Multiple Passion Disorder

Person 1: Okay, so let me see – you are a Finance Professional, who has worked as an Auditor for a few years, thereafter launched your own health-care start-up, worked as part of a Premium Retail Chain handling the back-end logistics and sales, moved into Management Consulting, while writing a Blog on your own website and also create art pieces through the night while holding your current job as a communications specialist. Hmm … you know what – you’re just not focused in life and lack the ability to prioritize.

Person 2: That’s impressive, you’ve managed to do so many things and all drastically different from the other in such a short frame of time. You wouldn’t just bring in your multiple qualifications into play but also be able to add value from more than one domain and that is what we are looking for and appreciate – a well-rounded multi-faceted professional.

This is the Power of Perspective. Both Person 1 and Person 2 are talking about the same third person i.e., Me, but offering glaringly different views. One valuing and cherishing the multi-domain experience while the other deriding it. One able to look through the synergistic advantages while the other sticking to an old-school rugged mindset of just sticking to one line with horse-shoe blinkers.

Multiple Passion Disorder!

For the longest time, I never thought there was anything wrong in pursuing multiple interests, harbouring more than one passion. Didn’t probably have the wisdom to realize that maybe following your heart could be criminalized in this fashion or trivialized to indicate lack of focus. Moreover, never thought, that instead of being cherished for bringing more to the table, I would be taken to the cleaners, time after time! What people also do not seem to understand is that life seldom goes accordingly to plan – sometimes situations and circumstances also play a major role in the way the currents in your life move!

In case you haven’t come across this by yourself till date, this phenomenon, this condition (yes – its supposedly a condition!) is called Multiple Passion Disorder (MPD). You call is a curse or a blessing, well, I’ll leave that to your sensibilities after finishing this blog!

Being an Auditor came as a natural progression to my choice of qualification, starting a healthcare start-up was born out of an entrepreneurial streak. Meeting with a near fatal accident and having to go abroad for higher studies led to taking up odd jobs as that of a waiter, a bookkeeper, a logistics executive in a premium retail chain, which all finally led to becoming a Management Consultant at the end of the degree! Before that could scale, the slap of a pandemic resulted in me getting holed up at home without a job, which triggered the creative genes from my mothership and gave birth to this website, these blogs, and the 300+ art pieces I have posted on Instagram. Upon the world opening up, Capital Markets gave me a chance to stand back up on my feet and after learning the ropes there, another exciting opportunity showed up on my doorstep which has me currently engaged!

So, as clearly evident, how our life pans out, how our roadmap shapes up is not always in our hands or in our control, it’s a product of passion and hard work, focus and navigation, but also how circumstances and scenarios play out in our life – some acting as winds in our sail and others kind of anchoring us down where we are!

We live in a world that worships specialization. Society adores specialists. Job descriptions demand experts, universities push narrow fields of study, and careers are structured around climbing one very specific ladder. From childhood, we’re bombarded with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” as if we’re all supposed to pick one thing, marry it, and live happily ever after. But what if you can’t commit to just one passion? What if today you want to be a consultant, tomorrow a filmmaker, and by the weekend, a celebrated artist? It is a lot like being handed one flavour of ice cream for life and being told to just be happy with vanilla.

As per really sketchy and untrustworthy sources – if you have this disorder, you exhibit the following symptoms:

• Your bookshelf looks like it belongs to twelve different people—biographies, astrophysics, art history, psychology, self-help books and romantic novels, all-in-one!

• You have at least ten tabs open at any given time, each belonging to a different project, research topic, or hobby you just have to explore.

• You introduce yourself at parties with, “Well… I do a little bit of everything.”

• You have an alarming number of half-finished projects and half-baked plans for several others in process.

One silver lining amidst that dark night - famous folks like Leonardo da Vinci, Maya Angelou, and Steve Jobs had it too, so you’re in great company.

The struggles of an MPD sufferer include:

• Jack of All Trades, Master of… Something?

The phrase that haunts every multi-passionate person: Jack of all trades, master of none. But did you know the full version is Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than master of one? Turns out, knowing a little bit about a lot of things isn’t such a bad deal. How I wish an ex-Manager could have the intellect and EQ to understand this!

• Career Commitment Issues

Not in relationships, but with careers? Oh, absolutely. LinkedIn probably looks like a mashup of 12 different industries, and you’re one existential crisis away from enrolling in yet another online course. The idea of choosing one thing for 40 years sounds about as appealing as eating dal-khichdi for life! (Cue YJHD – main bhaagna chahta hu, uddna chaahta hu Naina, bas rukna nahi chaahta!)

• Overwhelm and Burnout

Passion is exciting, but juggling too many interests can feel like trying to keep a dozen juggling pins in the air. Spoiler alert: you will drop some. You fear having to choose. The result - starting everything and finishing nothing.

On the flip side - Multiple Passion Disorder could actually be a Superpower! Society wants us to pick a lane, but being multi-passionate has some incredible perks:

• Connecting Dots like a Pro

Some of the greatest innovations in history didn’t come from specialists working in silos. They came from people who combined ideas across fields. Steve Jobs, blended calligraphy, design, and technology to create the Apple aesthetic we love today. Mahindra recently complemented its Engineering prowess with scintillating designs to launch the BEVs …

• Adaptability in a Changing World

Industries & technologies are evolving at breakneck speed. The ability to pick up new skills quickly isn’t just nice—it’s essential. While specialists struggle to pivot, multi-potentialites are already onto their next passion-fueled endeavour.

• Creative Cross-Pollination is Your Jam

Your brain is basically a giant brainstorming session, constantly mixing and matching ideas from different disciplines. A psychologist with a passion for storytelling - best-selling self-help book! Coder with a background in psychology - that’s how AI ethics are born. Biologist with a love for fashion – birth of eco-friendly fabrics!

How to Manage Multiple Passion Disorder (Without Losing Your Mind):

• Embrace Your Weirdness

You don’t have to fit into society’s neatly labelled boxes. Your path may look unconventional, but that’s what makes it interesting.

• Rotate Your Passions

Instead of doing everything at once (recipe for burnout), focus on one passion for a few months, then switch. Keeps things fresh, and you actually get stuff done.

• Find the Common Thread

Ask yourself: What do my passions have in common? If you love strategy, psychology, and storytelling, maybe your thing is scripting a psychological novel/thriller. Finding intersections can help you carve out a unique path. Voila - your very own IKIGAI moment!

• Build a Portfolio Career

Who says you need one job? Some of the most successful people have portfolio careers—a mix of multiple gigs that tap into different passions. Writer/filmmaker/podcaster? Architect/illustrator/chef? Why not?

If you have Multiple Passion Disorder, don’t fight it—own it. The world needs specialists, but it also needs people who can connect dots, break moulds, bridge gaps and innovate in ways no one else can. So go ahead—pick up that new hobby, start that side project, and embrace your gloriously chaotic, multi-passionate life. Because the world wasn’t built by people who stayed in their lane!