Hey friend,
Jen came to coaching feeling completely scattered. At 40, she had an impressive resume: engineering leadership roles at top tech companies, yoga teacher certification, meditation instructor training, board-certified structural integrator, and she was currently studying coaching. To outsiders, she looked incredibly accomplished. To herself, she felt like a mess.
“I don’t know what to do with all these pieces,” she told me. “Everyone says I need to pick a lane, but I love all of them. My LinkedIn only shows half my life story.”
But here’s what was really eating at her: the constant pressure to choose.
Tech consulting OR coaching. Corporate stability OR meaningful work. Her analytical side OR her spiritual side.
Every career advice article, every networking conversation, every well-meaning friend told her the same thing: “You need to niche down. You need to focus. You can’t be everything to everyone.”
Sound familiar?
Jen was trapped in what I call choice paralysis – the exhausting belief that having multiple passions means you have to sacrifice most of them.
This is what I see with almost every multi-passionate client: we’ve been conditioned to believe that synthesis is impossible. Let me show you why this is wrong – and what you can do about it.
The Problem With “Pick One”
Choice paralysis shows up everywhere:
- “I have to choose between financial security and meaningful work”
- “I can’t be both analytical and creative”
- “I need to focus on one thing to be successful”
- “Having multiple interests makes me flaky”
- “Real professionals specialize”
These beliefs feel practical because society rewards specialization. But they’re also soul killers and potential wasters. They force us to fragment ourselves instead of leveraging our wholeness.
Your brain treats these either/or statements as truth, making you blind to synthesis possibilities.
When Jen said “I can’t bring my meditation training into corporate coaching,” her brain literally couldn’t see how her unique combination of tech expertise and mindfulness training was exactly what burned-out executives needed.
So how do we break free from false choices? It starts with understanding that your range isn’t a bug – it’s a feature.
Think about the most interesting people you know. They’re rarely pure specialists. They’re the chef who studied psychology and creates menus based on emotional eating patterns. The engineer who teaches yoga and designs more human-centered products. The therapist who’s also a business strategist and helps founders work through their relationship with success.
Their magic lives in the unexpected connections.
Here’s what happens when people embrace synthesis instead of elimination:
- They become unforgettable. In a world of specialists, bridge-builders stand out. You remember the marketing director who also teaches meditation, not the twentieth generic marketing consultant.
- They solve problems others miss. Your diverse background lets you spot patterns that narrow experts can’t see. The tech person with mindfulness training recognizes burnout solutions that pure technologists miss entirely.
- They attract ideal clients naturally. People who value complexity seek out multi-faceted providers. Your best clients are probably renaissance souls too – they want someone who gets their whole situation.
- They create blue ocean markets. Instead of competing in crowded spaces, they carve out new categories where they’re the obvious choice.
The Bridge-Building Framework
Here’s how to turn your “scattered” interests into strategic advantages:
Step 1: Map Your Constellation
- List all your skills, interests, and experiences.
- Look for the underlying patterns – not surface similarities, but deeper themes.
- What drives you across different domains?
- What problems do you naturally notice?
- What values show up everywhere?
Jen discovered her through-line: helping high-performers who’d lost touch with their humanity. This theme connected her tech leadership, meditation teaching, and bodywork training.
Step 2: Find Your Unique Intersection
- Ask: What can I offer that specialists can’t?
- Where do my different worlds create unexpected value?
Don’t think “accounting + art.” Think “financial clarity for creative professionals who’ve always been told they’re bad with money.” The magic isn’t in the combination – it’s in understanding who needs exactly that combination.
Step 3: Test Your Bridge
- Start small. Offer one workshop, write one article, or have five conversations that weave your worlds together.
- Notice what resonates.
- What feels natural to you?
- What do people respond to?
Jen tested by offering “Mindful Leadership for Tech Teams” workshops at her former companies. The response was immediate – people were hungry for someone who understood both their technical challenges and their human struggles.
How This Worked for Jen
When Jen stopped trying to choose, she created something entirely new: leadership coaching specifically for tech professionals experiencing burnout.
Her meditation training wasn’t irrelevant – it was exactly what overwhelmed engineers needed. Her structural bodywork wasn’t a distraction – it gave her insights into how physical tension mirrors emotional resistance. Her corporate experience wasn’t something to escape – it was credibility that let her speak the insider language.
While other coaches offered generic leadership advice, Jen could discuss both sprint planning AND nervous system regulation. She understood code reviews AND boundary setting. Her combination became her competitive advantage.
The breakthrough wasn’t magic – it was following a systematic approach to bridge-building instead of trying to eliminate parts of herself.
The question isn’t whether you should embrace your multitudes. It’s how to do it strategically.
This Week’s Experiment
Pick one “either/or” belief that’s been limiting you. For the next seven days, experiment with “both/and” thinking.
- If you’ve thought “corporate OR creative,” spend this week noticing how creativity shows up in business problems.
- If you’ve thought “stable OR meaningful,” explore how stability might enable more meaningful risks.
- If you’ve thought “focused OR diverse,” consider how your range might be exactly what some specific group needs.
The goal isn’t to abandon practical thinking. It’s to expand beyond artificial limitations and discover what becomes possible when you work with your wholeness instead of against it.
What false choice are you ready to transcend? Hit reply and tell me one “either/or” belief you’re curious to challenge. I read every response.
We got this – together 💪
x Claire
👯
No July Meetup
UPDATE COMING
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7-Day Integration Plan
Putting advice into action.
Day 1:The Map Exercise (15 min)
- List all your skills, interests, experiences, and training. Don’t edit – just brain dump everything.
- Then look for deeper patterns: What themes connect seemingly different areas? What problems do you naturally notice across domains?
Day 2: Find Your Through-Line (10 min)
- Review yesterday’s map.
- Ask: What drives me across different areas? What values show up everywhere? What’s the deeper current that runs beneath my surface interests?
- Write one sentence capturing your through-line.
Day 3: Spot Your Unique Intersection (10 min)
- Choose two of your interests that seem unrelated.
- Ask: Who specifically needs exactly this combination? Not “accounting + art” but “financial clarity for creative professionals who’ve been told they’re bad with money.”
Day 4: Study Successful Bridge-Builders (15 min)
- Find three people online who successfully combine multiple interests in ways that inspire you.
- Notice how they describe themselves, what they offer, and who they serve.
- Screenshot examples that spark ideas.
Day 5: Practice Bridge Language (10 min)
- Write 2-3 ways to introduce yourself that highlight connections rather than choices.
- Practice saying “I help X people who struggle with Y by combining my background in A and B.”
- Try one in conversation if the opportunity arises.
Day 6: Test Your Bridge (5-20 min)
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Take one small action that combines two of your worlds:
- Write a social media post connecting different aspects of your background
- Offer advice that draws from multiple areas of expertise
- Reach out to someone who represents your ideal intersection
- Apply a skill from one domain to solve a problem in another
Day 7: Reflect and Plan (15 min)
- Review the week: What felt energizing?
- What combinations sparked the most interest (from you and others)?
- What would you want to explore further?
- Write down one specific next step.
