(def): Anything with many different parts or aspects.

So many of the good things we learn in childhood are often quashed in us as we grow into adults. Childhood is the time for dreams, the time when anything seems possible and few people, if any, have the heart to tell you that your dreams do not measure up to reality. And then you grow up.

I went on countless adventures as a child. Some were facilitated by the adults in my life to real-life destinations; others were lands I visited in my imagination. I wanted to sing, to be an architect, a journalist, and even a Scottish dancer. I excelled in a few of these. I enjoyed math, spent hours poring over geography books, and loved languages. I was multidimensional.

In my preteen years, the inevitable questions about what I wanted to be when I grew up started pouring in. The message given was that I should focus on a single moneymaking endeavor and stick with it forever. There was only a teeny bit of consideration for what I actually enjoyed, which was eventually deemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

As life would have it, I got a glimpse of my future when I was in my early twenties and saw myself rich, but unhappy while pursuing that single moneymaking endeavor. So I chose a different path. I decided for multiple moneymaking endeavors and the freedom to explore the many other different things that interest me. It has been quite the ride.

You see, I’m convinced that we aren’t all meant to be one-dimensional, finding that one career and sticking to it for life. We are much more complex; no different from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, who was famously a mathematician, an inventor, a writer, scientist, botanist, musician, and a painter, among other things. Or Hildegard von Bingen, who was a German Benedictine abbess, a visionary, composer, scientist, playwright, and much more.

I discover new interests every year and try to make room in my life for them. I don’t have to make a living from them; I pursue them because I enjoy them. A life enjoyed is more meaningful than a life tolerated. Allow yourself to expand your dimensions in new ways this year. I dare you.