The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One (Hardcover)

by Margaret Lobenstine (Author)
Key Phrases: margaret lobenstine, momentum blocker, intention markers, Renaissance Souls, Focal Points, Ben Franklin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Some people just can't seem to settle down: they jump from career to career, from interest to interest; they chafe at being pinned down to one job or self-definition. This need for variety and love of finding new challenges, says career and life coach Lobenstine, can be a positive trait. Lobenstine's aim is to help such people find ways to pursue their varied interests without feeling overwhelmed. Her "focal point" strategy suggests picking a small number—usually four—of interests to pursue for now, interests that might be exchanged for others at a later time. And the author proposes various ways to integrate one's career into these focal points: if you're passionate about your work, it might be one focal point; for others it might be a way to pay the bills while they pursue other interests. One inexperienced older woman with a longstanding desire for a career in the art world found a clerical job at a museum, where she had access to curators and an opportunity to volunteer her graphic skills. Lobenstine has identified a situation rarely addressed by self-help books, and her advice is sensible, concrete and do-able.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
“Can’t decide which life or career path is right for you? Maybe you don’t have to! In The Renaissance Soul, Margaret Lobenstine offers inspiration, advice, and practical tips for people with more than one burning passion.”

—Laurence Boldt, author of Zen and the Art of Making a Living


“I’m so grateful this book has finally been written! I need, my clients need, the world needs this incredibly helpful, practical, life-changing guidebook for those of us with a multitude of passions and aptitudes.  Please, get this book into the hands of every person you know who is a Renaissance Soul.  You could change their lives!”
 
—Jennifer Louden, author of Comfort Secrets for Busy Women and other books in the bestselling Comfort Book series


“The Renaissance Soul will help highly innovative and creative people find ways to make their many dreams come true. I’ve already begun using its wonderful ideas and practices with clients.”
 
—M. J. Ryan, executive coach and author of The Happiness Makeover


“An intelligent and refreshingly innovative book that offers a multi-dimensional vision of vocation. It will help many on the road to creative career transformation.”
 
—E. H. Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work You Love and Alchemy of Abundance --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767920880
• ISBN-13: 978-0767920889
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,122 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, February 6, 2006

By	Janet Boyer "JanetBoyer.com" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Renaissance Souls love nothing better than to take on a new problem or situation and then dig into...until we master the challenge we've set for ourselves. And then, with fresh enthusiasm, we move on to another passion. We are lucky people who, if left to our own devices, are never bored for long." - Margaret Lobenstine

Do you resist confining yourself to just one hobby or career? Are bookstore and libraries candy stores to you? Do friends suggest that you become a contestant on game shows because you know "something about everything"? Are you capable of becoming passionately excited about a wide variety of subjects? Do you find yourself interrupting yourself, dropping one task to pick up another before it's done?

If any of these descriptions sound like you, then you're probably a Renaissance Soul. Unlike the Mozarts of the world who always knew what they wanted to do in life or enjoyed sticking to one discipline, Renaissance Souls are the Ben Franklins of the world. That is, we have many concurrent interests and the idea of settling on "just one" (or even two) makes us nervous and nauseous.

Most of the world operates on the idea that "settling on a career" or "getting focused" by steadily climbing the corporate ladder over decades is the "right"-and secure-way to live. However, for a Renaissance Soul to attempt to squeeze in such a confining mindset is almost like a living death.

Despite a long, proud history of inventiveness and cultural influence among the ranks of Renaissance Souls, parents, teachers, and the social climate at large insist that we are somehow defective. This often leaves us feeling discouraged, frustrated, and confused. Why are we like this? Why can't we be "normal", and limit our passions, hobbies, and career endeavors to "just one"?

Fortunately for us, author and life-coach Margaret Lobenstine has written a book especially for Renaissance Souls, offering encouragement, validation, and practical tools for living a fulfilling, joyful life. The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One is an incredible resource that explains the difference between choice and focus, shows how to thrive on many interests without feeling scattered, and equips individuals with powerful life-design strategies.

Lobenstine also illustrates how Renaissance Souls can transform a day job so that it carries dreams forward, learn a new field without going back to school, and get paid for your passions. However, even if money isn't your goal and you just want to be able to explore, engage, and enjoy your multitude of interests, the author provides wonderful exercises for getting the most out of your pursuits.

The section called The Ice-Cream Sampler alone is worth the price of the book! Lobenstine-also a Renaissance Soul-can sympathize with the dilemma that "choosing has often meant losing". However, she helps her fellow Renaissance Souls learn an invaluable tool called Focal Point Strategy. By using the analogy of sampling dozens of ice cream flavors "four flavors at a time", the author demonstrates the mechanics and benefits of focusing your interests. Focusing, she asserts, brings more, not less, to a world of possibilities-offering variety with clarity and concentration. She writes:

"I can't emphasize enough what a powerful difference it makes in a Renaissance Soul's life to feel free to focus on three or four or five things for now, and let others wait until later. We simply can't juggle dozens of interests at once. And yet, there is a kind of abundance that flows from establishing a tighter focus."

As one who has had many interests throughout life-some of which I've explored in depth for years-I'm all too familiar with having *so* many interests, that paralysis sets in when trying to decide what to do next. I've been a minister, a teacher, a counselor, an interior decorator, a credit solicitor, a webmaster, and free-lance writer. I'm a stay at home Mom who home schools, am a professional Tarot reader, and pursue many intellectual and spiritual interests on the side. I was surprised and comforted to learn that there are many people out there like me and we have a name: Renaissance Souls.

