You have a bunch of different projects on the go. They’re all pulling for your attention at the same time, and you can’t seem to finish any of them. When you do get a little free time to work on something, you can’t decide where to focus… And you make very little progress.
My friend, if this sounds familiar, then it’s time to take it easy on yourself and embrace the chaos of being a multi-passionate creative!
Let’s talk about it.
This post is part of my series Confessions of a Serial Hobbyist, where I explore and embrace what it means to be a multi-passionate creative. This is also where I share my hobbies outside of writing.
Continue exploring the series:
Common struggles when you have many interests
It’s interesting (and kind-of awesome) that just a year ago I was struggling to maintain any consistent time and space for creative projects at all. That was partly why I started the blog: working on a project that was meaningful and public-facing raised the stakes and motivated me to keep showing up and exercising my creativity outside of my day job.
Now I’ve got what often feels like too many hobbies to pursue, and that comes with its own unique struggles.
The first is the perfectionism trap. If you find yourself wondering, Why can’t I pick one thing and be really good at it!? It may very well be perfectionism coming through.
The second is the sheer overwhelm that comes with having a limited amount of time to devote to creative stuff, and so many things to choose from. (Not to mention the plethora of unfinished projects you have lying around).
Why can’t I pick one thing and just finish it!?
Well, that’s one approach — to get yourself to stick to one thing and finish the darn thing. In this post, I’m offering an alternative approach: Embracing the chaos by accepting it, get to know it a bit better, and going with the flow!
Get curious about your interests and motivations
When you have a singular focus, time spent with your creative side is fairly straightforward. You know what you’ll be working on, and you’ll have a limited scope within which to play.
For the serial hobbyist, there’s usually a big decision to be made whenever free time pops up, and that can feel overwhelming!
If you’re overwhelmed by choices (or by projects), you might default to an easier route: either give up on all of it, or pigeon-hole yourself into the one you think you should be doing. But in doing so, you might be missing out on some really interesting opportunities.
Understanding your interests — and why you’re interested in them — can help give you a bit more structure and focus when it comes to creative exploration. You may even go so far as to develop criteria for yourself to help you choose what to work on.
Tune in. Notice where your attention is being pulled. When? Why?
Creativity is a wonderful vehicle for self-discovery. When you have many hobbies, you have all the more resources to pull from as you collect interesting insights about… YOU!
Consider this: The better you get to know yourself now, the more focused your creative efforts will be in the future.
Much of creativity is about finding your authentic voice and message. Sometimes they cumulate into one creative outlet, but it’s pretty common to pull aspects of many outlets into a genuine form of self-expression that is unique to you.
So give yourself the opportunity to explore everything! What’s it going to be today?
Embrace the deep dive
Ironically, one of the challenges once you’ve embraced your inner serial hobbyist is actually the temptation to deep dive into one topic. Why is this an issue?
While you’re off deep-diving into one skill, you’re keenly aware of all the other skills you were building, which are now on ice. (Plus, you can practically feel all those unfinished projects staring at you, waiting.)
You know what? Embrace this, too.
Quite a while ago I wrote about creative hibernation, and I think the main message is applicable here, too: work with the seasons, not against them. Follow the energy, and follow your attention. Why?
First, it’s just more fun that way.
Second, it’s more efficient to learn in a focused way anyway, so why not take advantage of your energy and learn as much as you can, as fast as you can? If you feel a deep-dive coming on, just take the leap.
What you’ll likely resurface with is an awesome base-level knowledge that you accumulated relatively quickly, and that will stick with you so that you can return to in the future with just a little refreshing of your memory.
While you’re off deep-diving, remember that it can actually be beneficial to hit pause on your other hobbies or projects to give those skills and ideas time to coalesce, to gather new insights from your deep dive that might inspire your old projects too, and to start to form that creative expression that is so unique to you.
Future me here — to see this in action, you might enjoy this post: Getting Back Into Digital Art
It’s all part of living a more creative life
You’ll have sprints when you’re focused on getting really good at one thing, or on seeing a project through to completion. You’ll also have seasons of just wanting to explore your creativity, and it’s in those seasons that we sometimes feel like no point if we’re not being productive.
As I’ve said before, there is a point beyond perfectionism — exploring your creativity is the point!
For me, balancing the books and the creative life is about consistently dedicating time and space to creativity. But within that time and space? It’s a little bit about skill-building, and a lot about seeing where my interests take me. Often they send me writing, frequently they send me painting, but it’s not unusual they push me in an entirely different direction altogether, and I want to afford myself the flexibility to work with my own rhythm and allow for that exploration.
In case you need to hear it: Dabbling is enough. Trying it to see if you like it is enough. Picking it up every few months when the mood strikes is enough. You are enough. 🙂
What are your greatest challenges as a “serial hobbyist” or multi-passionate creative? Do you find yourself fighting to focus on one thing at a time, or have you found ways to embrace the chaos?
By the way, I would love to stay connected! If you’d like a little encouragement to stay connected to your creativity, I write a monthly letter that does just that. Join here: Kindling for your creative spark – right to your inbox
