Hi my friends,
I have a confession to make. For a long time, I felt deep shame about my multi-passionate ways. I felt something was “wrong” with me because my career path wasn’t linear, and I wasn’t focused on ONE THING. I would constantly get excited about new things, fully immersing myself and studying them, and I felt like a major flake. The inception of this concept was from society and my old community often echoed this sentiment, raising a brow with judgment followed by a monologue to the tune of “what are you doing now?” because they “couldn’t keep up.”
They made me feel like my multitude of interests was the problem until I learned that it was my superpower.
I wasn’t designed to do one thing. Some people are and that is wonderful but it’s not this gal. And that is likely some of you, too!
I began to share this with some of my friends, clients and colleagues, realizing that there were so many of us who had these multiple sets of interests who were just pushing them to the side.
We were made to feel like our naturally multi-hyphenate nature was frowned upon or it was something to apologize for versus to be celebrated. Being multi-passionate and bringing those passions together is what makes us magical. It helps us stand out from the crowd. It helps us express ourselves in a 5D way. It’s what makes you, YOU!
Passion-staking, as we call it in coaching, is when you bring your passions together to share them in a way that they haven’t been shared before—and it is the stuff legends are made of.
For a long time, I felt so shameful and insecure about my multi-passionate ways.
- I went to school to study marketing and economics and worked in marketing for ten years.
- I enrolled for a master's in marketing which I promptly unenrolled from.
- Then I studied nutrition and was halfway through a master's before I realized that wasn't the whole dream.
- I studied meditation. And movement.
- I started a corporate wellness company. Only to put that down because it also didn't feel like the dream.
And when I did retire my corporate wellness offering, I felt like a big, ole failure.
I remember the day clearly. I had given a talk at Deloitte, which had long been on my vision board. I landed my talking points, I moved the room, and folks lined up to talk to me afterward. And as soon as I finished my talk though, I ran to the bathroom and cried loud, uncontrollable sobs. Because something still didn't feel "right" and that scared me. I did everything I was told to do and yet it still wasn’t clicking. I wondered if I would ever find work that felt good, where I could bring all of me to the table.
It was time for me to shift the narrative. I was seeking a new way of thinking and then I stumbled into passion stacking—but I had no idea it was called that or if it was even a thing. I decided that it was too painful to compartmentalize myself. And that if I wanted to live the most full and fulfilling life, I needed to put everything I loved and was great at together. So I did.
That is when I sat down to design my coaching curriculum, which leverages my business, mindset, and wellness backgrounds. When I started my coaching business, I knew I needed to bring all of me to the table to do this work in a way that was the most authentic to me, my purpose, and my true self. Who would have thought that coaching, meditation, nutrition, movement, human design and strategy could all work together?! My multiple passions is what set me apart from the beginning.
If you would have told me that a decade ago, I would have laughed in your face. But, here I am bringing all of these modalities into my coaching container. It’s tangible the way this passion stacking shows up in my work. And for the last seven years, I have given myself full permission to bring in all my passions and put them together in a way that is uniquely me!
Looking back at all the times I felt like I was hopelessly grasping at straws for the answer of what I was doing wrong, I realize was not a failure at all. I was in process. And the only place I had missed the mark was not giving myself permission to be all the (seemingly disparate) parts of me.
Here is what I want to say to you that I wish someone had told me. You are perfect. Your passions make sense and can work together. Give yourself permission to be all of you because the world needs that very thing that doesn't exist yet. So, what is your version of this? If you’re multi-passionate, how can you passion-stack to get on the court with more of you and share your differentiated perspective? Let this be your invitation.
There is nothing weird or wild about honoring yourself and your gifts. It's okay if others don't understand yet. Lead by example. Keep going—you've got this.
To magical millimeter shifts!
Amina xx