Are you a Scanner/Slasher/Musepreneur with Many Passions?

Note from Stacey: Today’s guest writer is creative entrepreneur Jennifer Lee. This article originally appeared over at the lovely wishstudio, an inspiring community for creative women. I thought her insights and suggestions were so fantastic I requested her permission to reprint the work here and she graciously consented. You can read more about Jennifer below.

Being the creative person and/or a creative entrepreneur that you are, I bet you have a plethora of passions: perhaps art, writing, photography, knitting, and salsa dancing.  Maybe you dream of running a yoga studio in Costa Rica and in the same breath you can see yourself opening up a vegan bakery or writing your first mystery novel or designing high-fashion shoes.

You like to dabble in loads of creative projects and love to constantly learn new things.

Recently one of my clients bemoaned, “Oh no, here I go again.  The last several months I was really excited about focusing on my art and writing, but now I’ve signed up for guitar lessons.  I’m enjoying that at the moment, but arggh, why can’t I just pick one thing?!”

Does the last part sound familiar?  If you feel like you can never “just pick one thing,” not to worry.   Just because your best friend knew since she was five that she wanted to be a vet or your mom says, “Now what are you doing?!” when you sign up for yoga teacher training, it doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with you.   In fact, look at the talented, wonderful women who grace the Wish Studio.  Many of these creative women have multiple passions that they’ve beautifully blended together into a business and/or enjoy relishing their creative spirit in.

Your love of variety is what Barbara Sher, author of Refuse to Choose, refers to that as being a “Scanner,” someone who “doesn’t want to specialize in any of the things she loves, because that means giving up all the rest.”  Journalist/author/speaker Marci Alboher talks about a similar concept in her book One Person/Multiple Careers.  She calls people with multiple careers “Slashers.”  Musepreneurs tend to be Scanners/Slashers because they follow their heart, are inspired by lots of different things and often build their work around those many passions.

Here are a few ways to embrace your love of variety:

• Spend less time worrying whether your latest interest is the “right” thing or merely a flash in the pan.  Spend more time paying attention to whether it brings you JOY.
• Be willing to let something go when it’s run its course.  Ask yourself what did you gain from that experience.  How did you grow?  It may have nothing to do with the subject matter and all to do with your learning process.
• Allow yourself to try new things and see what sticks. All to often people get caught up in the “deciding what to do” mode.  They research and fantasize and wonder if they’ll like it or not when they could actually be out there experiencing it NOW.  Pick one thing that you’re interested in and take action on that this week.
• Use your right-brain to see the patterns or bigger picture that might tie all of your passions together.  Write out of all your passions and interests on separate Post-It Notes.  Group them together in ways that make sense to you.  What threads do you notice?  What “slashes” can you start to string together?

When I first left my corporate job, I struggled to define what I did.  How could I “market” myself if I couldn’t succinctly describe my business?  I longed for a simple label that would capture everything I was up to… coaching, workshops, yoga, art, etc.  Now, rather than confining myself to one thing, I embrace all of the facets that make up my life and career and that feels much more ME!

What are the many hats that you wear?  What happens when you allow yourself to play with all of them?  I’d love to hear!

Jennifer Lee is a coach/artist/writer/speaker/yogini/musepreneur/slasher/scanner.  She is the founder of Artizen Coaching and the creator of the Right-Brain Business Plan.  She loves yoga, painting, reading and hanging out with her husband and dog. She blogs at Life Unfolds.

Tagged as: "make it happen", "value yourself", following your bliss, risk taking, success