other forms, I'm really pointing at people who have had paths whereby they've had to bring in different interests into what they're doing in order to continue to progress on their path. This happens all the time. To give you an example, if we're to think about someone like Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell was very, very famous; he's a writer, and he's also very deep in Jungian psychology. He's very famous for his sort of description of what we now know as the hero's journey, this sort of monomyth that explains a universal pattern that occurs when it comes to this story or myth.

When we're talking about the hero's journey, we're talking about a storyline that happens again and again through different cultures. It typically begins with a hero hearing some sort of a call, and they end up saying, "No, I'm not going to actually pursue that call." Then they end up realizing they have to go, and they have to leave home, and then they end up meeting some sort of mentor along the path. This idea that there is this base-level myth in all of these different stories was brought to our attention through this person by the name of Joseph Campbell.

Now, the interesting thing when looking at his path is that he didn't simply study just psychology; he didn't simply study literature, though he went very deep on that. He didn't simply study mythology; he didn't simply study religion. He studied all of them, right? Because he was looking at and following the sort of instinctual knowing that, hey, I've got to go ahead and pursue this zone of interest because this is going to be important to me in my vocation and my path. If he was to deny this, let's say, for example, suddenly Joseph Campbell said, "Hey, I'm going to focus on mastery; therefore, I'm only going to zone in on literature, and no other interest is allowed into this space," we might never have had, you know, the hero's journey in relationship to his famous example of it being connected with Star Wars.

Oftentimes, when you hear about people talking about the hero's journey, they will typically talk about it in relation to Star Wars and Luke Skywalker leaving home and going on his adventure. Because he was able to pursue these different variations of interest, he was able to go ahead and say, "Oh, okay, religion's super interesting. Oh, mythology, that's really interesting. Oh, I'm really into literature. Oh, I'm really into this psychology." Because he was able to do that, suddenly he was able to progress in his vocation, and he was able to master his own craft. I hypothesize he wouldn't have been able to do it if he didn't allow these different interests to come into his vocation and his calling.

So, it's really important to understand that while these singular focus paths are definitely variations of mastery, there are also different variations of mastery that need you to have an overlap of different areas so that you can see things that other people can't see. Now, this is one of the other things that happens with people that are multi-passionate. Typically, they're better suited for this type of pursuit and this type of excellence whereby they gather all of these different interests, and these interests overlap in such a way where they begin to see different insights that other people couldn't have seen if they were just fixated on one singular topic or domain.

One of the famous examples that comes to mind is a guy by the name of Charlie Munger. Charlie Munger was a famous billionaire investor, and he was very focused on finance, but he was also very much bouncing into different topics so that he could get a better understanding of the sort of universal norms when it comes to understanding finance. He wanted to understand economics; he wanted to understand history; he also wanted to understand psychology. The actual example that comes to mind is him going out and buying three different psychology textbooks because he wanted to understand what the universities were teaching when it comes to psychology.

If you know anything about investing, you have to understand people; you have to understand buying behavior, why they're buying, why they're getting pulled towards pleasure, and getting pushed away from particular types of pain. He wanted to understand what the universities were thinking in reference to this, so he went out, bought some textbooks, and opened up these different textbooks. He ends up finding that there are a lot of different biases that have been left out, in his opinion, from traditional academia. In his mind, the only reason they didn't see this as obvious was because they hadn't studied this other subject of investing that he was very much involved in.

This ability to jump into different subjects gives us these insights as to, "Oh, how did you not see that? How did you not know that? How did you not view this thing that seems so obvious to me?" Yet other people would never have seen it because they don't have the same variety of interests or passions that you perhaps do. This comes into one of the sort of underutilized, often-gifts and talents of people that have multiple different interests, where they can just simply go and look at all their different interests and say, "What do you know that other people don't know or are not aware of?" Because your unique overlap is going to give you insights that other people simply don't have.

So, you're going to learn certain things; you're going to come across certain skills; you're going to have certain life experiences that are so unique to you and so tailored to you that they become something that can help you to move forward in your path, progress in your path, in ways that other people didn't even think was possible, let alone knew about. This different approach to mastery is something that needs to be looked at.

Now, one thing to note with this approach is that one of the reasons a lot of people with multiple different passions don't pursue this form is because it takes a long time. It takes a long time to mature when you're comparing it, especially to someone that is only focused on a singular form of mastery. So, let's say that we go ahead and compare ourselves to the young prodigy who is playing the piano on the talent show, and we say, "Wow, that person, that kid is 9 years old, and they already know the entirety of Mozart's repertoire, and that's amazing." Here I am, you know, I've been playing the piano, and I just started, and I'm still learning scales.

They have this distance between that person and themselves, and yet at the same time, they're also playing around with the guitar; they're also playing around with some software program, making beats or something like that. They're also really into literature, and they're also really into working out; maybe they're into yoga. While we might say, "Oh, this other person is way ahead," what often ends up happening for people that have multiple different interests is that if they continue to nurture and feed their interests over time, they slowly end up overtaking other people in a very unique way because of the crossover of their interests. They end up finding different combinations that we might look at and be like, "Oh, I didn't know that that goes together," but now all of a sudden, that does go together.

This happened recently; I can't remember the name of the person who actually made this progress in the field, but there was some combination between neuroscience and robotics where these two things just suddenly started to come together more and more. They began as very separate fields, and like I said, this happens all the time. But you have to be able to look at your different interests and trust that there is some sort of instinctual knowing within you that this is important on some level.

