If you are a multipotentialite trying to survive in a world that keeps asking you to niche down and become an expert, I want to offer you something more than reassurance that your strength lies in the diversity of your interests. What I actually want to offer you is mythological wisdom and depth psychology frameworks that show you why you are this way, what the pitfalls are along the way, and how to prevent your shadow from taking over this beautiful multipotentialite nature that you’ve got.
A Story About Running Into the World’s Expectations
I think we all have those stories where our innate nature, our interest in multiple things, runs up against the harshness of the world. When I was in business school, a lot of people around me were working on very specific entrepreneurial ventures, looking to raise VC money, trying to become the next Uber or the next Airbnb. And I was always interested in something more holistic, something that brought things together. I even asked my professor whether I could take the class if I never wanted to raise VC money or sell a company, because I was genuinely interested in creating something that blended the physical and the psychological for complete holistic wellness. Thankfully, he said I could, and told me they call that a lifestyle business, with the gentle warning that I might meet people whose goals and priorities were totally different from mine.
That was fair warning. And even though he had warned me, it would happen again and again. Through the alumni network, I had managed to connect with Deepak Chopra’s daughter, and she agreed to a fifteen-minute meeting. I got on that call with high hopes of showing her my vision, excited because I wanted to demonstrate this broad framework that encompassed yoga and Ayurveda and brought all these disciplines together to serve the whole person. I couldn’t even finish telling her my vision before she stopped me and said that the world is about picking a niche and sticking to it, that I needed to find the one thing people would come to me for.
Her advice was well-meaning. She is, after all, deeply from that world, and I have heard different versions of that same advice many times since. But it still hurt. I remember feeling so deflated, and it was only a more senior classmate of mine who pulled me aside afterward and basically said: that’s her perspective, you just do you. Those conversations were hard to come by in business school, but I was lucky to find some people who always encouraged me to go after what I genuinely wanted.
At that time, I did not even call myself a multipotentialite. I just thought I liked looking at the big picture, and I was not particularly concerned with getting really good at something very specific. But as much as I told myself that was simply who I was, I would still have emotional reactions to people who picked one thing and ran with it.
The Friend Who Went All In
After business school, while I was working in tech, I used all my weekends and free time to study Ayurveda. I would often go to class together with a friend of mine who was working as a nurse at the time. When we started learning together, she had a lot of unlearning to do because she came from a medical model that was very different from how Ayurveda views life and wellness and treatment. I, on the other hand, having grown up in India, was already familiar with the Sanskrit words, the principles, and I was able to pick things up relatively quickly. I even stacked two different levels of training on top of each other because I was so hungry for this material.
And then my life hit a point where I was focused on a tragedy unfolding in my home. My then-husband was going through a very severe mental health crisis, and it was taking everything from me just to respond to that. Ayurveda stopped being a priority, and psychological health became more urgent. I went through a divorce. I started a fresh life in a new place. And when I was leaving, I gave all my herbs, the ones I had painstakingly collected and labeled and put in glass jars, to this friend of mine, because she wanted to go all in on Ayurveda. She quit her nursing job, started her practice, and she is doing really well now. She organizes retreats and workshops. She has her own line of teas she sells at different markets and fairs. She sees people one on one.
Initially, when the storm of my divorce was over and I looked at what she had built, I was filled with envy. I thought I’d had every chance of running with this thing and getting really good at it myself. But as time went on and I started to nurture the other interests that had developed in me, particularly in psychology because of how I had witnessed my ex-husband suffer, I no longer felt any envy. I actually felt genuinely good for her. I was like: good for you, I am really glad you found your one thing and devoted your life to it. Because I have found so much gold in digging into these other disciplines. Depth psychology has completely transformed my life, and I continue to follow my interests toward all the things that I think make for a good life.
Jung’s Warning: The Puer Aeternus
Now, thinking back on that initial envy I felt toward my friend, I think it was partly because she had done something I wanted to do too, which was to quit her job and just start. It took me several more years to do that myself, and I’m finally doing it now. But that desire is also very similar to the warning Carl Jung gave us as we begin pursuing many interests, which is to watch out for the archetype of the Puer Aeternus, the eternal youth. This is someone who is forever in the new, forever learning, forever ready to start, always on the verge of doing something great but never quite doing it. I think that is why multipotentialites sometimes get the flak they do from society, because the fear is that so many interests can prevent you from moving forward with any of them.
The warnings from the world are really warnings against a lack of commitment. And when I ask myself honestly whether I failed to pursue my interests because I was afraid of committing, I have to say: that is not true. I am currently in the fourth year of a five-year clinical psychology program. I went through the entire CPA training back in India, which lasts around six years. I don’t just start things and leave them midway. Any friend I have, if you asked them, would probably use the word “committed” to describe me.
