Specializing is not the only way to succeed. Knowing how to combine your various interests, those that correspond to your deep values, allows you to flourish and find your place. Solène Feig, entrepreneur and coach, explains to us how to clarify our choices and create a life that suits us.
On a professional level, specialization has rather good press. Focusing on a subject allows you to learn more about it and become an expert in your field. Result ? This advanced knowledge and skills provide real added value which often allows you to be better paid. However, this trend has not always been the case. “ There was a pivot at the time of the Renaissance. Until then, it was very well regarded to be a “polymath”. Being interested in several things and being good at several things was a sign of intelligence », remarks Solène Feig, entrepreneur, founder of the first French-speaking Academy for multi-potential entrepreneurs, coach and author of “ Why choose (when you want to do everything)? » (Diateino editions). Leonardo da Vinci was a good example of this.
But this privileged, even unique, center of interest can ultimately create a form of intellectual weariness. To flourish, nourish their curiosity and achieve fulfillment, some people need to have a plural activity that allows them to focus on different points of interest. And according to Solène Feig, it is not a question of opposing specialized profiles to multi-potential ones because they are complementary. “ In the same way as in medicine, we need general practitioners and specialist doctors “, she says.
Know your interests and potential
If you yourself have several interests, you may have a tendency to flit from one activity to another, to start everything without finishing anything, or even to procrastinate… To avoid getting distracted and take advantage what drives you, the coach and author advises taking stock of your passions: What are your innate potentials? Those acquired (skills)? What are your latent potentials? “ They are more difficult to identify because they are the resources that lie dormant within us and which have not yet been exploited. », adds Solène Feig. To detect them, you can ask for help from your loved ones who will have an outside perspective and will be able to tell you the tasks in which you stand out according to them: drawing, analytical mind… The idea is to know your needs and how you want to be nourished to feel good and fully you.
Juggle between activities
Sometimes a common thread, a common theme emerges and links the various passions. This can lead to a profession or profession that allows you to reconcile your interests. Training is sometimes useful to access it. It also happens that these passions are more disparate and deserve to be split. People who juggle several activities are called “ slashers “. A term first used by American author Marci Alboher in her book “ One person, multiple careers » in 2007. « We can have a main job, 35 hours a week, which is perhaps not the one that fulfills us the most, and at the same time devote two hours to another hobby », specifies Solène Feig.
A midwife, for example, can write a book bringing together her best professional memories. An engineer, accountant or other employee can give sports lessons to young people in a club. A project manager can devote herself to freelance photography on weekends…
Entrepreneurship, a relevant path for jack-of-all-trades
Faced with this kind of jack-of-all-trades and creative profile who needs freedom, entrepreneurship is often an interesting path. But the desire to do everything when the days are only 24 hours long can lead to frustration. “ These profiles often remain in the ideation phase, that is to say they have a lot of ideas but rarely take action. », underlines Solène Feig. The fault is a lack of organization. To sort things out, the coach advises learning to prioritize. “ Not every idea is meant to be monetized and it’s not possible to do everything at once. We can ask ourselves if we have enough time to implement a particular project, if we have enough money to get started, if we have the skills ”, she suggests.
Two or three projects should then emerge. It is towards these that you can begin to orient yourself. Establish a schedule to devote a well-defined time to them in your diary. You will then be able to explore new horizons as much as possible to discover yourself and satisfy your aspirations.
Dorothée Blancheton
