Hey guys,
Just want to briefly address something I think is critically important but often overlooked.
I’m sure many of you are like me: you have a wide array of niches and fields that you are quite passionate about or find fascinating and interesting. Some may be directly related to work; others are hobbies or personal desires (i.e.: I really like snowboarding, I think it’s super cool and I want to try it out after watching 30+ videos on YouTube).
But having a wide net of so many varied passions and interests holds a stiff, sometimes unforgiving price. This price you pay comes in various forms – one of which is anxiety. Your 100-item-long list of things you love and want to do starts to become overwhelming, especially those that involve a high degree of physical exertion and risk of bodily injury (i.e.: BMX) given how you know that your body is not getting any younger. You begin to worry that the current and pending burdens of life will weigh you down and stop you from ever being able to become good at whatever you yearn to do, let alone give it a try at all. Then on top of that, you start thinking about other interests you haven’t been able to get started on for other limiting factors – primarily money and time.
All of this can crush you like a junk car compactor, and has potential to cause serious damage to your mental health. So how do you get out of this hell-hole?
The answer is simple but not comfortable: you must re-assess and ultimately walk away on several ambitions. Think and contemplate on what matters the most to you – and more importantly, which holds the most enjoyment and benefit to the world, respectively. Inevitably you will have to give up a few things, much like when you got older and realized that dream of being an astronaut at age 5 wasn’t going to happen. A good way to relieve the pain of this quitting is to examine your ambitions/passions more closely and ask yourself with brute honesty:
“What do I really want to gain out of this?”
Perhaps it may shed some light on a different endeavor which still fulfills that same gain, but with a reasonable level of attainability and feasibility. For me personally, answering this question allowed me to gradually transition from wanting to be a cinematographer making cool documentary-style productions and impactful short films, to writing blog posts like these instead. As a big bonus, I went from being in despair over needing to earn and spend $90000 on my passion to just $90.
I encourage all those big passionate and ambitious dreamers out there to do the same. Narrow things down to a reasonable level of attainability and work out a plan.