Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Building A Life Around All Your Interests
Building A Life Around All Your Interests
Maybe you have an answer for her, maybe you don’t– it doesn’t matter.
The whole thing is more about ritual and eliciting cute replies than anything
else. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is, after all, a fairly
innocuous question… Isn’t it?
Actually, it’s not.
This particular question is loaded with all kinds of implications about what’s
“normal.” It marks the beginning of a pattern that can cause a lot of pain and
anxiety for many of us.
The problem isn’t so much in what’s said, but in what’s not said. The
question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” implies that you
have to BE one thing. One, as in singular.
Sure, some people are happy choosing a career, committing to one path and
following through. But many of us simply aren’t wired this way. We have
many interests and we’re good at a lot of different things. And you know
what? That’s okay… It’s normal too.
Instead of “overcoming” your desire to do many things, you turn it into fuel
for income. This type of business is what I call the Renaissance Business.