My Generation X was raised on a simple script: pick one subject, build one career, stay loyal, retire on time. My grandmother used to tell me to not worry about a thing but to find a job and money and love would follow. Ah, those were simpler days. Sadly, this no longer does it.
This is what we were told at school. It followed into work and imbued our sense of self. Many defined themselves as their work, image in society and good standing, etc. Yet so many of us never fit that pattern. And no matter how hard we tried, many of us and the newer generation don’t fit that utopic ideal. Instead, we had curiosity, which led to multiple interests and learned different skills. I’m probably a good ambassador of my generation. Still, many across generation today end up feeling out of place when our lives did not match the “one job, one ladder” model we’re feverishly sold in school. Much as many of you, our societies seem to favor the left-brain dominated relegating right-brain thinkers to other, less financially rewarding endeavors. It can sometimes feel lonely living in this part of the world.
At 60, I’m not looking at this as a personal failure. It is a mismatch between an industrial‑age story and a post‑industrial reality. Human beings are wholistic and not a single function on an assembly line. A wholistic human is someone whose curiosity, skills, and life roles are many, intersect, and evolve over time.
How we got trapped in one‑skill thinking
Industrial‑age economics needed and rewarded specialization. Factories showed that breaking work into narrow, repetitive tasks could multiply output, and mass schooling followed the same logic. Standard schedules, standard curricula, and standardized tests trained people to be punctual, obedient, and focused on one approved path. The chose a specialty logic is getting old and outdated. This also gave an opportunity for limited edition items and services that were hand crafted and built. But over the past decades, these have been overtaken with highly automated corporations marketing their wares as hand built and specially designed. Today’s it’s difficult to cut through the marketing filters to see what is quality and what is meant to be disposable.
That mindset shaped career advice. A “good” life use to mean picking one major, one profession, and staying there. Changing direction was treated as a risk. My father stayed with IBM for 35 years, a track record not often seen these days anymore. Sadly, having multiple interests was labeled a lack of focus. For generalist minds, this created a quiet pressure to compress themselves into a role that never matched their full reality.
The wholistic, multi‑skilled person
In recent years, language has emerged for people who never had “one true calling.” Words like multipotentialite, multi‑passionate, and generalist describe those whose curiosity spans multiple disciplines. Emilie Wapnick’s well‑known talk on “Why some of us don’t have one true calling” helped many realize that there was nothing wrong with them; they were simply wired to explore and combine multiple fields.
From a wholistic perspective, this is not a defect to be corrected. It was borne from an industrial need and was woven into our society’s education. But today, it’s finding reluctance, especially with those who feel there is something better. Fundamentally, it is an expression of how some nervous systems and personalities are built. A wholistic person does not separate “work self” from “real self” or see skills as isolated boxes. That’s why so many say their work don’t feel like work or that they’ll never retire. The same individual might bring together technical knowledge, care work, writing, systems thinking, and contemplative practice in one integrated life. And the best part of this is that these individuals are highly sought after seen as adaptable and multi-talented.
Why breadth has become an advantage
The problems facing societies today do not fit into neat boxes. Climate transition, advanced air mobility, (AAM), public health, urban design, and AI all cut across several disciplines. They demand people who can speak more than one professional language and see how pieces fit into larger systems.
Research and practice around polymathy and generalism suggest that broad, integrative thinkers are well placed to spot patterns, transfer ideas across fields, and adapt as conditions change. They may not be the world’s top specialist in one narrow niche, but they can coordinate specialists, translate between domains, and design solutions that take the human whole into account. In that sense, the multi‑skilled person is not “less than” a specialist; they are playing a different, equally necessary role. This is something I particularly resonate with. One of my many skills is that of a futurist. I can see how systems and objects can evolve as a part of our society, well before most can see that far. However, that skill is notoriously difficult to explain to employers, especially when negotiating salaries. How can we tell them we see your future and we’ll make you bundle when they focus on quarterly profits?
The hidden cost of the old story
Telling a multi‑skilled person that they must choose one lane and stay there has real psychological costs. In fact, personally, it’s the root of most of my education trauma, being stuck in one lane. Tried as I might, it was of no use. I couldn’t find one job and leave the rest to hobbies. It had to be integrated to give it my best.
For many, internalizing the idea of changing direction means failure. For others, enjoying several domains is a sign of immaturity and dispersion. When layoffs, health events, or industry shifts pull them out of traditional roles, they can end up feeling useless—even if they are learning more than ever and contributing in informal ways.
Wholistic life‑crafting research points in another direction. People report greater well‑being when they are allowed to shape their lives across domains: work, relationships, learning, creativity, and health. They do better when their values and interests are reflected in daily activities, rather than compressed into a single job title. For a generalist, trying to live as a narrow specialist often means chronic tension between outer expectations and inner reality.
Moving toward wholistic work
For someone who has not held a traditional job in several decades, the question is not “How do I go back to the old script?” The more useful question is “How do I recognize and organize the wholistic life I am already living?”
A practical starting point is to map intersections. Instead of listing skills in isolation, write down three to five domains you feel drawn to and have a passion for. From there, look for the intersections, where they overlap, even potentially. What I found is that I am able to explain complex systems and concepts in plain language. This helps others think more clearly and make better educated guesses. These intersections are often where wholistic value appears. You will see another side of yourself never taught in school and truly value your uniqueness
But before this happens, you need loosen the grip of the single‑employer ideal. Modern paid work can combine contract projects, teaching, writing, facilitation, mentoring, and small online ventures. For a wholistic person, a portfolio of roles may be more stable in practice than dependence on a single job in a volatile sector. The trick is to diversify income enough avoiding the all eggs in one basket theory.
A quiet shift in what “valuable” means
Culture is slowly catching up. Another way to view this is that the discomfort is become too great for people not to pay attention to something simple, what makes you happy? The random violence we are bombarded with every day on the news is a tell-tale sign that the foundations of our societies are no longer sustaining it. That’s also when leaders double-down instead of making the wiser choices.
Excerpt from the Tao Te King, Chatper 38:
The kind man does something,
yet something remains undone.
The just man does something,
and leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
and when no one responds
he rolls up his sleeves and uses force.
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.
Discussions of multipotentiality, generalism, and holistic wellness in workplaces are becoming more common. Decades ago, professionals shied away from talking about spirituality. I found that over the last 20 years there is such an opening to talk more freely about spirituality. I’ve had many fascinating conversations with engineers, founders, and CEOs about their spirituality. This partly led me to create The Wholistic Center. Many organizations now recognize that the people who see across silos—who understand both human and technical aspects of a problem—are essential to resilience.
A wholistic being, in this sense, is not someone who does everything at once. It is someone who allows their full range of interests and capacities to inform how they live, relate, and work. For those who grew up in the shadow of the industrial script, this can feel like a radical reframe. It is also a realistic one.
TheWholisticCenter.com exists partly to make this shift visible: to offer language, community, and examples for those who never fit the one‑skill mold, and who are ready to treat their multi‑skilled nature not as a flaw to hide but as a foundation for a more integrated life.
Related Wholistic Center Wisdom:
- Taoism’s Wu Wei – Effortless flow.
- Wordless Thinking – Pre-concept awareness.
- Shamanism Preview – Nature harmony.