How to Be Everything Quotes

“Multipotentialites tend to struggle with three main areas: work, productivity, and self-esteem.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“It was not only okay to be my weird self, leading with my uniqueness might actually be the key to my success.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“The truth is that you aren’t lacking a destiny or purpose. There is a very good reason for your insatiable curiosity: you’re someone who’s going to shake things up, create something novel, solve complex, multidimensional problems, make people’s lives better in your own unique way. Whatever your destinies are, you can’t step into them while stifling your multipotentiality. You must embrace it and use it.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Multipotentialites often invite too much variety into our lives by overbooking ourselves. We have an intense desire to learn and experience new things.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“The more you allow yourself to explore, draw connections between different ideas, dream up big projects, and collaborate with others, the stronger your superpowers will become. You might even discover that you have a few more!”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“What would your life be like if you gave yourself permission to be everything you wanted to be?”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“When you’re picking a project to pursue, try not to think of it as some massive commitment. Can you think of it as an exploration, as something you’re trying out? Approach your interests with a sense of curiosity and wonder, and remember to have fun!”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“This book is for the people who don't want to pick a single focus and abandon all their other interests. It's for the curious, or those who find delight in learning new things, creating and morphing between identities.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“There is no single way to be a multipotentialite.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“you don't need to justify your choices to anyone. What would your life be like if you gave yourself permission to be everything you wanted to be?”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Multipotentialites don't quit when something becomes too hard; we quit because something becomes too easy.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“You are not what you do. Changes don't have to shatter your sense of identity.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Waiting for the inspiration to hit is often just resistance in disguise.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Your career should be aligned with your overall goals. Your work should feel like an integrated and supportive force in your life, not the kind-of-awful-thing-you-have-to-do-to-pay-the-bills.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“bored, frustrated, and upset that we aren’t able to express the breadth of who we are. With too much variety, we become overwhelmed and frustrated because we aren’t making as much progress as we would like.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“They had all designed lives that provided them with three common elements: money, meaning, and variety—in the amounts that were right for them.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“Sometimes you just need to find your people.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Specialists and generalists are both valuable and necessary; it just depends on the context.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“As Jake the Dog from Adventure Time says: "Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“As the saying goes, try not to compare your insides to other people's outsides.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates—and even enjoys—recalibrating careers, business models and assumptions.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“A specialized life is portrayed as the only path to success, and it’s highly romanticized in our culture. We’ve”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up

“You don't have to choose one thing.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Assuming that the tendency to pivot between disciplines was unique to me, I felt totally alone. My peers certainly didn't have everything figured out, but they all seemed to be on a linear trajectory toward something. My path, on the other hand, was just a mess of zigzags: music, art, web design, filmmaking, law...”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“When you're picking a project to pursue, try not to think of it as some massive commitment. Can you think of it as an exploration, as something you're trying out? Approach your interest with a sense of curiosity and wonder, and remember to have fun!”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“The best you can do is listen to your heart and be brave.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“When you persue an interest, think of it as an exploration rather than a binding contract.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Some multipotentialites like to create a regular schedule to use every day. One fun way to do this is to use Barbara Sher's "School Day Life Design Model." In this model, you structure your day the way a student might, going to different classes at different times - only each "class" is a different project. For example:

9 A.M.-11 A.M.: Writing YA novel

11 A.M.-3 P.M.: Building consulting business

3 P.M.-3:40 P.M.: Tinkering time

Evenings: Learning Japanese

Feel free to play with the length of your "periods," as well as the number of projects you include in your schedule. Finally! A school schedule that is totally on your terms.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything

“Being effective matters more than being the best.”
― Emilie Wapnick, How to Be Everything