BE A MULTIDREAMER -PART 1

WHY NOT?

I have multiple dreams. I have always been a multi dreamer. When I write this term, spellcheck asks me to correct it or ignore the correction suggestion. Why? Because no one ever appreciated the idea of Multi dreaming. This term was never used. I use this term because I strongly believe in it. Dreams are phenomenal, dreams are infinite, follow dreams, not limit them.

When we were young and were striving hard to identify what we really want to do with ourselves, we were given this one guidance on every step, “Chose one stream and focus all your energies on it, chose wisely, chose smartly, but chose”. Whenever we came up with a plan A1 or A2, which we want to pursue along with the plan A, we were discouraged and were always asked to focus on plan A. We were always discouraged to pursue multiple things and were always told to choose and focus on one thing that you are really good at. But did we really know as kids, what are we good at? Weren’t we always confused?

When we finally chose and pursue that chosen path, after along terrain of manipulations, compromises, and adjustments, we are asked to choose a job. A job which we have to stick to, all our lives and have to literally pull out the moments and bits of the pleasure of it. We try to derive those tiny moments of “make me happy” from “I got to do it”. We keep that preset notion of “non-indulgence into multiple activities” in our mind and always keep only that one “chosen” thing as a lifelong priority, sacrificing and ignoring everything else that we wanted to do or probably we were really good at. But who knows? we never really got the chance to try them or pursue them. I mean, just tell me, how many of you, still play guitar in a band while working full time, how many of you still participate in tennis tournaments on weekends as a must. How many of you still go to that classical dance class you started when you were in college. And if few of us do so, we start saying/listening to things like, “Hats off to you man, how do you manage”? “Wow, that’s great, you have too much time at your leisure”. As if it’s something out of the world and not supposed to be done normally, by an average human being.

When I was in school, I liked science a lot. I studied science and was the topper of zoology too, but then I lost interest and did MBA instead. No, nobody forced me, I did it because I wanted to. I know many such people who are into medical just because they didn’t have the courage to say, that they have now lost interest and now they want to do something else. So it’s like, your subject of choice has to glue with you as your career choice too, all your life. During MBA only, Recruitment happened to me and I took it as my career, soon, I ventured into Violet. My first venture in 2008. It started as a recruiting agency only, and then steadily grew into a training company and then a consulting company and now a social media branding company too. But is that all? No.

When I was a kid, I loved writing and reading. I was good at it too, I had written many short stories and scripts for school and college plays. I am sure most of us were part of one or the other cultural committee in school and college. Wasn’t that really what we wanted to do? But couldn’t pursue it because we were always told to draw a line between passion and profession. A hobby has to be different from a career choice. So, four years back I started working on my book, a narrative nonfiction, another dream project, it’s still a work in progress and I aim to get it published this year. But is that all? No.

I discovered blogging in 2008 and started blogging about recruitment. Actually, I bought four different domains as I was not sure what to blog about. Because you know what, it’s okay to not be sure. I still have those domains registered, but I started my blog about recruitment. I still work on that. It’s doing well. It’s called Recruitmentgyan. But is that all? No

 I recently discovered podcasting too. I found it really interesting. I wanted to do it, so I did. In January this year 2018, I released the first episode of my 25 episode mega series. The rest of the episodes will follow soon. This is my other dream project. But is that all? No

In December last year, after contemplating for a year, I ventured into MUMYU. An ergonomic start-up business, based in Himachal Pradesh. The first of its kind. My second venture after VIOLET. A Made in India brand for maternity wear, nursing wear and infant wear, co-designed and manufactured by mothers of Himachal Pradesh. For women, by women, with love. I always practiced women empowerment and considered this as my dream project to add value to society, so clubbing it with my business acumen seemed like the best thing to do. But is that all? No.

I strongly feel for child sexual abuse too. I support this cause. So I started “ASAP Dialogue” in 2015, It’s an awareness program for kids and parents, to bust all the myths around child sexual abuse and to discuss this openly through dialogue. But is that all? No

I am learning how to ride a bike this year and also learning how to play the violin. Every day, I keep on discovering something new in my cooking skills. I love knitting and would explore stitching too one day. I never skip reading and want to actually have my own library and working towards it. But is that all? NO

Yes, I know, what you are thinking. Why can’t you just stick to one thing? Why can’t you just focus on what you are doing? There is no point doing so many things at once. Why you have to spread yourself in so many directions altogether at once? You will end up being the jack of all traits and master of none. I say

WHY NOT?

Who wants to be the master anyway? I want to learn, explore and live. Nobody is master of anything today. This is a world of disruption. You can observe it and flow with it but you can’t master it because it’s ever-changing. All you can do is learn and explore.

If I can, if you can, then why not? Why not continue to pursue different things at once. Why not excel in everything we do? Why to just choose one?

I shall talk more about Multi dreaming in the upcoming articles. I will present more facts and examples and will try to uproot some myths and notions around multiple dream projects. Stay tuned.

PS: My twitter bio says, I am a MultiDreamer. Follow me on twitter here.