There are times when one feels like ‘taking up’ or doing a
number of major things all at the same time. Opportunities to be a ‘polyglot’
or a ‘polymath’ of this sort may have been limited in the past, when you took
up a certain profession and stuck to it, but today with the enormous resources
available at our fingertips, thanks to the Internet, opportunities abound. In
fact, anybody surfing the web and coming across blogs like this is pretty sure
to be a questing type themselves!
In my experience, however, it becomes difficult to do take
up more than one (or maybe two!) things seriously at a time, so some thought
has to be given to the best practical way of applying yourself to a number of
pursuits. I will share my own experience with this, and also refer to two books
which I found especially insightful, The Renaissance
Soul by Margaret Lobenstine and another book with a longer title by Barbara
Sher (see reference list at the end of the post).
Firstly, why would this be a problem at all? I can think of
at least two major reasons. One is that we have to be able to earn a living
(unless we have inherited ample wealth, which then has its own problems!), so
there has to be a primary skill or competence that is the basis of our
productive life. In practical terms, this means that we will have to
concentrate on a narrow range of activities for the sake of the profession.
This automatically limits the depth and intensity of our engagement with all
other pursuits, making them secondary to the central profession.
A second consideration could be the limitation of resources:
of time, energy, mental stamina, and of course money, plus our own individual
capacities and capabilities. Of course there are inspirational stories of
individuals who have overcome fearsome odds to excel, but then chances are that
they would have made one thing their major goal. We are talking of a different
attitude to life here, where no single activity or pursuit is considered
overwhelmingly important, and a number of them appear equally interesting and
feasible. How do we manage this in a single lifetime without an endowment of
any limitless resources?
My own strategy has been to use the natural ebb and flow of
activities in any career to accommodate diverse interests. The career one
chooses (or falls into!) itself is often a matter of chance or the effect of
pre-disposing factors (what one’s friends are looking at, the family or clan traditions, the coming together of a
certain opening with our situation at a certain point, and so on). Having taken
up a career, however, one may find that it doesn’t advance in a straight upward
line, but instead may circle around considerably in an apparently unproductive
manner. Of course you have to give all of your energy and focus to the main
job, especially in the initial period, but there will be times when things
aren’t progressing that smoothly, when for one reason or other you find
yourself in a sideline or backwater where nothing much seems to be happening,
or you have to wait a couple of years for an opening, and so on. These are the
periods in your life to develop the lateral interests that had to be set aside
in your busy years.
This strategy is the ‘front burner-back burner’ strategy I
have referred to previously. It has been helpful in dealing with certain
difficult patches in my main career, and now especially after retiring (which
could become a continuous bad patch without these additional interests and
pursuits!). Indeed the concept of ebb and flow is relevant even for those
intensely and passionately committed to a single dominant thing in their lives
(the cause of conservation, or child or animal welfare, or helping the less
fortunate, for example), as they need at least one alternative activity to
manage stress levels and tide over bald patches. However, this doesn’t mean
that one endlessly takes up new activities at random, because that would only
result in a frittering away of one’s time and opportunities without achieving
anything, a path to frustration and cynicism. So one has to have a limited set
of parallel interest, say a half dozen of them, which are pursued over a
lifetime, some more seriously. You have to choose the level of proficiency
aimed at in each pursuit, of course, depending on your basic interests and the
progress you are able to make. Some activities which you may have taken up when
young (mountain climbing, for instance) may have to set aside as age takes its
toll. That’s the advantage of having a tidy ‘portfolio’ of five or six
different interests over a lifetime.
One caveat which I would like to lay out here is that these
interests need not become a source of self-castigation if you don’t make good
in them. You don’t really owe anybody anything for the time and resources you
have invested in these pursuits (provided they are within reasonable limits,
and not at the cost of your family and career obligations!), and every person
is allowed a certain amount of goofing off. It’s like paying the proverbial
tithe, except that this is to yourself and the nurturing of your inner spirit.
Hopefully it makes you a kindlier, less frustrated person!
I have found, however, that even with these caveats, it is
rarely feasible to develop more than a couple of activities or hobbies at a
time. If you are doing some research for writing on a particular topic or
theme, for instance, that itself becomes a major pursuit (apart from your job).
If you want to bring it to some fruition, this would have to be given priority
over a sufficient period of time. Other pursuits and interests would have to go
to the back burner, or be bundled into storage boxes until their turn came up!
Doing a Ph.D. or an academic course comes into mind as quite a challenging
pursuit, for instance. The key here is that this has to be made the primary
second string activity (besides your day job), and some adjustments may have to
be made in your other diversions like TV-watching, hotel-hopping… and internet
surfing! But it is entirely worth the effort.
I’ll review the suggestions in the books cited in the next
post… and also say something about my experience with doing a Ph.D. in case
someone is in that bind!
Books cited
Lobenstine, Margaret.
2006. The Renaissance Soul. Life Design
for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One. Broadway Books, New York .
Sher, Barbara. 2006. What
Do I Do When I Want To Do Everything? A Leading Life Coach’s Guide to Creating
a Life You’ll Love. Rodale International Ltd., London .
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