How (not) to kill your multiple passions
How I keep my passion for many hobbies without stressing out.
Hey there!
I had another article to post this week. But, I couldn’t because this happened:
It was 2 am, and I couldn’t sleep.
I came across an article that caught my eye.
It’s about polymaths so I took a peek.
Thoughts flooded my mind and made me sigh.
Hence, I started writing on a blank sheet.
Not sure what I was going for there. But, yeah, this is the article that I wrote that night.
First, I’d like to thank
for sharing more words I could use instead of “Multipotentialite” (Thank you, Jenn. That word was like a tongue twister).From now on, will start using the words, “Polymath” and “Multi-passionate” to refer to folks with multiple interests.
The other day, I came across this article on Google titled “You're Not "Multi-Passionate," You Just Have a Procrastination Problem” from a website called “Entrepreneur“.
As you may have guessed, this immediately caught my eye since I’ve already written about the struggles of being multi-passionate and having a lot of hobbies.
So, I clicked on it to read and see what it was actually trying to say.
Here are a of the few things I understood from that article:
(I did not copy-paste this. Just wrote what I understood using my own words)
Having multiple passions will start weighing you down. And you will have trouble with committing yourself to improving.
You’re like a squirrel trying to hold more things than you can keep.
You would be spinning around in one place instead of moving forward.
You have to list the things you are passionate about and rate them on a scale between 1 to 10.
And that you need to feel genuine excitement if you're truly passionate about the things on the list. And pick only those and focus on them.
These are all completely true. That article is full of helpful advice for multi-passionate people like me.
But, it lost me when it said:
“Saying you're multi-passionate is really just a procrastination excuse — an excuse that keeps you from fully committing and moving forward.”
Just that phrase is the one I disagree with. (Other than that, it’s a good article. I recommend reading it).
Multi-passionate people indeed leave a lot of unfinished work and they should commit to completing them if they want to move forward and achieve bigger goals.
But, that is not a good way to phrase that. The struggle most multi-passionate people experience is that they can’t choose between their hobbies and enjoy them all equally.
The word “Passionate“ is not being thrown around for nothing. The feeling of passion appears and disappears at times and it can be super-difficult to narrow down our interests to fewer things. Hoarding hobbies is our nature.
In my previous post titled, “When you have way too many hobbies” I said that developing one skill that ties all our other hobbies is important if we have a lot of them.
Like, starting a blog where you write about your multiple hobbies or starting a YouTube channel like this successful YouTuber, Mike Shake who has multiple interests and 3.67 million subscribers (wow), so you will have the potential to turn your multiple passions into a sustainable job or a side hustle.
But, as many people say, I don’t think we have to cut ties with our hobbies to focus on a few of them.
If you're passionate about multiple things, you are multi-passionate. That's it. If you procrastinate a lot, you have a procrastination problem. It's not one thing or the other. It could be both, or it could be none.
But, saying you are “multi-passionate” does not necessarily mean you're a procrastinator.
There are a lot of multi-passionate people who don't procrastinate and achieve their biggest goals. How do they do that? Why can't we do the same? What's the difference between them and us?
It all comes down to your habits and hobby management skills. Practice the skill of managing and making time for your top-priority hobbies or skills.
Giving priority to some skills / hobbies is important. But, forcing yourself to do something while you’re not really in the mood, will just kill your passion for it. (Note: tasks like household chores don’t need passion. That’s where discipline comes in).
For example, If you choose your writing hobby to give priority. And if you also enjoy drawing; listening to that advice will make you step away from writing because it kind of stops you from enjoying your other passion- art.
It goes like this:
“It would be nice to draw this photo”
“But, I chose to give Importance to writing… “
“I should stick with my decision, and keep writing“
Then you force yourself to think about writing even more which actually kills your passion for writing. And now you’re slowly disintegrating and turning into a wooden doll with no passion or soul.
Yeah… As someone who’s afraid of killing my passion for art and writing, I would not do that.
Here are a few tips to help you keep your multiple passions alive:
Don’t waste your energy trying to cull your hobbies. Keep them on the waiting list instead. You will eventually grow apart from the hobby when you lose interest in it.
Don’t think, “I have to remove this hobby from my whole life” when it’s something you enjoy.
If you have chores to do, do them first and then indulge in your hobbies while blasting your favorite music.
Make sure you're not thinking “Oh, no… I have more important things to do…'' while you're spending time on your hobbies. You're not really enjoying your hobbies if you do that. Do the important thing first and then sit and enjoy your hobby without the mental burden.
Write a to-do list when you feel like you have too much on your plate. And don't forget to tick or strike out the contents of your list. That’s important because you get a sense of accomplishment and some motivation when you do that.
If you have drawing supplies, and some free time, and you’re in the mood to draw, just draw.
Keep it simple. Don't make things too complicated. Planning your day ahead is important but, try not to overthink everything and drain your energy the first thing in the morning.
Do what works for you. There’s no doubt that the internet is filled with workaholic advice and can easily make you feel like you’re not doing enough. So take every internet advice with a grain of salt. (Including mine).
Going at your own pace and choosing the things that work for you is better than getting stuck in the overwhelming “No matter how hard I work, it’s not enough” mindset.
Personal growth, self-improvement, and “I should put in more effort if I don’t want to fall behind“ are things I constantly think about.
It’s almost like a paradox because I love slow but meaningful journeys rather than stressing myself by trying to get ahead of others.
Before you go, check out a few posts that I enjoyed reading this week:
That’s it for today. If you liked this post, you can let me know by leaving a quick like, comment, or share this letter with others.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope it was helpful. Come again next week on Friday for a ✨new post✨
- Harshini
I am a multi-passionate and I can feel what you talk about. Sometimes it is really hard for me. I feel like I'm missing out on other passions. So I started focusing on the writing, which I love so much. I indulge in other passions like art, as a reward once every week. Working good for me, till now.
On every Uber ride I take, I always talk to the driver and listen to their stories.
Surprise surprise, even the not talkative ones eventually warm up (I'm good at poking people) and talk about a myriad of topics. And then there's this one or two HUGE passions they have.
I believe the future is bright for those of us who accept how multifaceted we can be. It has worked wonders in my professional life, but the tricky part is to glue it all together and give it a good direction.
Life without passions (and obsessions) is not life.