Hey, Multi-Hyphens — ‘Be the Noun You Want To Be, Not the Verb You Want To Do’

2 min readFeb 17, 2021

Podcast: Not Overthinking

Episode: Austin Kleon on Writing, Creativity and the Importance of Idleness

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This article is part of a series of podcast reviews called ‘The Podcast Bar’, on my site The Notion Bar.
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Austin Kleon is a New York Times bestseller and author of Show Your Work! (Un)ironically, this episode left me feeling so inspired, that here I am at 3am showing my work and kicking off ‘The Podcast Bar’!

Austin chats with Ali Abdaal (who wears many hats)… about wearing the wonders, trials and tribulations of wearing many hats. Too many of us want to pigeon-hole ourselves into being ‘one thing’, when in fact, we forget that we are all many things.

I was (and still am) obsessed with property/interior design shows
I sketched room designs for fun
I made magazines out of other magazines
I wanted to be an air hostess for the longest time

My favourite part of the episode is when Austin & Ali discuss not being the ‘noun’ you want to be, but the verb you want to do. In fact, a lot of the time, what makes us tick (what we want to ‘do’) is hidden in our childhood habits.

For example, with me, I was always creating beautiful ‘things’ and systems and loved exploring other cultures:

Low and behold, fast forward many years, and here I am creating beautiful ‘things and systems, while taking a deep dive into culture here at The Notion Bar.

Lesson learned? It’s not impossible to have your cake and eat it too — you just need to tune in and tap into your inner child.

Thanks for sticking with me — I can’t wait for you to dive in and start working on your Notion pages.

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Hey, Multi-Hyphens — ‘Be the Noun You Want To Be, Not the Verb You Want To Do’

Written by Frances Odera Matthews