What if you didn’t have to choose just one path in life?
One of my clients just made a huge breakthrough thanks to Emilie Wapnick’s book, How to Be Everything.
It helped her challenge a deeply rooted, self-limiting belief: “I must choose one thing to be.”
Wapnick’s message is simple and liberating, “You can be everything”, and she gives practical guidance on how to follow multiple passions.
💡 In this video, you’ll discover:
– Why the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question can be harmful
– How to deal with this question (whether you are young or already grown up!)
– A coaching perspective on replacing limiting beliefs with empowering ones
If you’re a creative generalist, a multi-passionate professional, or someone feeling stuck between options — this video is definitely for you.
And if you’re simply interested in how many people function, it might be, too.
⸻ 👉 If you found this helpful, please:
• Like the video • Subscribe to my YouTube channel • Connect with me on LinkedIn
⸻ 👉 Full text:
This week, a coachee told me she’d made a huge shift in the way she sees her personal and professional activities. She has lots of them, and she’s always struggled to know where to put her energy.
This book — (hold it up!) — How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick, gave her both reassurance and clarity. It helped her understand her dilemma and also offered some practical tools.
I’m sharing it here because I think it could help several of my other coachees and probably many more people.
The book opens with a powerful idea: that the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” can actually be harmful. It plants the self-limiting belief that, as adults, we must be just one thing — an engineer, a writer, or maybe a sports champion, for example.
But what if you’re an engineer who loves writing, and you’re also a brilliant snowboarder?
Should you:
• Stick with a technical career?
• Dedicate yourself to writing?
• Or give it all up and aim for the Olympics?
Should you:
• Strive for excellence in JUST ONE THING and relegate the others to hobbies
• Try all three for a while and then choose the one you are best at?
• Or something else?
Wapnick’s message is: you don’t have to choose just one.
You can build a life around several interests — and even aim for excellence in all of them.
The book explains different ways to do this, with real examples and practical techniques.
What really struck me was how closely the book follows a classic coaching approach for addressing self-limiting beliefs:
First: Identify the belief – in this case, “I must choose just one thing to be.”
Second: Question it – explore where the belief came from, and whether it’s even true. That’s exactly what the book does in the first 20 pages.
Finally: Replace it – with a new, empowering belief: “I can be everything!” And the rest of the book backs this up with tools and stories to make it feel real and doable.
And what I especially appreciated is that it encourages readers to build lives that reflect who they really are, not just what society expects them to be.
I hope this was helpful 😊
⸻ 👉 To go further:
📘 Learn more about the book: https://puttylike.com
🎤 Watch Emilie Wapnick’s TED Talk: Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling
#Multipotentialite #SelfLimitingBeliefs #Coaching #CareerGrowth #HowToBeEverything #PersonalDevelopment #Mindset #EmilieWapnick #CoachingOutcomes #CareerClarity
