Pockets: Find Meaning in Moments

007 Finding Identity in Multiple Disciplines

• Richmond Camero

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The question "what do you do?" creates an identity dilemma for those of us with diverse interests spanning analytical and creative pursuits. Rather than choosing between these seemingly opposing paths, I've discovered ways to embrace all facets of my multi-passionate nature while maintaining focus and purpose.

• Balancing creative and analytical tendencies
• Identifying historical polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci and José Rizal who excelled across multiple disciplines
• Managing multiple interests by categorizing them based on necessity, desire, and learning opportunities
• Implementing the "slow burn" productivity approach to gather ideas for various projects over time
• Creating a unified purpose statement that threads through all endeavors regardless of discipline.


Richmond:

Hi, you're listening to Pockets, a podcast about finding joy, meaning and purpose in life's simplest moments. I'm Richmond Camero. Let's dive into today's journey.

Richmond:

The question I find hard to answer is what do you do? Should I tell them about my current role in my day job? So I'd say I'm a QA team lead at Cambridge University Press and Assessment. I lead people, test software, write code and engage with the information technology community. Should I tell them about my passion for writing and creativity? In which case I'd answer I'm a writer of several stories and books in the science fiction, fantasy and crime and suspense genre. I write and perform poetry and I also do this podcast. Or should I tell them about other things that I'm exploring for myself or hobbies that I'm pursuing? So I'd answer I love to journal and read books. I collect stickers and found events. I study productivity, self-help and stoicism. I also practice sketching and drawing. With all of this, what do I do then? What is my identity?

Richmond:

A manifestation of this dichotomy was during my college application. In the application for the University of Santo Tomas, I had to choose what my major was and I had the option to select two. So my first choice was computer science and my second choice was literature. Yep, that's right. These are two unrelated courses that are from opposing sides of the spectrum. The idea of having interests from different sides was a consistent thought in my head. One time I brought this out into the light was during my TEDx talk a few years back. It was called Two Lives the Creative and Analytical Mind and it was my attempt to understand how would these two hemispheres of my life meld into one. The balance I would find is that whenever I would feel overwhelmed or I am bored in one side, the other side would be my escape, which works, by the way, in this way, I am still continually leaning into both of my tendencies. However, when I think about the details, it's not as easy as going back and forth. As I shared in the start of this episode, I have multiple interests, meaning, with the creative side, there are several more parts under that Same. For the analytical one, there are several sub-disciplines for my technical side that I want to explore. So what, then, is the solution for this? Would I need to drop my interests and be a master of one? Perhaps not exactly.

Richmond:

It starts with knowing myself and how I want to work. With knowing myself and how I want to work. I know I want some variation in what I do. A few examples I like that my desktop and phone wallpapers are rotating every 30 minutes, but I only have a certain set of wallpapers that I like. I like Muji pens, but I want to rotate between different colors. Even reading books. I'd like to read multiple books at a certain time and change between them depending on my circumstance. Same with work. I want something different or a certain amount of challenge in my day-to-day. This goes to show that I don't like monotony. Of course, I don't want things to be too random. I still like certain things, but I want some variation between those things I like.

Richmond:

If you look at some prominent people in history, they also engage in multiple disciplines. Leonardo da Vinci is known for his paintings. However, he also excelled in diverse fields, including sculpture, architecture, engineering and science. Even our national hero, Jose Rizel, practiced multiple disciplines, including ophthalmology, writing, painting and the sciences. I believe that, even though these disciplines are different from each other, some skills are transferable to the others.

Richmond:

For sure, there are some benefits in having different interests, but the question is how do I effectively manage them? One technique is identifying them based on priority. They can be something I need to do or something I want to do or something I'm still learning to do. For instance, let's look at my writing projects. I like to switch between writing projects as well. Something I need to do might look like the actual manuscript that I'm writing Outlining for the next book will fit in something that I want to do, and then something I'm still learning to do might be trying out a different genre that I haven't written. When I look at this as a whole, they contribute to my goal of being a writer, but they also offer variety.

Richmond:

The second principle is the idea of slow burn in terms of productivity. This is an idea I learned from Tiago Forte, the author of Building a Second Brain. Slow burn means slowly gathering ideas in the background and over time. It's building and collecting piece by piece so that when I'm ready to do the project, I already have the information I need. For me. This is especially helpful for the projects that I'm not confident with or are not yet clear to me. With a slow burn, I'm able to gather ideas for those different projects that I'm interested in.

Richmond:

Lastly is to find what's the common purpose and value that binds my different interests. Like what Simon Sinek said there is only one. Why there's no such thing as a personal or professional, why I remember one of the career workshops I attended last 2023. It required us to craft our purpose statement an encompassing purpose regardless of what we do. Encompassing purpose regardless of what we do. We identified what was important for us, our core values and what we can do to have impact to the world. This is my purpose statement.

Richmond:

I am a storyteller who offers a safe space for others to help them discover the richness in their lives, and this is true regardless of what discipline I engage in. Stories are an important part of who I am. In writing, I want to offer an escape to readers. In management and leadership, I want to help others write their own stories. In learning and philosophy, I want to understand the story of the very life we're in. My purpose statement keeps me grounded and it provides clarity in whatever discipline I engage in. Curiosity is one of my core values and it is the one thing that made me explore these different ventures yes, I did drop some of them along the way and it made me closer to who I want to be. May you continue to explore the different paths in front of you and may you find your bliss and be the person you are supposed to be. You've been with Pockets. Thank you so much for sharing this space with me. Now go embrace the moments, build your pockets of meaning and keep curiosity as you're guide.