Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams

by Barbara Sher

None of these people seemed to have the slightest problem about not sticking with one field! They flitted from one subject to another with complete freedom, and they never appeared to feel guilty if they left a project unfinished (even if, like Leonardo, they’d been paid for it!). None of them ever settled on one career, for that matter, and they never seemed defensive or apologetic about it. How did they do that? Who gave them permission to go sticking their noses into whatever interested them? The only answer I ever found was this: In their time, nobody seemed to think that there was anything wrong with doing everything under the sun. I found no evidence that anybody told Aristotle that it was bad to be interested in so many things. Franklin wasn’t defensive, because nobody told him he had anything to defend. Goethe wasn’t guilty about writing novels and studying optics and doing everything else that took his fancy, because nobody criticized him for it.

“You can do anything. Just choose one of your talents and get started.” That was also the worst advice.

Scanners aren’t supposed to choose.

Intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects is one of the most basic characteristics of a Scanner. Scanners are endlessly inquisitive.

Little by little, the process of writing your ideas in your Daybook will change the way you feel about not following up on every one of your good ideas, because it becomes so clear that planning, designing, and making a record of your ideas in something called a Scanner Daybook isn’t making a promise; it’s the way inventive people enjoy themselves.

finishing a project is not the issue here. This is about your vision and the free play of ideas for pure enjoyment.

It’s like telling a parent to choose one child to feed. It’s just not possible. A parent knows she has to feed all her children. And a Scanner must find a way to follow every path that interests her.

When the magnet that originally attracted you starts diminishing in power, you’ve done what you set out to do. Your purpose for being there is gone. That’s why you lose interest: not because you’re flawed or lazy or unable to focus, but because you’re finished. It seems obvious, but it never occurs to most of us.

Maybe this is h ow I feel about writing stories ???

acting, but after a while it became more like a business—the business of filling seats. It’s been that way with everything I enjoyed doing. As soon as it became practical, it lost importance. I never knew why, but I just figured out what went away. It was self-expression! Taking what was inside me and letting it flow out. I loved that!

Writing

It was the challenge to go from ignorance to competence, that steep climb to master something that demands every bit of focus I have. I love that kind of challenge. When it’s over, I want to leave.

Once you know you’re not supposed to find one thing only, there’s no need to panic anymore: You’re a Scanner and you’ll always be interested in many fields, so your panic should subside, right?

Sometimes the best cure for stress is failure! Write that book or try to create a new Pet Rock, and let it bomb. If you don’t get into action, you’ve failed anyway. And we’re all much too afraid of failure.

The commitmentphobe’s list of mistaken assumptions 1.You must choose one and only one path in life. 2.Everything you love has to be a career. Doing something for pleasure doesn’t count. 3.If you’re not in love with your job, it will be a living hell. 4.You have to get it right, because every career choice requires a huge investment of time and money. 5.Once you make your choice, you serve a life sentence with no chance of parole. 6.If you’re not passionate to the point of obsession, you’ll never be content to give up all your other interests.

“But why does everything you love have to be a career?” “You mean just do them? For the fun of it?” “Is that as illegal as you make it sound?” I asked. “But how do you pay the rent?” “Pick the one that makes a living and doesn’t take up too much time, and do the rest on your own time,” I suggested. He thought for a minute. “That’s a good idea . . . but then everything else would just be a hobby. I’m very serious about everything I love.” “Leonardo da Vinci seems to have been serious about everything he loved, too,” I said. “Pretty much the only thing he was paid for was painting until he was in his sixties. I’m sure he was never paid for designing his airplane or his submarine. Does that make them ‘just hobbies’?” He was thoughtful. “No, but what does it make them?” he asked. “It’s a question I’m sure Leonardo never gave a moment’s thought,” I said. “Maybe we should all follow his lead on that one.”

So if you’re a Scanner who’s been commitment phobic, please listen carefully: You’re not going to find one passion so great that all the others will disappear, and you wouldn’t like it if you did.

One path will never be enough for you.

Curiosity, creativity, and learning are essential to Scanners, and without them they become depressed.

The reason you stop when you do: You got what you came for

If you’re like Gillian and you start new projects with a rush of enthusiasm but soon lose interest, you have almost certainly finished what you started. It just doesn’t look that way to anyone else.

Maybe you’re a visionary or a leader. Scanners love beginnings and can set the course and inspire the crew. For them, that’s the only interesting part. They don’t want to take the voyage. They’d rather start something new.

“I’m great at starting, conceiving, and planning things, but once I figure out the design problems, I lose interest. I guess I don’t want to do the hard work that comes after that,” a woman told me. “Maybe you’re a designer,” I answered. “Maybe someone else wouldn’t think the follow-through was such hard work.” I think she stared at me for a full minute without a word. “No one ever said that to me before,” she answered, finally.

Why does every bright idea have to be an opportunity to become accomplished, rich, and famous?

Instead of thinking “This could be a great opportunity for success!” why not enlarge the meaning of “opportunity” to include the Good Feeling? As in: “This could be a great opportunity for my brain to boogie!”

And be grateful that you’re a Scanner. Not everyone can have this much fun with nothing but what’s between her ears.

And never again criticize yourself for not finishing your ideas. Drop that burden off your shoulders. It should never have been there in the first place.

you. It’s your project. You did it by choice. You have the right to decide when you’re done.

“The plans and ideas that fall out of your mouth are like diamonds and rubies, but in a culture that only values immediate success, no one sees them that way. That’s why you have to carefully save them when you’re ready to move on and keep them on your Life’s Work Bookshelf. Those are your works, a record of your creativity’s travels.”

But a Scanner’s goal is something most people in our culture don’t understand—

It’s incomprehensible that you’d value something more than success.

I’ve always wanted to write and illustrate a children’s book, but all I hear is how hard it is to get published. I don’t want to get published; I just want to write the book. This is so hard to explain to anyone.

“That’s such a perfect time frame for me!” she said. “I’ll just take on a Quarterly Creative Project! I can stick with one thing and do it in all my spare time. I love calling it that. It has a name. I can’t tell you how much that helps!”

It’s perfect for the Sampler, who’s pouring all her creative energy into her after-work creative projects. The Good Enough Job takes all the pressure off having to turn a profit from the things you love to do. You’re free to do them for your own reasons. You don’t have to justify your interests either, simply call them hobbies, as in, “Don’t worry, it’s only a hobby.” As long as you’ve got a job, most people will leave you alone.

But some Good Enough Jobs are more than pleasant; they’re quite wonderful on their own. And they will still support all your other passions. (The Good Enough Job can be so good that I’ve even considered changing its name to the Great Enough Career

He does all this while continuing to enjoy his practice as a chiropractor. There are many others who enjoy their careers but don’t limit themselves to them.