Recently I was talking with a new client who – very much like me – has a wide variety of skills and interests. The problem was, she didn’t know which one to choose to pursue in her career.

This is common among people who Barbara Sher refers to as “Scanners” in her books “I Could Do Anything, If Only I Knew What It Was“, “What Do I Do When I Want To Do Everything” and “Refuse To Choose“.

Basically, a Scanner is someone who is interested in lots of different things and finds it difficult to choose a single occupation, because that means relinquishing all the other things they could be having fun doing!

“I hate being a Scanner,” my client said. “It’s so confusing”.

As a Scanner myself (although I don’t like labels, so I don’t tend to refer to myself as a Scanner!), I can understand her confusion. But the problem isn’t with my client – or with anyone who has multiple interests and a range of skills and talents.

The problem is that modern society has been built on the idea of people being “Experts” in one particular field – Barbara Sher refers to them as “Divers”. You get the picture – they dive in to one specific subject and learn all they can about it, until eventually they become a world authority on the topic.

There’s nothing wrong with that either. It suits some people – but it doesn’t suit Scanners.

The fallacy is that a Scanner is a “jack of all trades and master of none”. This simply isn’t true. Think of a Scanner as a “Renaissance Soul” a phrase often used by Nick Williams and Barbara Winter. At the top of the list you have Leonardo da Vinci, who was a sculptor, painter, engineer, scientist, … you name it!

Now, I realise that Leonardo da Vinci was also a genius – but the point is that during the Renaissance period, people who were multi-talented were revered (admittedly that wasn’t necessarily true for the women…). Can you imagine anyone calling Leonardo da Vinci a “jack of all trades”?!

The reason I love having a Portfolio Career is because I’ve always been good at picking up just enough knowledge about a particular topic to be able to apply it effectively – but then I would get bored and start looking for a new challenge!

So what’s the solution for the modern-day Renaissance Soul or Scanner?

Simply accept that not everyone can be satisfied with one career choice – or business choice. Work out what you enjoy doing, and find a way to build a Portfolio Career that encompasses enough of your interests to keep you challenged and happy.

There are enough people in the world, who have a Portfolio Career, for you to be able to find support, so you don’t need to feel left out in the cold when Divers give you funny looks and suggest that you really ought to settle down and work out, once and for all, what you’re going to do with your life!

Stand firm. We don’t all have to be the same. You just need to recognise that – whatever you choose to do – you are valuable, and there is a place for you somewhere in the world. You just need to find it!

To find out about the benefits of having a Portfolio Career, join Cherry Douglas, Karen Revell and myself on 21st-23rd February 2012, for our FREE Career Breakthrough Telesummit – a series of 3 teleclasses where we will help you to Kick Start Your Career Change, turn Passions Into Profits with a Portfolio Career, or make The Great Corporate Escape and start a business!