The Renaissance Soul

Of course (of course!) there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a specialist or having only one area of interest to dedicate one's life to IF, that is your choice, ambition and makes you happy. In fact, from school to the workplace such 'a cradle-to-grave, climb-that-one-career-ladder' approach to life is what our modern societies expect of us all. Have ONE goal, get yourself qualified in ONE field, settle down for ONE particular job and, let life pass-by. Forever.

Terrific.

Now, of course there's nothing wrong with that but... what a terrible nightmare that is for some of us!

There are people who, indeed, are widely curious, love multiple and constant activities, get bored quite quickly and, as soon as a challenge has been ticked off show more their box, would rather fly from one interest to the unrelated next than settle down in a nice (but boring!) comfort zone. Yes! We are talking here about those who are bursting from passion to passion and, constantly change gears in their hobbies, studies, jobs and else. We are talking here about the 'Jack of all trades, masters of none' but, proud to be so. And, honestly, how tough at time to sustain such an attitude, not only in the face of others' expectations but, also, your own!

If being a school dropper or living off a job completely unrelated to your qualification, having a CV looking like a patchwork of unrelated twists and turns or, a wide range of various hobbies that raise eye-brows sounds familiar to you then, this book is for you. It's for you especially if, you have ever felt there is something wrong with you, under pressure to conform, criticised for being unfocused, dispersed and spreading yourself thin and, all in all, misunderstood for being, at best scattered, at worst labelled with ADD and in serious need of therapy!

'Renaissance soul', 'scanner', 'multipotentialite' or, whatever the label ascribed, this book addresses our type of personality and, gosh! How refreshing, comforting and inspirational! I am usually very wary and prejudiced against the whole life coaching industry but, I found this pick quite nice to go through.

The thing is, Margaret Lobenstine does here a couple of things that are worth a look into. First, she obviously insists that, there's nothing wrong with aspiring of being a 'Jack of all trade, master of none' -for long (at least during the Renaissance era) it was actually an ideal to strive for. It's obvious but, comforting to be clearly and boldly stated. Then and above all, being such a personality type herself and, therefore, knowing exactly the kind of problems 'Renaissance souls' (as she terms us) encounter, she sets to give advices on how to organise our lives efficiently, without feeling scattered and/or loosing focus. Now, I for one personally found her advices and strategies very relevant and useful. It might sound light but, they are nice reminders -priority and focus, without loosing sight of YOUR values (and bugger others' expectation regarding what success is or is not).

That wasn't revolutionary for sure, nor especially life changing but, it has remained a cool read all along. So, if you are one of those 'Renaissance souls' interested in all and everything and, who cannot stand the boredom of a routine (from your hobbies to your job) then, please read this. It will be refreshing and relevant! show less

I first heard about this book when I visited the Scatterbox Books blog, back in late October of this year. And, I’m so glad that I stumbled across it, and then was able to get a copy to read via interlibrary loan!

In case you’re wondering what a Renaissance Soul is, here (from the book) are… “Five Signs That You Might Be a Renaissance Soul“:

1. The ability to become excited by many things at once, often accompanied by difficulty choosing.
2. A love of new challenges; once challenges are mastered, easily bored.
3. A fear of being trapped in the same career or activity for life.
4. A pattern of quick, sometimes unsatisfying flings with many hobbies.
5. A successful career that has left you bored or restless.

((to take the quiz and see show more if you, too, are a Renaissance Soul, visit the author’s blog at http://www.renaissancesoul.com))

I am definitely a Renaissance Soul! And, reading this book was such a relief for me! So often –because I tend to go through “phases” where I’ll get all fired up about an activity or something for a while, and then quickly move on to something else– my husband calls me “fickle”. He can’t understand why I tend to jump from one thing, to another, to another… it’s an endless cycle. For example, I went through a “phase” where I loved Psychology and wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist. I read a bunch of books on the subject, I made up a whole business plan about how I’d run my own practice, etc. But, then a new idea came along (writing books), and I abandoned my “passionate” pursuit of Psychology, and moved on.

This book explains so much about why I do what I do. LOL. And, it provided a lot of neat exercises to help me narrow my focus down, and be able to give quality attention to a few of my current interests, while helping me to feel less overwhelmed about wanting to follow them all.

