I feel like finishing that sentence should be easy by now, considering we’re meant to ‘know’ what we want to do with our lives around the age of 18.
But for me, it’s increasingly difficult, mostly because I have SO many interests and kind of want to do them all. A blogger, an interior decorator, a business owner, a chef, a pianist (lol). Is there enough time in one lifetime to do it all?
Probably not
The issue with this is that because my interests are so broad and unrelated, I find focusing on one thing almost impossible. I dip in and out and spread my time (quite poorly) across them all. Ultimately, not really fully immersing myself in whatever it is that I’m doing for an extended period.
It’s not until recently that I realised that the urge to explore many different interests and career paths is actually quite common and- dare I say it- somewhat normal.
Elizabeth Filips spoke quite quite eloquently about this in a recent youtube video, where, similarly, she talks about not having one true “passion” and feeling quite indecisive and torn between various interests.
All around social media, there are numerous examples of people who turn various passions and interests into part of their portfolio career (not that all hobbies or interests need to be monetised!). It’s now not unusual to come across someone like Tara Swart whose website boasts many achievements. Tara, who is a multilingual neuroscientist, author, lecturer, podcaster and -randomly- a songwriter seems to be the epitome of someone who perhaps doesn’t have one true passion. Or perhaps she’s just someone who is trying to make the most of what is ultimately quite a short existence.
The idea of having just one passion which we totally dedicate our lives and careers into is totally romanticised and often force-fed to us via school and the media. We’re simply told to choose what we want to do in the future; the option to do multiple things as an adult is seemingly non-existent.
For me, the concept of a single career for 30+ years is like perfecting and eating the same meal everyday until you have to switch to a ‘soft diet’.
Twenty to a hundred 