The Renaissance Soul
I’ve never read a book that described my personality more accurately than The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People With Too Many Passions to Pick Just One. I am a Renaissance Soul. I have too many interests to settle on one. I typically don’t follow through with things I start, and that’s just fine with me. I am excited by the pursuit of knowledge on a particular topic. I hate long term goals, because I’m most likely to change interests long before I would ever reach those goals. I don’t like planning things too far into the future, because I’m not sure I would want to do that thing when the time comes. I like to go with my own flow.
If any of these statements sound like you, then you may be a Renaissance Soul, too. I urge you to read the book. It was an eye-opener for me, not to mention a huge relief to finally realize that I’m not weird. I’m just wired differently than others. People look at Leonardo DaVinci and Benjamin Franklin and see geniuses because of their many passions, but those same people look at Renaissance Souls today and say, “He’s just flaky. He can never stay focused on one thing.” It’s considered normal to be like Mozart who stuck with his one passion — music — for his entire life. He made a great contribution to the music world. But I would argue that the contribution from the Renaissance Souls of history have been even greater, because they cover a much larger variety.
Thoreau said it best when he said, “If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” This is my theme. I march to the beat of a different drummer, and, quite frankly, I prefer my drummer’s beat. It’s more liberating. It’s who I am, and it suits me perfectly.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I have always said since you were a child that you DO march to the beat of a different drummer. That is why you are so special. God does not make mistakes. I love you my son. Keep on marching to your own tune.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Wow, that is me!! I just found your blog from Aprovechar and landed on this post. It’s fate, I’ve recently (by recently I mean like today) have been struggling with this issue. It’s not an issue for me really, but other people just don’t understand why I can’t do the same thing for extended periods of time. Thanks for the recommendation!
January 11th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I think it’s wonderful that you’ve decided it’s fine not to follow through on things you’ve started. Why keep at it if something else has caught your fancy and it doesn’t matter anyway? I bounce around as well and that allows for lots of interests. There’s nothing wrong with that. Of course, there are times when it’s important to finish something you’ve started, but most of the time, it doesn’t matter. In my mind, the more you take in, the more you can give back.
Poet Mary Oliver asked, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”
Hopefully, lots of things!
Melissa
P.S. Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll read it — while reading the other 5 books I’m into right now.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Another excellent book about people with many different interests is Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher. (In the UK and Australia it’s called What Do I Do When I Want To Do Everything?) Barbara calls us Scanners, because we are always scanning the horizon looking for something new to learn about. Polymaths are probably the same kind of people. I’ve been gathering together lots of different information about people like us at my Scanner Tribe website, so you might like to take a look at it.