For example, it gives the analogy of being in an ice-cream shop and seeing the multitude of flavors to choose from (ie: Baskin Robbins — 31 flavors!). Being a Renaissance Soul, it’s sooooo hard to pick just one or two! So, the best option would be to have the choice of a “sampler” — 4 flavors all in one dish at this visit. And, next time you visit the store, you can have a different “sampler” — try 4 other flavors. And, so on, and so forth. That way, you aren’t having to completely limit your choices, but you also aren’t terribly overwhelmed by the multitude of choices. You have to pick 4, but you aren’t limited to just those 4 forever… next time, you can pick a different set of four. ((Does that make any sense? If not, please read the book — she explains it soooo much better than I can! LOL))

There was also a section on time-management for Renaissance Souls — a new way of looking at things, and a new way of using a calendar to bring order to your life. Renaissance Souls don’t usually do well with Daytimers and set schedules… so this book gives you an alternative way of doing things, while still “managing” your time, leaving you plenty of room to follow your current passions.

Lastly, there were ideas for careers, for making money while pursuing your passions (or current interests), for coming up with more money so that you can pursue your passions, etc. There was even a chapter directed at the teenage/younger Renaissance Soul!

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, and found it to be very thorough. Much as I’d gotten a library copy to read, this book immediately went onto my wishlist — it’s one that I needed to have in my collection to reference back to, from time-to-time.

So, definitely check this one out if you feel you can relate to what I’ve described… you won’t be sorry!

Rated: A+ show less

In general, I make fun of self-help books. Most of them seem like the same old stuff put through the sausage grinder with a new cover on it. This book is different. Why? Because it was written for me. This book has a great balance of coaching you to accept and embrace a nature that can't settle on "just one thing" but doesn't make it a license to be a flake or non-committal. Commit to 4-5 Focus Areas of things you love and really develop them... until you get bored. Then pick another four or five, or replace just one or two. It also gives some somewhat original advice on how to incorporate one or more of these interest areas into a job, and how to use your job to develop other interests. I really liked this one because it speaks to me show more where I'm at, with practical advice that isn't lame and obvious. A definite must for anyone with "too many passions to pick just one." show less

Note: this is more a personal reaction than a review, so take it with a grain of salt if you're trying to decide whether to read this book or not.

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I think I was more in a space for this the first time I read it. This time, on the re-read, I found myself feeling impatient with it. Basically, I like some of the broader strategies, but all the little exercises - which always seem to have Capitalized Names in books like this - began to irritate me.

It also struck me again that what works for advice in terms of personal mental health and individual projects doesn't necessarily translate into making a living. She keeps claiming that it can, but it takes a certain sort of confident, forceful personality to make a career out of job-hopping, show more and I know I'm not that kind of person - especially since most of the things that interest me are not things I'm good enough at to make money at. (Believe me, I've tried.)

It rather sucks in that I had, at one point, found the perfect career "umbrella" for my interests and skills - but the market's gone for that career. So the problem for me isn't not knowing what to do (as she implies) but rather it's getting someone to pay me to do it. In a world in which employers still assume single-track skills, it's a lot harder to be employed if you have irregular work experience than she suggests. show less

Pros:
-Organized layout of chapters and sections
-Applicable advice
-Good examples from author’s clients
-Exceedingly relatable
-Plentiful resources for further reading
-Understanding tone

Cons:
-Sometimes a bit dry, but never unbearable

Notes:
-One of the first books I’ve found about people with multiple interests and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve never felt so much relief from a self-help book yet as I did with this. I finally feel less like a freak and more of a capable human being than ever.
-Even though it’s aimed at “renaissance souls”, there are a lot of good exercises that could help anyone who’s feeling stuck or afraid in terms of their work choice, productivity, and satisfaction.

I started out starving for this info and then slowly started to feel like I had been duped. Everybody is a renaissance soul. Everybody has multiple interests. And this whole book is nothing more but yet another book helping you “find your passions” and make time for them sold by yet another “life coach”.

By the middle of the book, I had resorted to scanning, and by the end I was just flipping through.

Maybe this book will work for folks, but it didn’t work for me.

The language of this book was fairly life-coach-y, but it made some good points. I'm giving it four stars for the sole reason that it's given me great ideas on how to organize my time without feeling chained to a schedule. I have always, always hated fixed schedules, because I never know when I'll feel like getting something done. This book has helped a lot with that, and I plan to put the scheduling ideas into practice. It's also given me some ideas on how to actually get some stuff done that I'm interested in doing.