For Those Who Have Many Passions
I have always been someone with too many interests. For the past few years, I’ve struggled with a profound sense of overwhelm, feeling lost in the sheer volume of things I want to create and the roles I want to inhabit. When we search for our "purpose," what we are really asking is: Who am I? Why am I here?
As children, we are allowed to be everything. We play at being doctors, police officers, or chefs without judgment. But as we grow up, society tells us that this curiosity is no longer allowed. We are told to pick a lane, to specialize, and to "prioritize." While I understand the need for focus, I refuse to kill the childlike fire that thrives on diversity. To me, that movement and change are how we evolve as humans.
Yet, I’ve had to face the darker side of this multiplicity. After graduating as an actress—a profession that is, by nature, about inhabiting different lives—I found myself in Germany, teaching German, editing videos, and making podcasts. I felt fragmented. I was haunted by the idea that if your social media bio lists too many titles—actor, director, writer—you are likely none of those things, or perhaps you do them all terribly. Living in a new country, away from my family, I realized I was using my "busyness" as a survival mechanism to fill an inner emptiness. I was saying "yes" to everything because I was afraid of being nothing.
The epiphany that saved me didn't come from finding a new job, but from a shift in perspective: I am the one connecting all of this.
And this is something I listened from Lela Brandao in her episode “Epifania" in her podcast “Gostosas Também Choram” in 2023.
I realized that my purpose isn't tied to a specific title; it’s tied to my intention. If I write a book, my purpose is there. If I delete my YouTube channel and go for a walk while imagining a film, my purpose is still there.
This realization led me to view my life through the lens of a director. I recently attended a workshop where I learned that a director doesn’t always know every detail of the journey, but they know the intention. They know the "why." Being the director of your own life means having the authority to point your finger in a direction and say, "We are going this way." It means understanding that you can pause, you can change, and you can even give up on something if it no longer serves your core purpose.
We live in a world with no guarantees. Professions appear and disappear; we move, we fall in love, we lose things. Stability doesn't come from the job itself; it comes from the confidence of knowing who you are behind the titles. My diversity is not my weakness; it is my uniqueness.
I’ve learned to sit with the "empty space" inside me rather than trying to fill it with frantic productivity. I don't have all the answers, and I don't think any of us do. But as long as I have a direction and a spark of intention, I am no longer fragmented. I am simply a person living many lives within a single lifetime, and that is more than enough.
Listen or watch my podcasts about this idea of having multiple passions, being diverse and plural:
