I’ve finally worked out what this newsletter is for.
Like a lot of multipotentialites (definition incoming; don't panic), I’ve spent years juggling too many projects and too many identities.
Writing here, releasing music there, coaching and advising somewhere else. Each thing has its own audience, its own overhead. Not everyone wants all of it and sometimes, often times, I wonder if anyone needs the whole damn Adam.
But I’ve realised the common thread isn’t the form, it’s the intention. And here's mine: I create films, music, and writing that help people build multipotential lives and organisations.
That's going to need a little explaining.
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For a long time I thought not following one path meant I was failing. The world tends to reward the specialist, not the restless. But having many interests isn’t a flaw, it’s the work itself. A multipotential approach - holding more than one role at once, shifting perspective, crossing wires that usually stay separate - is not indecision, it’s a method.
And in a complex world, it’s the only way I’ve found to do valuable work.
The same applies to organisations. Monocultures look efficient until the weather changes, and then they collapse. The groups that thrive are the ones with range (as David Epstein would say), the ones that can move from funder to convener to incubator without losing their centre of gravity. They learn quickly, unlearn faster, and stay useful in more ways than one.
Of course, multipotential lives and organisations are never tidy. They’re workshops: cluttered tables, half-finished drafts, experiments abandoned mid-way. But that’s not weakness, I've learnt. It’s movement. Growth lives in the messy middle.
But I also believe that process only matters if it lands. A coaching session must bring clarity. A framework has to help a decision get made. A video should offer permission and entertainment. A piece of music ought to slow the world for a moment, to place itself outside of time.
Different forms, then, but the same intention: to make imagination usable.
The risk, always, is spreading too thin. Too many half-lives, not enough coherence. My task is to stitch the roles and projects into a pattern that holds. Not neat, not final, but liveable.
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And that’s what I want this newsletter to do. To put the films, the writing, the music, the frameworks in one place, with some context for how they connect and what they add up to.
My hope is that you’ll find something useful each month - a tool, an idea, a permission slip - that makes complexity feel less like a burden and more like a resource.
And with that said, here's what I've been working on recently.
- My new YouTube film, "Why we glimmerscroll." is out. It looks at the compulsive habit of chasing tiny signals of approval, and why we stay overwhelmed even when life looks balanced on the surface, even when we've built the seemingly "perfect" life.
- I launched a new season of my professional newsletter, Theory of Change. The Anti-Pattern Editions is a 12-part series pulling apart tired frameworks, habits, and management rituals, and rebuilding them into tools that actually work in complex, purpose-led settings. If you're a leader, funder, creator, or entrepreneur navigating underfunded, human-centred work, I think you might find it helpful.
- Most mission and vision statements are too long, too vague, or too full of jargon to be useful. Yet when you get them right, they become a compass for your team, a magnet for funders, and a story your community can believe in. So I created Future Perfect, a simple method for rewriting mission and vision statements so they’re clear, human and fit for purpose. This free 15-page playbook helps you apply it to any project.
- I've also been taking lots of photos as the season changes here in the Sauerland...
- Finally, I've been working on new music. Nothing to share yet over at Preslav Literary School, but I've a new studio set-up and I'm enjoying spending time with it. I expect an album will be forthcoming before the end of the year.
So that's it. Expect a similar letter like this next month, and the months after.
If that's not what you signed up for, please feel free to unsubscribe without recrimination. If you think someone else would be into this, do share it.
Finally, if you find any of the work I do valuable, you can tip me here. Every bit of support gives me more space to write, film, and make music - and to keep sharing it freely.
Here's to moving with the weather, not against it.
Adam
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