Why “choosing one thing” feels violent to your creative identity.
The hidden cost of simplifying yourself.
If you’re multi-passionate, chances are you’ve been told some version of this your whole life:
“You need to pick one thing.”
Helpful advice, huh?
Also deeply inaccurate for how curious, creative minds actually work.
Being multi-passionate means your identity has more surface area.
And that’s exactly where the trouble starts and where your superpower lives.
This large surface can feel like you’re in a constant state of identity overload.
You’re not just doing different things.
You identify with them.
You’re not just:
interested in writing
curious about design
experimenting with music
learning psychology
painting big canvases
editing videos on weekends
studying some niche topic no one seems to care about
Each one feels like a possible version of who you are.
When you’re not aware of a larger creative direction shaping your life, every one of those paths feels equally important (and equally urgent).
So when someone says “choose,” it feels like cutting off a part of yourself.
This is the identity overload: too many meaningful selves trying to coexist in the same timeline.
The constant reinvention loop
When identity overload isn’t resolved, you will keep reinventing yourself.
Over and over.
New direction.
New aesthetic (or tons of new moodboards)
New bio.
New project.
New phase.
I get it. You’re trying to honor everything you are.
But without a structure to hold that complexity, you don’t get integration.
You get fragmentation.
That’s why so many multi-passionate people feel like they’re always starting and never getting into flow. Sometimes, never really progressing at all.
Too many choices ≠ freedom
We like to believe more options mean more freedom.
In reality, too many options often lead to:
paralysis
self-doubt
chronic comparison
low follow-through
When everything is possible, nothing feels grounded enough to commit to.
You don’t need to choose one thing.
It’s easy to sell that idea. It gives quick momentum. But eventually, something feels missing, because parts of you were never integrated, only suppressed.
What you really need is a direction strong enough to hold your interests.
Direction vs. choice
Let’s be clear. Direction is not:
a role
a title
a niche (I’m tired of that word too)
Direction is a through-line.
It answers questions like:
What am I actually trying to move forward in the world?
What tension, question, or obsession keeps showing up no matter the medium?
What stays consistent (the message or intention) even when the tools change?
Choice asks: Which one do I pick?
Direction asks: Where am I going?
That’s the difference.
Polymaths are the new creatives (especially with AI around us)
Historically, multi-passionate minds weren’t seen as confused.
They were seen as integrators.
Take Hilma af Klint: She was a painter, mystic, mathematician, spiritual researcher, and systems thinker. Decades ahead of abstract modernism. Her work combined geometry, symbolism, philosophy, and science.
From the outside, her life could look fragmented.
From the inside, it wasn’t.
Her direction wasn’t “painting” as a career. It was making the invisible visible.
The medium changed. The language evolved.
The direction was the same.
Or take Leonardo da Vinci. Painter. Engineer. Anatomist. Inventor.
Would you call him indecisive? Probably not. He was oriented toward understanding how the world works: visually, mechanically, biologically.
Even in modern culture, look at David Bowie: music, fashion, character creation.
Can you see what my point is here?
Modern creatives struggle more (and here’s why)
You follow the people you admire, not because of the media they produce. It’s how they think and how they integrate all their experience and craft. The system says you will be rewarded if you pick one thing, while people who are creatively fulfilled explore their creative facets.
Today, being multi-passionate is harder because:
Platforms reward clarity and not depth and complexity
Algorithms punish pauses and pivots
We’re asked to explain ourselves constantly
So instead of letting direction emerge over time, people force premature choices to stay “coherent.”
That’s why so many talented, curious people stall. From over-compression.
You try to fit a complex inner world into a single external label.
Why “choosing one thing” feels violent to your identity
If you’re multi-passionate, choosing one thing feels like betrayal. And it is. If you neglect those parts, it will keep asking for expression. And as I mentioned here before, if you don’t use your creativity outwards it will be used to destroy you.
You can’t really shut down the creative force.
Direction is not a final answer
Direction is not a final destination.
It evolves as you evolve.
It deepens as you gain range.
It doesn’t trap you, it organizes you.
Before you have a direction, you will feel confused. Which is great. It’s not a verdict on your potential. It’s a phase. And if you look within in the right way, it will become integration.
The multi-passionate formula
There’s no exact blueprint for multi-passionate people.
Anyone selling that is lying to you.
But there is a structure that helps your multiplicity stop turning into a constant headache. Or internal shame. You need a direction strong enough to let all your parts walk the same way.
Think of it as three areas you work on in parallel to give your complexity somewhere to stay stable.
The “formula” is quite simple, but it takes courage (and time) to master it:
Direction = Point of View × Interests × Personality
Let’s go into each one of those 3 things:
1. Your Point of View (this is the anchor)
Your point of view is not:
your niche
your job title
your skill set
It’s the lens through which you see the world.
It answers:
What do you notice that others overlook?
What patterns do you keep seeing across different fields?
What do you feel compelled to respond to, critique, or reframe?
Really Important: A real point of view takes time to build.
It comes from:
exposure
reflection
friction
repetition
Most multi-passionate people skip this part because it feels abstract.
But without it, you won’t be able to get anywhere. This is your creative glue.
Point of view is what allows many interests to align in the same direction.
2. Your Interests (this is the raw material)
Your interests will change. That’s how exploration works.
Having many interests should never be a problem.
The problem is never staying long enough to extract anything real from them.
Real exploration means:
committing to an interest for a while (not 2 days)
learning the language of it
hitting boredom, resistance, or difficulty
seeing what stays after the novelty fades
Trying something once and quitting isn’t exploration (it just feels VERY productive to a fried, doom-scrolling brain).
Interests move in phases. You don’t need to follow all of them forever, but you do need to honor them long enough to see what they give you. Interests are temporary expressions; when they change, your point of view will hold the same orientation.
Each one leaves traces of:
skills, metaphors, frameworks, instincts.
Those traces will compound. Trust me.
3. Your Personality (this is the expression layer)
Personality isn’t fixed. It expands.
As you grow, the way you express yourself will change:
tone
aesthetics
rhythm
confidence
boundaries
And that’s normal.
The problem starts when you try to freeze your personality for the sake of consistency.
Your creative personality is how your point of view and interests come out:
how you speak
how you write
how you build
how you show up
How this works together
Point of view gives direction.
Interests give substance.
Personality gives form.
When one is missing, you will feel it:
interests all over the place
forced expression
lack of direction
When all three are active, being multi-passionate becomes powerful.
One last thing
Direction is a working orientation.
Your point of view will sharpen.
Your interests will rotate.
Your personality will expand (thankfully!)
Multi-passionate people need a structure that aligns all their parts in the same direction.
That’s the real formula.
Thank you for reading.
Yoli
