I want to take the discussion to a different direction.
How do you maintain multiple physical skills?
Knowledge-based skills are easier to maintain since they go into long term memory. But physical based skills aren't. Physical based skills need maintenance or else those will get rusty.
To give an analogy about the difference:
- Music theory -> Knowledge based
- Playing guitar -> Physical based
I myself have multiple physical skills that I maintain over the years (I am 35):
- Guitar
- Vocal
- Karate
- Calisthenics
- Programming
- Botany
As I get older and have more responsibilities (families, kids, jobs, communities), and as these skills get more and more advanced, how do I realistically maintain all of these?
For example, in the matter of guitar alone, there are different genres, different types of picking. In the matter of programming, there are different programming languages.
My approach in learning various knowledge based skills is just one, reading, read a lot, reflect a lot, and that seems to suffice to make it go into long term memory (at least the ability to roughly recall). But I don't know how to do it with various physical based skills other than just keep doing it over and over to maintain it.
You don't. I've cut way back on some hobbies/skills and completely eliminated others. I believe the list will continue to get cut down.
These days it's just riding mountain bikes and getting shredded. Never been happier.
Upkeep involves regularly practicing them. Even if its just a half hour every couple weeks.
It helps having on-going projects that involve those skills. That is paramount.
Probably the same answer you would get from a New Yorker if you asked them how to get to Carnegie Hall.