Which Hobbies Matter to You?

How do you choose what to focus on when you want to do everything? How do you come to terms with giving up one interest in favor of others? How do you get to the point of understanding your purpose if you don’t have time to try everything?

I’ve been going through a bit of a struggle lately in deciding which hobby to focus on and make my “main” interest. I want to be seen as “the guy who does this exceptionally well”, but I don’t know what “this” could be. I do so much to try to fit that bill, but because I attempt to be good at a lot of activities, I’m never close to being a master at any of them. From piano to baking, writing to reading, cooking to coffee, I can never really pinpoint which I’m willing to sacrifice and which I’m willing to go 100% on.

I saw this video on managing multiple interests where the creator speaks on the importance of at least attempting different hobbies and recognizing your failures, recognizing where in the hierarchy of your interests you can place certain areas and which you can leave out. It’s a nightmare to manage everything you want to do without both losing focus and overfilling your plate, so much so that it can leave you tired and hopeless with the thought that you’ll never get anything done. I was comforted in that finally I knew someone who shared the same dilemma as myself, someone who understands what it means to want to be great at infinity but can only ever be good at it.

But I think it’s important to understanding that failing, or even lack of trying, IS getting something done, it IS that trial-and-error run of how I want to manage my time. The more disinterested in a hobby I am, the less motivated I am to participate and the lower on the hierarchy this hobby belongs. Does it take time to fully act and let it go? Yeah, I’m not denying that, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. At least I can say I do not feel like doing X today, just like I didn’t feel like doing X yesterday. In my case, I think it’s piano (or at least the lessons part of it). I enjoy hopping on and messing around on the piano, but I don’t think being proficient is something I want to focus on. It is difficult to have those “flow state” moments of creativity when they are muffled by the background noise of another interest. Maybe, then, giving up piano isn’t the answer? Maybe I should focus on that and achieve the flow state to really see if I want to give it up?

I don’t know. Thinking about it gives me a headache. I’m gonna make a coffee, at least I’ve been practicing my latte art when I can.

Thanks,

Alex.

Almond croissants I baked for a friend’s household mimosa brunch. Now, I love me a good almond croissant from the cafe, but I KILLED it with these homemade ones. It was part of my “you need to pick up baking again” revival, and honestly sparked something pretty cool where I have this feeling to bake again. I think next is pain au chocolate, or maybe a danish.