They don’t understand that the choices they’ve left behind could well have been good ones they’ve simply outgrown.

As soon as I took the Renaissance Soul quiz, I knew I was one. That made me happy the whole weekend. But when Monday morning rolled around and I was back at work, I went into a panic. How can I have any sort of economic security if I keep changing interests all the time? Deep down I think I really count on that regular paycheck, the promotions, and

Winston Churchill (1874–1965):

FIVE SIGNS THAT YOU MIGHT BE A RENAISSANCE SOUL The ability to become excited by many things at once, often accompanied by difficulty choosing A love of new challenges; once challenges are mastered, easily bored A fear of being trapped in the same career or activity for life A pattern of quick, sometimes unsatisfying flings with many hobbies A succ

This short list includes just a small number of the Renaissance Souls who have made a name for themselves throughout history:

you may have a long history of beating up on yourself when you dropped one passion for another. You may have fallen into the trap of thinking that your different choices must have been the wrong choices. This is usually far from the case. One of the best ways to dispel uncertainty is to clarify what you value.

Not everyone will understand your desire to move on to new challenges. You can always remind these people of Leonardo da Vinci. Nowadays, he’d probably be considered a failure because he left the The Last Supper unfinished, or because he was satisfied simply with having designed a helicopter instead of having his flying machine mocked up, market te

The Renaissance demanded a new kind of person, one well suited to the era’s invigorating atmosphere. This new ideal emerged in Italy from the writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), an architect and art theorist who stated boldly that “a man can do all things if he will.” Alberti dubbed this versatile, highly capable type of human Uoma Unive

Not every Renaissance Soul takes the concept of versatility quite as far as Ben Franklin did, though. Those people who are closer to the middle of the continuum often have a foot in both camps. Some, like my client Matt, may even have one foot on Mozart’s side of the line.