Now, this can often turn into, "Hey, I need to look at my hobbies, look at my interests, dissect them, get to the core of what I'm actually getting pulled into," so that you get a better understanding of the essence of the thing. What you'll often find by doing that is that you'll start to see patterns between different hobbies, between different interests that suggest, "Hey, you're actually interested in this thing below what it's on the surface looking at."

So, as an example, someone might be like, "Oh, okay, I'm really into psychology, and I'm really into investing," but the underneath essence of things might be this investigative depth or wanting to go deeper on something. We have some sort of essence that we can look at and say, "Oh, okay, you're actually interested in digging deeper, going below something," and that's what you're getting pulled towards as opposed to what the surface of the subject or topic or skill looks like.

By building on this alternative approach, later on, there's this compounding effect because you've learned from so many different subjects that it just starts to build on itself. It's like I mentioned with the example of Charlie Munger, who was bouncing into many different subjects and yet ended up becoming much richer than people who were simply focused on finance. It's why we have a great example of Patti Smith, the poet and the artist. It's why we have a great example of Leonardo da Vinci, right? The most famous example. Oftentimes, what's interesting with him is that he's held up as this genius, as this polymath, and he was interested in so many different subjects.

By being interested in so many different subjects, like anatomy and biology, and being able to use that in his artwork, it actually made his art go right up. This combination of interests allowed for him to reach a higher level of mastery that wouldn't have been attained had he simply said, "Hey, I'm only going to focus on painting, and I'm going to completely ignore my curiosities."

So, this idea of your natural curiosities, your natural instincts, has to be taken into account. If you are somebody that is a multi-passionate person and you are someone that actually wants to walk a path that you get to witness the person that you can become, you know, you have this idea of fulfilling your potential. It requires you to actually go ahead and pursue the various curiosities that you're naturally getting pulled towards.

So, there is this sacrifice of speed that goes on. Now, the other sacrifice that occurs, if you're willing to make sure that you mature all these different interests, is in a way to ignore anyone that simply focuses on one thing because, by appearance, they will be moving faster than you. But later on, you'll have different insights that they can't gain. This is the ability to sacrifice a few but also not all of them.

So, there is some discipline needed; there is this need for you to say no to certain things. This can be done as periods of, "Hey, I'm going to focus on this thing and get really, really good at it for a period, and then later on, I'm going to focus on this other subject and get really, really good at it for a period." One way I've seen this done is when people will focus on, let's say, they're learning a subject. They'll focus on the subject intensely, and then they'll go to the next subject. But what they'll do is they'll focus on one to improve it, and then the other subjects they'll simply just maintain.

So, they'll taste the other subjects, and they'll just keep that ball rolling so that they don't completely lose it from their mind while progressing on a particular subject whereby they want to move forward or a skill they want to move forward really, really quickly. In another way that I've seen people do this is through this interleaving process, whereby they're always making sure that many of their interests are getting fed on the go. So, rather than simply obsessing over one single thing, they're like, "Hey, I'm going to touch three or four different things all in one day," and that's going to allow me the momentum slowly to carry on and to move forward.

So, that's one type of sacrifice, and it does take a level of discipline, right? With any form of mastery, there's going to be a discipline required. But when it comes to the multi-passionate person, it's not a discipline of only focusing on one thing at the detriment of everything else. Instead, it's asking, "How can I live in such a way where I can allow many of my different interests to get fed and to get nurtured simultaneously, slowly progressing over time and then later on reaping the rewards?"

So, there's still this patience element long-term, and with mastery, these base-level principles are still required, such as a deep, deep devotion, a deep patience, and making sure that you are willing to go for the long-term, you know, the long-term coming back of everything that poured into it, that long-term return. A lot of people aren't willing to do that, which is why you can see people that are multi-passionate end up later on in life where nothing has come to fruition. You don't want that to happen. You need to be nurturing many different interests continuously over long periods of time, and that's something that needs to be in your awareness if you are to go ahead and accept the path of, "Hey, I actually want to get really, really good at whatever it is I'm meant to be doing."

I know it's not singular; I know that there are many different things, and I need to make sure that I develop the correct type of discipline. You always want to think of it like there's a particular type of structure that is only going to fit you. But to only have this, you know, one single-minded focus on one thing is for a very particular type of person, and many people work with that and excel with that. Like I mentioned with this kid who comes on stage and plays the piano, they figured out that way; that way works for them.

However, as a multi-passionate person, you have to be able to bring in these different interests and these different passions. This is something that, if you are someone that is interested in many different things, to really just reflect on, to think about, to ask, "How can I pursue more than one thing and make sure that all these different areas of me get fed so that I don't just, you know, repress one and then later on it pops up, and I'm like, 'Oh, I got to face this,' and I was trying to avoid it, but now this is really, really important?"

Then you oppress another one, and then suddenly you're not really getting any traction anywhere, and you end up later in life without any real progress towards the person that you are meant to be in your vocation. If you are interested in learning more about your vocation and understanding how to choose the right career path with conviction by unearthing your career archetype, which really sits at the base, you can have many different projects and pursuits when it comes to your path. But you really want to know what that anchor point is, and that anchor point is something that I call the career archetype.

I show people how to do it in our online community, an 8-week course, and also at the moment we have a holiday study program where I'm bringing out some master classes within our holiday study program and also holding live study sessions whereby we're going to do this body doubling, where other people, other members, will be in there. We'll be studying together, and we'll be making sure that we're able to go deeper in our vocation to know which path to choose. Also, if you already know what your path is, to really refine it and to make sure that this is really yours and to go to that next level.

So, if you're interested in looking that up and getting more information about our holiday study program, I'll make sure that I put a link below.