Choosing the one thing

[LeoX8]

I see the advantages of mastery an art and choosing to dedicate your life to one thing, but I really struggle to choose only one thing.  I'm interested in a lot of things, I'm curious and I feel that by choosing only one thing you are saying no to others. As a downside I end up pursuing multiple projects at the same time and I can see how this can affect my work ultimately.

How do you handle such a problem? How did you choose what art/medium/area of life to become a master in?

[Yarco]

When you're young, you usually don't have enough experience to know what your one thing is yet. So it's perfectly fine to try stuff out and see what calls to you.

Also why I think it's kinda dumb to make high school kids lock in their lifelong careers at 17.

A few traps to avoid: 

- Don't get analysis paralysis and just end up watching hundreds of hours of YouTube videos. Start actually doing stuff

- Don't dabble. When you want to try something out, commit to it for at least a month or so. Make a small project for yourself so you have a definite end goal to accomplish. If you want to play guitar, force yourself to learn at least 10 chords and master 2 songs before you stop. If you want to get into animation, create a high quality 2 minute animation. Don't get too bogged down in details like what amp to buy or what animation style to choose. Just pick something and start experimenting and see how it feels. After 20 hours, could you see yourself doing it for another 10,000? What would that look like, would it be meaningful for you, or should you try something else first?

[LeoX8]

@Yarco thanks for the advice!

I really value projects and action so it is not a problem for me. What you are saying is resonating with me but leaves me with another question: where is the line that separates dabbling and staring to many projects? 

For example if you start 4 projects at the same time it will mostly backfire, but also if you start one and just focus on it like a laser I think you'll miss on other things

You will need some kind of balance/organization in doing so, what do you suggest??

[omartheman]

@LeoX8 I think you can do one project at a time. You do miss things while focusing on one but it's worth it because you get better focus in the specific areas that the one project deals with. It's hard to stay with just one project (I struggle a lot with this). But if you do one for a few weeks or a month, I feel like you'll see the value in just staying with one.

If you have trouble committing to just one project, perhaps try cutting down the length of the project. I think that having one small project that you finish can be motivating to continue focusing on bigger projects.