How I Picked Between My Interests And Passions

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A common topic that I get asked about a lot.

You’d be surprised to know that if you truly wanted to do something, you wouldn’t even think about picking or choosing.

It’s going to be split into two parts, both providing a response to the common question of “How do I decide between my interests?”

As human’s we’re constantly faced with choices.

Red or blue pill?

Left or right?

John Cena or Randy Orton?

Love Island or Dubai Bling?

It’s something we can’t remove in life but we can reduce the fatigue.

Especially when it’s related to interests that we can’t decide between.

‘If I do rowing, then I can’t do swimming sessions.”

It can lead to an even more extensive waste of energy when you keep worrying about what interests deserve your time and energy.

Let’s limit this and get you to work.

Decision Fatigue Reduction System

You're spending your time and energy worrying about the wrong things.

"Which passion gets my attention today?"

Then come the follow-ups: "For how long?"

"In what order?"

"With what materials?"

By the end of the day, you're drained from the decision-making process.

Sometimes it isn’t even your lack of time that affects the progress of what you want to achieve.

It's the mental taxation of different decisions.

Your brain is fighting on a battleground every morning that drains the very creative energy you're trying to protect.

A decision fatigue reduction system helps eliminate the wasted time and pre-makes your choices ahead.

You should understand why most people try to organise or plan their week ahead on Sundays.

Why do bodybuilders meal prep? To eliminate the decision of what to eat that day and save on time for the important tasks.

These 4 things helped me to do just that:

• Theme days - where each passion gets its dedicated day or allocated time slot. A lot of my Arabic learning is done in the morning while my writing is done in the evening.

• Pre-set start triggers - specific actions that automatically launch you into each passion. This could be a workout that kickstarts your writing flow. A quick walk that helps you get into the zone for a website design.

• Default time blocks - no more negotiating with yourself about duration when you block out specific time frames. I use the Pomodoro Technique for the 25-minute blocks and usually do 3-4 sessions in one sitting.

• Weekly reviews - Looking back at the week and reporting on my journey in threads. For you this can be a simple diary entry or write-up on your note-taking systems. See what took a lot of your time and if you can reduce the decision-making for it.

Think about it: Barack Obama wore essentially the same outfit every day to eliminate clothing decisions.

Steve Jobs did the same.

Were they less creative for it? No

They were protecting their decision-making power for what actually mattered.

Maybe it's not more willpower but fewer decisions that your brain needs.

As a multi-passionate person, I know I'm not the most disciplined, but just like others my processes I've implemented have given me the ability to eliminate time-wasting decisions.

So stop deciding "what to do today" and start following a pre-made decision map.

Don't waste your limited decision-making energy on choices that could be eliminated altogether.

Interest cycling vs Interest abandonment

A graveyard of half-finished projects and abandoned passions is something we all have.

It's not pretty, but it was a start, right?

Interest cycling isn't the same as interest abandonment.

One is a powerful strategy. The other is giving up.

Interest cycling means purposefully rotating your attention among your passions.

It's strategic.

It's intentional.

And it works.

Interest abandonment? That's when you drop something because it got hard, because you hit a plateau, or because the shiny new trend seemed easier.

When you ask yourself "How do I stick with just one passion?" It should be "How do I create a rhythm where my multiple interests feed off of each other instead of fighting each other?"

I thought I had to choose between learning French and Arabic.

A difficult decision.

Instead of looking to abandon the language I loved, I chose to let Arabic take center stage and focus more on that, having French as a 'secondary.'

Gym used to make me too tired for football. "Let me let go of one.”

I started becoming more intentional with my workouts, planning lighter days around football so my performance wasn't affected.

You feel guilty when you shift focus, so you make a clean break, abandoning all the progress you've made.

I couldn't keep starting all over again.

But what if you never truly put your passions down? What if you just changed how tightly you were holding them?

The days of being a serial quitter are over.

My diverse journey has shown me that it's something completely unique, and it's only just begun.

So why quit before you see progress?

The question isn't whether you should stick with one thing or be multi-passionate. It's whether you have the courage to cycle your interests with intention rather than abandoning them out of shame.

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The bottom line

Who says you have to choose?

I always say this about human interactions and relationships: ‘If they want to, they would.’

Essentially it means if someone wants to reach out or make an effort, they would.

Our choices and free will means we are in charge of how we act towards others and the effort we want to put in.

Now think about your time and energy.

If you wanted to, you would.

If you truly enjoy playing paddle (I think it’s spelled padel but that sounds illegal) or painting, you’d try to make every effort to fit it in.

And if it’s something that you want to get better at or use as a means for growth, you’d stop stacking the excuses and look to build on it.

When I was young, I didn’t just hop on a bike and automatically know how to ride.

I didn’t jump into a pool and know the front stroke method by default.

They didn’t pass the ball to me and expect me to score bangers.

It took a choice.

A choice for me to not quit from the very first time, to come back after one session and keep trying again and again until I knew how to ride without stabilisers.

Until I knew the front stroke and eventually the backstroke and then the butterfly method.

Until I could shoot with different areas of my foot.

So whatever you’re passionate about, don’t expect to be a pro the first time.

You’re busy deciding whether or not to keep going until you burn out.

You’re looking to abandon it because it didn’t work out for you the first few times.

Expect to come back many times and expect to be humbled.

One day it will click.

The language learning clicks for me now

The lifts feel right.

I return every single day knowing what I need to do and how I need to do it.

The way I could ride a bike with my eyes closed and no decisions needed, I’m on my way to that level of fluency with everything I do.

Your challenge for this week: Look back on any of your interests and apply the decision fatigue reduction system (it’s a true mouthful).

If you quit the interest, why?

If you can apply that framework, ask yourself if it’s something you can pick up again with some structure.

If you need some help with this or want to discuss it further, feel free to reach out on Instagram @liftlangleon.

Let’s get that strategic realism in place.

Till next time, peace.

LiftLangLeon