So yes, we do not want to become the Puer Aeternus. That is a real trap worth watching for. But I also don’t think that archetype fits the story of most genuine multipotentialites. What really feels true for me is that I have been interested in multiple things, I pursue them, and I love synthesizing them.
Synthesis Is Not a Consolation Prize
And synthesis is not the same as being a generalist, and it is certainly not a consolation prize for failing to become an expert. It has its own value. When I look at my own interests, yoga, Ayurveda, dancing for ten years, Vedic philosophy, clinical psychology, depth psychology, I do not see someone who is scattered. I see someone who is integrating and weaving things together. I am trying to show you the difference between the multipotentialite trap that society warns us against, where you are always learning and never ready to begin, and genuine interest and drive to bring things together, weave them, and create something from that synthesis.
So ask yourself: what kind of multipotentialite are you? If what I’m describing fits, then you have nothing to worry about. You are simply following the call of your soul.
Indra’s Net and the Philosophy of Weaving
In the Vedic tradition, there is this concept of Indra’s Net, an infinite net stretching in all directions, made up of jewels, and each jewel reflects all the other jewels. Each part is whole in itself, and all the parts together make the whole. That is the vision I try to hold as I nourish my interests. I am not trying to polish one diamond. I am trying to construct a net where the experience and the sheen from one discipline gets reflected in the others, allowing me to create something that is different from each of the jewels on their own. This kind of weaving is precious.
I remember one of my professors in business school would say that you talk to the right person, ask them the right questions, and you save yourself five years. I was nodding in agreement because I love finding someone who has devoted their life to the study of something and absorbing the synthesis of their knowledge. But I also love finding people whose synthesis has come from moving through different things.
One example that comes to mind is something that actually happened during business school. After one of my semesters, I went to do a Vipassana retreat, a ten-day silent meditation retreat where you eat two meals a day, sleep on the floor, and meditate from four in the morning until nine at night. It transformed me, and when I came back, I was confused. I was following a particular guru’s teachings, following a path, and then I had encountered this completely different way of being. I felt like I was in a limbo. I searched online with all these random keywords and stumbled upon a blog post by someone who was thirty-six years old. He had spent the first twelve years of his life in a Catholic church, the next twelve years in the same tradition I had been following, and the twelve years since in Vipassana. He had also struggled with understanding what his path was, worried whether he was just jumping to the new and shiny thing to avoid the harder work. But he had found a way to weave these things together. He lived in a country where he felt somewhat isolated, so he stuck with his guru’s organization for the fellowship, going to Sunday meetings and joining groups. But for his personal practice, he preferred Vipassana techniques. And on his altar, he kept the picture of the guru from his previous tradition. He had created his own path, and he was honest that he was still figuring it out.
Reading his journey saved me years of searching on my own. That is the value of synthesis. And I got to experience it from the other side recently when a coaching client who wants to become a coach herself asked me where I had learned a particular thing I did in session. I had to pause and think. It came from four years volunteering on a crisis line, learning to pick up people’s emotions from their voice and respond in real time. It came from therapy training and techniques practiced in supervision. It came from everything I have read, the places I have traveled to. It was genuinely hard to pinpoint what makes me effective at what I do, other than to say it is a culmination of everything I have learned. And that is where the magic of being a multipotentialite actually lives.
Narada Muni and the Sacred Wanderer
As I was reflecting on what it means to fluidly move between these worlds of interest, I found myself thinking about Narada Muni, the sage from the Puranas who I used to watch in mythology shows growing up in India. He was always smiling, always carrying his veena, and he would show up in pretty much every episode. The reason he did was because he moved seamlessly between the world of gods, the world of demons, and the world of humans. He was a messenger and a connector. You could look at him and say he never settled down. Or you could look at him and see that he kept information and wisdom moving back and forth between worlds, and his role was pivotal. His breadth of movement was not his limitation. It was precisely what made him essential.
That is how I have come to see my own movement between interests. Ayurveda wasn’t something I was actively seeking education in for some time, and then in the postpartum period after each of my children, I was able to pick it back up and it was right there, waiting for me. Most recently I have gotten interested in homeschooling and the Montessori approach. Even though my children are still a little away from schooling age, I went to the library yesterday and placed holds on as many books as I could find on these topics just so I could learn. My life has become my subject, and anything I do in service of understanding how to live a good life feels important to me.
Becoming Who You Truly Are
Ultimately, it does not matter whether you are trying to be a specialist, a generalist, or a multipotentialite. What matters, and Carl Jung said it best, is that our life’s work is to become who we truly are. If who you truly are is someone who likes to weave across disciplines, then honor that. Watch for the shadow that would prevent you from starting or launching anything. But stay true to your nature.
Whether you are the solo jewel in the net or whether you are the net itself, the part is whole and the whole is in every part. You are not choosing between two false opposites. You are trying to become who you really are.
