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“A polymath needs time available to play and fail.” – Patricia Parkinson

Today’s guest on the Art of Adventure podcast is an entrepreneur mentor, global nomad, and a polymath who believes that people naturally have lots of interests and they can specialize in more than one thing deeply.

Patricia Parkinson is a polymath, and she actually had it tattooed on her forearm! She says that polymaths specifically have this amazing ability to synthesize very complex information into simple concepts and communicate that in ways that bring people together to elaborate on that idea or concept.

She is a person who possesses knowledge in multiple fields and explores a variety of interests and forms of expression. She advocates on the idea that one does not need to narrow down and specialize in one thing because it’s not gonna hinder one’s career.

In this very interesting episode, she shares her high school experience as a journalist where she played a role in every field of the discipline. This gave her the profound appreciation of everything. It gave her a more intimate understanding of everyone’s work. She was also inspired by her grandmother, who was good in a lot of things. Here, she also introduces the Octopus Model approach of goal-setting.

What you will learn on this episode:

• What is a polymath?
• Advantage of polymaths over specialists
• Valuable contributions of polymaths
• Her careers as a polymath
• The Octopus Model of branding
• Example of bridging disciplines
• Sequential vs simultaneous goal-setting
• Concept of integration
• How to approach branding yourself
• How to use storytelling in different mediums
• Importance of plan and schedule
• How to invent or manage your own role

Quotes:

“I came to a point where I didn’t compromise what I was doing, I just needed a better way of communicating that to other people.” – Patricia Parkinson

“You teach what you need to learn.” – Patricia Parkinson

“It doesn’t mean that we are putting up lesser energy, we are doing less things. It’s just about being intentional on how we pursue our interests.” – Patricia Parkinson

“The more goals that you do, the more that you will be satisfied in a short period of time.” – Patricia Parkinson

“I try to set goals in a realistic timeframe.” – Patricia Parkinson

“The polarization of careers is more common than we credit.” – Patricia Parkinson

“It’s important to know when to learn something, and to unlearn something.” – Patricia Parkinson

“Human nature is intrinsically polymathic.” – Patricia Parkinson

“Doing less does not equal more focus.” – Patricia Parkinson

“It is totally okay to have a generalized approach to life.” – Patricia Parkinson

Continue the Adventure (Resources from this episode):

http://www.patriciaparkinson.com

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