You contain multitudes

I love the quintessential American poet Walt Whitman, especially this quote from his work "Song of Myself" (published in 1855): "I am large, I contain multitudes."

As the Swiss philosopher and author, Alain de Botton puts it: "There are always so many interesting, attractive and viable versions of oneself, so many good ways one could potentially live and work and yet very few of these ever get properly enacted in the course of the single life we have."

He argues that fulfilment at work is very rarely achieved because we are so multifaceted that one career path can never fulfil us fully. Indeed, we all have many sources of great interest but our modern society had conditioned us into believing in the one career path illusion. If you are an accountant, it is for life. Or if you are a lawyer, god forbid you also aspire to become a fashion blogger.

But guess what? We can be many things. I was a radio host when I was living in Melbourne, I have a law background and I am also a coach and own a stationery business. I am all of those things and more. I don’t let people define who I am and nor should you.

Never feel guilty about wanting to pursue different paths. It doesn’t mean you are flaky, it means that you are someone who will explore life to its fullest. You can only know what works for you if you have the courage to explore your "multitudes". This pandemic has sharpened the fact that we only live once so we should not fear the unknown.