Having many interests is hard.
You’re spinning so many plates. They’re all moving in different directions. And you’re constantly working out which ones to pay attention to.
Which is only made harder as the winds of life ebb and flow, pushing the plates from your hands. Some will break in two. Some will bounce back. And some will shatter into a thousand pieces. That’s just how it is. You can’t keep them all spinning forever. Especially when the spinner (that’s you) is always changing and evolving.
But, what you can do is choose which plates you’ll drop, which ones you’ll continue with and which ones you hesitantly pick-up anew.
You see there’s an art to not taking on too much.
And it starts with understanding your golden thread.
Choosing Your Thread
Your golden thread is what holds together all that interests you. It’s not what you do. It’s that one cause you care about, those people you love helping and the one industry you know needs changing. Put simply, it’s your why.
In his book Mastery, Robert Greene calls this your “Life’s Task”, where he heeds you to “bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfil”1.
But, this isn’t always easy to find. For when you like doing many things the thread remains unclear. Which is only made more challenging when your many distinct interests feel so separate from one another.
Sometimes you’re simply in a discovery phase of life and that’s ok. You’re trying on new hobbies, careers and relationships in an attempt to figure out what you enjoy. And the only thread to your madness is learning.
Other times the disparate interests you’re pursuing aren’t fully aligned to who you are. You put up with them because you’re supporting a loved one or using them as means to get by. And that’s ok too. A ‘good enough job’ is fine.
But, if you look closely enough at all the memories, stories and moments in your life that have lit your soul on fire you’ll find deep down the embers that are your reason for living (or your ‘raison d'etre’ as the French call it).
If all you do still feels disconnected don’t be disheartened. There are many before you who’s interests expanded beyond comprehension. Just take Leonardo da Vinci, a polymath of a man, who Walter Isaacson observes as having a golden thread in his ability to “marry observation and imagination, which made him history’s consummate innovator”2.
No pressure then. Obviously.
But, take a breath. Your why only needs to make sense to you.
For as long as your golden thread resonates with who you are right now and who you want to be in the future, that’s what truly matters. And in fact, as Ozan Varol recognises “when people call you a contradiction in terms—too complex to categorize—you’ll know you’re on the right track”3.
Using the Right Needle
Having found your golden thread, the next decision to make is which needle you’ll use to sew your many interests together.
There are so many out there. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses that depend entirely on the situation you’re in. Some are focused on the short-term. Others are building for the long-term.
The key is knowing what you’re optimising for right now.
Which could mean maximising…
Income to pay the bills
Having fun with your work
Learning as much as you can
Travelling around the world
Meeting awesome people
Or an infinite list of alternatives.
Being honest with the approach that is important to you right now is crucial. For the needle of each option leads to drastically different results, which will compound over time and sew together a drastically different life.
Sewing it all Together
With your golden thread in one hand and your needle in the other life’s unlimited possibilities become easier to navigate.
For now you have the clear guidelines for where to direct your energy you can enthusiastically decline those interesting yet ultimately unaligned opportunities that bring you no closer to using your needle and thread.
An example for myself that seems to reoccur time and again is the proposition from others to become their running coach. It makes sense. I’ve been running for 12 years and I’m pretty good at it. I know I have a lot to teach others and it would of course be satisfying to see them improve. Alas, I always turn down the opportunity. Which on the surface might not make sense. But, when I ask whether it enables me to “empower individuals to create organisations of the future” [my golden thread] through “optimising for experience” [my needle] the reason for the rejection becomes infinitely clearer. My time and my focus is finite. And this just isn’t important enough.
All of this might sound great on paper, but reality is little different. She has bills to pay, mouths to feed and responsibilities to attend to. And I totally get it. For even if your golden thread is “empowering Gen Z to manage their climate anxiety’” and your needle is “having fun with your work” your day to day could look very different from your ideal. This could mean taking on some not-so-fun roles or responsibilities in the short-term simply to earn a steady pay check. Which could be a little demoralising. But, despite not living the ideal right now, the clarity of your direction is powerful. It means you can treat your short-term compromises as stepping stones that give you the freedom to spend your evenings and weekends working on your true calling.
What exactly the day-to-day of that true calling looks like is a universe unto itself. The portfolio career that likely follows has an infinite number of variations, each adapted to your unique skills and life circumstances that I fully intend to keep exploring. Check out two models I’ve identified so far - the triple portfolio model and the academic-practitioner.
For now though, I’d love to hear what’s your needle and golden thread?
Greene, R. (2014). Mastery. London: Profile Books.
Isaacson, W. (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. 1st ed.
Ozan Varol (2023). Awaken Your Genius. PublicAffairs.
An enjoyable read. None of this is new but I just had to hear it at the RIGHT time and it makes all the difference. Kudos to you Charlie. Keep it coming.