The 21st century is a time when people have greater access to new things. Everyone is open, and information is presented, shared, and accessible more easily than ever before. We now have countless life choices. From merely working daily to earn money, we have time to engage in activities we believe help us grow or fulfill childhood dreams. These become hobbies that bring us joy or serve as refuge for another side of ourselves.
But what happens when happiness from doing various things gradually increases—from one to two, two to three? We may love learning languages but suddenly want to exercise, start drawing, travel, or try being a creator. Our interests aren’t limited to science; they spread across history, philosophy, and many unrelated fields.
Sometimes, when we switch to a second or third interest, we neglect the first, like dropping a ball from our hands. We feel overwhelmed and uncertain about which interest deserves our focus. Everything piles up beyond our control. We become people with multiple interests or multi-passionate, fascinated by many things at once.
Imagine waking one day with a chaotic plan. Today you’ll study English because it’s important for work, but then you feel Chinese is interesting too because you like Chinese culture and want to visit someday. In the afternoon you pick up the guitar, but thoughts intrude that piano is also appealing since you’ve wanted to play it for a long time. Yet you feel you should exercise because a running event is approaching.
The above describes the feeling of having diverse interests. If managed well, these can lead us to become multipotentiality orindividuals with multiple abilities.But if we fail to manage them, it will lead to burnout because we don’t know how to handle, start, or sustain our interests. So, how should we manage these interests?
Prioritize with a Hierarchy of Interests.
This sounds simple but is quite difficult to implement. When our interests are too many, we must rank them.According to what truly matters to us.The problem is how to know which is most important to ourselves.
This can be done by asking how what we do benefits us—for example, learning English might be more important than Chinese because it’s needed for work, so Chinese can be lowered in priority and studied on a basic level first. Or between guitar and piano, which better satisfies our passion? This requires decisiveness to determine what is just right or most suitable for us. If managing priorities daily is difficult, try managing weekly—Monday for language, Tuesday for music, etc. Or divide time by percentage based on preference: language study 80%, music 20%. For instance, language Monday to Thursday, music Friday to Sunday, depending on our interest level.Play music.Learn language.Music playing.Language learning.Play music.Language study.
Rotate activities.According to momentary feelings.
Isaac Asimov, a science fiction writer, wrote over 500 books by working on several simultaneously. When bored with one, he switched to another, completing his works around the same time. Similarly, with interests and hobbies, we don’t need to worry about doing something poorly. Just recognize when we’re bored with language study, switch to something else, and return later. This keeps our brain ready to learn and resets boredom to excitement.
Manage Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
In other words, embrace the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO)—finding happiness in missing trends. Constant fear of missing out, especially when overwhelmed with hobbies, prevents us from doing other things because we try to follow what others do. We must accept that diverse hobbies may slow progress and be patient and resilient toward others’ social media successes. To stop FOMO, appreciate and enjoy what we do fully without fearing missing trends is catastrophic.Fear of missing out.Fear of missing out.
Engage with communities sharing your interests.
This method helpsnurture our interestsand prevent them from fading by joining activities or discussions about what we do. The easiest way is to be in online groups discussingour interests.For example, if we like drawing, joining groups that share techniques or artworks can inspire us. Constant exposure to what we love reminds us of our interests or prompts us to question if we truly likethis.or not.
All this may sound difficult but isn’t impossible. Joel Uili, a philosopher from The Career Archetypes, also presented this in a video. He said don’t limit your freedom by thinking you must do only one thing forever; otherwise, you block yourself from exploring other life areas. Today’s society emphasizes mastery in one field, which can cause burnout. Having diverse interestsbuilds a lifethat fits us best and can even turn our passions into a unique career.
Ultimately, whether wefocus on one interestor several simultaneously, we should have clear goals because the key to sustainingour interestsis inspiration. If we have a clear vision of why we do something, we won’t question or doubt it. This reduces the discomfort of deciding what to prioritize. Most importantly, don’t pressure yourself excessively. Keep everything within reasonable limits. We cando many things and be interested in many things,but we don’t have to rush rapid progress immediately.
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