Life as a Highly Sensitive Multipotentialite (with Emilie Wapnick)

Are you a highly sensitive person (HSP) with multiple interests and creative pursuits? Maybe your life has taken many unexpected and unpredictable twists and turns because of choices you’ve made.

Emilie Wapnick, founder of Puttylike, calls us multipotentialites, and it turns out to be a trait shared by many highly sensitive people.

The question is, how can we make this work for us rather than feeling like a flaw or limitation? That’s what Emilie and I explored in this conversation.

What is a Highly Sensitive Multipotentialite?

Emilie defines a multipotentialite as someone with multiple interests, talents, and creative pursuits. Rather than focusing on one area of expertise, multipotentialites are naturally drawn to explore and develop a wide range of skills. She coined this term to describe individuals who resist the pressure to “pick one thing” and instead embrace their many passions.

Being a Highly Sensitive Multipotentialite

Multipotentialites who are highly sensitive may feel the weight of environmental pressure to focus on one thing. If this message is coming from the culture around them, it can leave them fighting against and masking their natural instincts. But when the environment is supportive and nurturing, highly sensitive multipotentialites can craft wonderfully creative approaches to life.

A highly sensitive multipotentialite may approach challenges with creativity and compassion. They can connect dots that others might be unable to see, identifying sources of patterns and potential solutions to sticky problems.

Navigating the Challenges as a Highly Sensitive Multipotentialite

Emilie emphasises the importance of choosing a path that offers variety and meaning. For a highly sensitive multipotentialite, finding work that aligns with values and provides emotional satisfaction helps a lot. But it might require some creativity and a willingness to rebel against certain norms and pressures from the world around us.

Overwhelm and Burnout

Highly sensitive multipotentialites may struggle with overstimulation from juggling multiple projects at the same time.

Pressure to Specialise

Society often values specialisation, but multipotentialites may find that forcing themselves into pre-existing categories feels stifling.

Passion, Meaning, and Balance

The common advice to “find your passion and purpose” often falls short for highly sensitive multipotentialites who care about many things. If it feels like life unfolds and evolves through discovery and curiosity, passions and special interests come, go, shift, and combine along the way.

Watch The Conversation

This conversation was recorded in June 2014, in the early days of The Haven. I spoke to Emilie again in 2017 about her book, How To Be Everything.

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