Another invaluable tool from the book is the "Five from Fifty" exercise where you decide your five main values right now. According to Lobenstine:

"People who aren't fully committed to the values that their activities represent sputter through life, pulled in one direction by their commitments and in another by their spirits."

Not only does she show Renaissance Souls how to choose their five most important values, but she also demonstrates how to run activities through the filter of "Whose values are these? Mine or someone else's?"

One of my personal study projects, lasting years, has been personality systems. One of these systems-the Enneagram-demonizes Type 7's for not focusing, claiming that we have a multitude of interests because we're trying to run from or hide extreme emotional pain. Hogwash! I bought that silly lie for several years and finally realized it just isn't true. A Type 7's salvation isn't being like a Type 5, hunkering down and choosing "just one" focus to exhaust ad infinitum until we transform ourselves into a boring, single-minded geek.

I came across The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One quite by accident while in large chain bookstore. In fact, I was on my way out of the bathroom-heading towards the coffee counter before leaving-when I saw this book on a display. After I read the dust jacket, I KNEW this was a book written for people just like me...and bought it immediately.

While the entire book is a gold mine for Renaissance Souls, the Focal Point Strategy has been invaluable for me. I now realize that I can pursue all my interests-just not all at once. This strategy has freed up amazing amounts of time and energy, helping me to get the most out of what I've chosen to do and curing me of "analysis paralysis". If you're a Renaissance Soul or a Type 7 in the Enneagram, this book is an incredible resource for staying on track, sucking the marrow out of life (and your interests), using your unique personality to your advantage, and celebrating the spirit of the Renaissance Soul.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Follow Your Blisses, February 14, 2006

By	G. Bestick (Dobbs Ferry, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Are you one of those people with a large and shifting set of interests? Never quite took to heart those well-meaning admonitions to settle down and focus on one thing? Now you can shuck the dilettante label and become, in Margaret Lobenstine's inspired phrase, a Renaissance Soul.

She's written a terrific book, practical, useful, easy to read. It identifies and serves people who refuse to be slotted by what they do to pick up a paycheck. After reassuring us that it's not aberrant or self-destructive to be among the multi-focused, Lobenstine shows us how to hone our many interests into four or so major Focal Points. But which four? you ask. Use the Ice Cream Sampler exercise to get past the fear of making forever commitments or the overwhelmed feeling that you have too many options. Once you've identified your Focal Point pursuits, Lobenstine shows you how to link up with people who can help you move forward. She's especially good on turning your day job from a soul-numbing slog into a springboard to advance your interests, and on networking your way to the knowledge you need to pursue your passions.

The book lays out proven techniques for organizing your time and juggling multiple interests. I particularly liked the reverse flowchart, which disassembles potentially overwhelming goals - starting an import/export business, for example - into smaller, actionable steps. The chapter devoted to younger Renaissance Souls contains useful ideas on managing college course loads and breaking into the work world. The final chapters include a sensitive look at psychological obstacles that can slow us up, and strategies for climbing over these self-created walls.

Margaret Lobenstine is the new patron saint of those whose life jounney compels them to wander down many different paths.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful and encouraging, May 11, 2006

By	P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

After years of being neglected by all the "Find Your True Work"-oriented books, courses, and career counselors, we "Renaissance souls" now seem to have an embarrassment of riches. I read this book and Barbara Sher's "Refuse to Choose" in succession. Both are well worth reading, and, while I prefer Sher's book for several reasons, I strongly urge anyone who recognizes themselves as a "Renaissance soul" to read both books.

Lobenstine has had a typical "Renaissance soul" career herself, as well as working with many others, so she's able to recount many encouraging and helpful anecdotes. For those of us who have grown frustrated with the "follow your passion" approach to career planning because we can't pin ourselves down to only one passion, it's great to know that we're not alone. And as her title implies, throughout much of human history, having multiple interests was considered an asset rather than a sign of "immaturity" or "inability to focus."

Her exercises (especially the "values" one) are very useful for self-understanding. She offers good advice about how to use your various skills and interests in the work world -- by finding (or creating) an "umbrella" job that covers a range of interests, or by being a serial monogamist in several fields, or by taking a J.O.B. that enables you to further your passions without locking you into an uncongenial career path. Finally, she provides a helpful reading list (although, having read many of the books on it, I've learned that most of them promote a "follow your bliss" viewpoint that assumes that everyone has a single passion in life).

I have some quibbles:
1. Lobenstine seems to feel that all "Renaissance souls" are fundamentally alike, so they'll all find the same type(s) of job congenial. (Sher does better with this.)
2. Expecting your family to support your unconventional approach to jobs may or may not work, depending on your family. (My parents adhered to the Depression-era ethic of Never Quit a Good Job, Even If It's Destroying Your Soul -- which, by the way, literally killed my father -- so for me to expect their support would have been an exercise in frustration.)
3. The "reverse flow chart" approach was, as far as I'm aware, first laid out by Barbar Sher in *Wishcraft* in the 1980's. While Lobenstine mentions the book, she doesn't credit Sher specifically for this exercise. It's probably an innocent oversight, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.