How to deal with rapidly changing interests in life?

Question

I am in my early twenties and I'm on the path of self improvement. I haven't had the best of times lately and instead of putting all the improvements off, I have set myself achievable goals. One of the things I have a lot of trouble with is my interests seem to shift weekly. One week it's guitar next week it's cybersec, followed by a week of mobile app development etc. At some point the cycle repeats but, I can never commit to finishing something. I usually reach a point where I feel like I have done the challenging bit and I lose interest for a while. Whenever I do find something I only do that thing for hours on hours losing track of time and neglecting my other responsibilities. It's incredibly frustrating to never have something to show for what I have worked on and to not be able to commit to goals and projects over the long term. As a result my developer portfolio is full of simple projects rather than the unfinished more interesting projects.I'm afraid my self-improvement track and my future professional life will be the victim of this. I Would love to hear some suggestions or experiences regarding this issue.

Leparamour · Accepted Answer

If you cycle too fast and abandon projects too quickly for your own liking perhaps you're suffering from ADHD.In my early twenties I did similar things, thinking the world was wide and time was infinite until I realized I never finished any project at all or advanced beyond an absolute beginner stage. There is nothing wrong with trying out numerous things if you want to live an interesting life but if you can't ever commit to anything in the long-term maybe there's a reason for that.

AlphaGeekZulu · Answer

I have been there.I recommend the book: "Refuse to Choose!" by Barbara Sher.Short intro: https://www.getmotivation.com/motivationblog/2017/04/barbara...In short: get over the feeling of guilt first, then organize your multitudes of interests.

Broken_Hippo · Answer

How often are you just having fun with these interests instead of doing it for self-improvement?
I mean, guitar for instance. Regular practice is good, but if you aren't having fun while doing it, it just means you feel like you are working during your free time. If you program for a living, doing it in your free time might feel like work even if you enjoy it. And so on.
I'll also mention that when trying out new things, it doesn't matter if you finish a project. You tried something, might or might not have liked it, and possibly figured it wasn't for you or that you rather like spending free time doing other things.

giantg2 · Answer

I think it's fine to shift. Some of my interests are seasonal. I think it's also good to note that things like guitar and cybersecurity are never finished. If you can even find 15 minutes a week to practice a couple riffs, that can at least keep you from completely forgetting it. Then you can spend more time in the future improving.

BlameKaneda · Answer

There have been many interests that I've had, and hobbies that I've partaken in, that I've stopped exploring for whatever reason. For a while I used to see this as a bad thing.However, everything that I've explored has expanded my knowledge a bit. As an example, I used to draw years ago and although I don't anymore, if I'm asked to doodle something quickly (to show a diagram or if I'm playing Pictionary), I'm pretty adept at it. I wouldn't be this way if it weren't for sketching when I was younger.

runjake · Answer

I think it's fine to explore from one topic to the next. I'm 50 and I've done that all my life. I now have a deep and wide grasp of tech and how it functions together.
The downside? It took decades to get reasonably competent in it all.
On hindsight, if I had to do it all over again, I'd probably take the Derek Sivers route[1] of spending a year (or 6 months, or 3 months) on a particular subject before moving onto the next thing.
1. https://sive.rs/donkey

smarri · Answer

A way I try to manage various interests is to set a goal and think of that interest as a project. So if it's guitar, learn a tricky tab that will take a month or so to get the hang of, or mobile app development would be create an MVP, etc. I find that framing these as short projects helps me stick it for a while longer, achieve something, and gives me a better way to talk about it with other people.

terminalserver · Answer

Relax. Enjoy. Have fun flitting around the things you enjoy. Stop trying to achieve.