5 Ways to Thrive as a Renaissance Soul in your Career - When I Grow Up

5 Ways to Thrive as a Renaissance Soul in your Career - When I Grow Up I learned about the term Renaissance Soul thanks to a book I picked up years ago, when I was writing my research paper for my coaching school on how coaching creative types differs from coaching non-creative types. The sub-title of the book was Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One (its now How To Make Your Passions Your Life). If that resonates with you, then youre a Renaissance Soul, although  you can find a bigger checklist here. Now, if this IS you, which it probably is (its me AND about, oh, 100% of my clients), you might just make really negative connotations with this personality trait of yours. You can equate it to your flakiness, or ADD-ness, or that you often dont finish what you start. But really, being multi-passionate is positive! Were lifelong learners, we thrive on variety, were creative, we can juggle lots of virtual balls in the air, were natural entrepreneurs, and we always have something to share and teach to others. Now that we know being a Renaissance Soul aint a curse, how can we  build it in to create and achieve our grown-up, passionate careers? Here are 5 ideas: 1. Stop searching for the Or in your career, and instead embrace the And.  My career is a sneaky multi-passionate one, because as a creative career coach I do so much more than coach my clients: I write, I speak, I edit videos, I conduct interviews, I teach, Im a community leader, a copywriter, etc. I actually broke down the hats that I wear and found 15 titles I can claim. And the best part? I can decide tomorrow to write a book, or teach a course, or to delegate my project management responsibilities. 2. Experiment with what time management structure works best for  you. Ive had multi-passionate clients that only wanna work on one thing at a time, but need to know theyll be done with their project in 3 months so they could move on to the next thing. Ive also had clients that need 3 balls in the air at all times so they dont get too antsy. And ya know what? Both are right for that respective person!  While there are resources like this, this and this that are tailored to us creative Renaissance Souls to help us with our productivity, a general catch-all that works for  everyone  just doesnt exist. So start by consistently trying  something and then tweak it along the way! 3. Let it be known that you love being  a learner, and build variety into your work.  Instead of trying to hide your natural curiosity, allow yourself to become the person raising their hand to take a new training course or research a new project. If you work for someone else, let your boss or manager know that you  thrive when you can  work on a wider  scope of projects, learn something new, or have more variety in your day-to-day activities. If you work for yourself, you can use what you learned about yourself time-management-wise to block your time accordingly. For example, I compartmentalize my week by working with clients Mondays and Tuesdays, writing on Wednesdays, working on my projects (my upcoming CreativeLive class, my podcast, etc.) on Thursdays and doing admin and catch-up work on Fridays. It usually doesnt work as cleanly as that, but it helps me keep focused day-to-day while allowing me to flex my multi-passionate muscles. You, though, might do best with making a stand ing date on Friday afternoons to work through a new book or online course. Or maybe you want to spend the mornings painting and the afternoons filling orders and doing more admin-y, marketing-based work? The key here is to figure out how you work best, and then schedule it in advance so you can set yourself up to best follow through. 4. Lead  a passion project at work.  Think about what makes you feel meaningful. Is it supporting gay rights? Working with dogs? Arts education in our schools? Zero in on a cause, passion, or interest of yours and see what and how you can connect it with the work you do. René  at Beach Beauty Bar is a great example of this. She started a half-marathon training team  for free, with twice-weekly runs and tons of support. It makes so much sense because she describes her work as being about human connection and invoking positive, healing energy within each of her clients.  Renés a former client of mine, and I know that the training team is a great way to make her current (and potential future!) clients feels beautiful inside and out! If you dont work for yourself, it might be tough to put together, say, gay rights and the advertising agency you work for. But what if you ask to lead a team to do pro bono work for the Gay Mens Health Crisis? Or if you ask to have your agency sponsor a te am for the annual AIDS Walk? Youll never know  until you open your mouth and ask! 5. Get your hands on 25 digital products to rock your career (worth $1712!) for just $97 as part of the 3rd Annual Multi-Passionate Must-Haves sale.  Im so proud to be the co-creator of this bundle, and this one is extra special to me because its specifically career-focused. Ive whipped up a new workbook called Find Your Career Compass  thats one of many exclusives to the sale, and I know itll help you find the foundational pieces to your dream career! The sale starts at midnight Pacific on May 12th and only last 72 hours, so  sign up for my newsletter   watch your Inbox on 5/12-5/14  so you dont miss the goodness. It only comes around once a year!