When answering the “What are your hobbies?” interview question, it is crucial to mention your hobbies with passion and anecdotes or backstories to make it interesting. Hobbies can be the key to your personality and can suggest a full life. When answering this question, consider how your hobbies align with the company’s culture and the specific position you are applying for.
Hobbies can be a good way to demonstrate your personality, skills, thinking, and confidence. To choose the right hobbies and interests for your resume, start by considering how they align with the company’s culture and the specific position you are applying for. Share stories and what you have learned about your hobbies, and explain how they tell the interviewer a lot about you, your personality, and your skills and passions.
Before your interview, write down a list of all your leisure pursuits and the things you do when you’re not at work. Find ways to highlight your hobbies and interests when interviewing for a position, while also tailoring your answers to the specific job position.
Select applicable hobbies that relate to your job skills and qualities. Be honest and mention a couple, no more than three hobbies or weekend distractions. Mentioning too many pastimes will make you look like Prince.
To answer the “What are your hobbies?” interview question, focus on activities that you truly enjoy and are enthusiastic about. Avoid mentioning hobbies simply because you think they’re impressive; instead, focus on activities that you truly enjoy and are enthusiastic about.
In conclusion, highlighting your hobbies and interests when interviewing for a position is essential for showcasing your personality, skills, and confidence.
📹 How to Focus Your Priorities and Narrow Down Your Interests – College Info Geek
What if you have too many interests and can’t decide which one to focus on? This week, I’ll share two different strategies for …
What are 10 lines hobbies?
The author shares their passion for photography, a hobby that involves capturing moments with their camera. They enjoy exploring new places and capturing memories through photography. They also have a love for reading and gardening. These hobbies are enjoyable activities that people enjoy in their free time for fun and relaxation. The author explains that there are many activities people engage in as hobbies, including photography, painting, reading, dancing, singing, and traveling. The author encourages readers to explore their hobbies and discover the depth and joy of their personal passions.
How to answer what are your hobbies when you don’t have any?
It is recommended that individuals direct their attention toward developing industry-specific skills, rather than engaging in activities that are not directly related to their professional pursuits. This may include reading articles pertaining to their field of work, acquiring new abilities, or participating in groups that are focused on work-related matters.
How to answer if someone asks about hobbies?
It is advisable to concentrate on hobbies that are pertinent to the position for which you are applying and to provide a concise account of the reasons for your enjoyment or the benefits you derive from them. It is not necessary to provide excessive detail unless the interviewer requests it. It is advisable to prepare for follow-up questions and to be prepared to provide further details on the subject of your hobbies.
What do I write if I have no hobbies?
To be interesting, it’s important to remember that you don’t need a million hobbies to be interesting. Instead, explain your supposedly “boring” hobbies in a straightforward, no big deal tone. If you need to explain yourself, say something like, “I don’t have a big hobby at the moment, though I’m on the lookout for one” or “I’m really busy with my family these days, so I don’t have time for a full-on hobby, though when I have some free time I like to unwind by reading and going to the gym”. If you’re between hobbies, mention one you used to have, telling people about what kinds of things you’re into.
It’s not about how you answer the question, but where you go from there. For example, if you gave a “boring” response of saying you’re into movies, you could talk about a recent one you’ve watched and ask if they’ve seen it, and maybe start a discussion about filmmaking. If you’ve told them you don’t have any true hobbies at the moment, ask about theirs and spend a while learning about what they’re interested in.
Not everyone will be interested in your hobbies, and it’s important to figure out what interests you already have. Sometimes, people realize they’re into more things than they initially realized, and it can help to list out what your interests are.
How to respond when someone asks what your interests are?
When applying for a job, it’s crucial to provide a comprehensive answer that highlights your skills, thinking, and fit for the culture or the job. Share hobbies that cover various capabilities and provide a glimpse of your personality. Your response to the question about your hobbies can be more powerful than you might realize. Planning for how to answer effectively is especially important in the competitive job market, which can be stressful.
According to a poll by Monster, 77 of people experience stress, 69 struggle with mental side effects, and 12 experience physical side effects during the job search process, including anxiety, sleep loss, frustration, and exhaustion. Therefore, it’s essential to provide a well-rounded answer that showcases your personality and skills.
What is your hobby sample answer?
In a job interview, it’s important to mention hobbies that demonstrate skills like intellectual curiosity, discipline, creativity, and team-orientedness. Some examples include reading, playing a musical instrument, cooking, hiking, volunteering, and sports. When choosing hobbies, consider their alignment with the job profile and company culture, as well as those that have helped develop transferable skills or taught valuable lessons.
Choosing hobbies that you enjoy and can passionately speak about can also help showcase your relevant skills. For instance, mentioning hobbies like social media management or graphic design in a marketing position can showcase your skills.
How to answer a hobbies and interests question?
When asking about hobbies, it’s important to showcase your creativity, such as playing guitar, writing short stories, or making pottery. These activities can enhance lateral thinking skills, encourage inventive approaches, and drive resource utilization. Creativity is a crucial skill in every organization, regardless of the job you’re applying for. Even if you don’t create daily, creativity is a broader and more applicable skill.
How do I write about my hobbies?
When asking an interviewer about your hobbies, it is important to mention them passionately and provide an anecdote or backstory to make the conversation interesting. Hobbies can be a key to your personality and represent your interests, so choose wisely. Keep your explanation short and concise, adding recent books or how you got interested in reading to spark interest. Connect your hobbies with your job, such as volunteering with different NGOs to improve interpersonal skills and learn about people from various backgrounds. Explain how your hobbies make you a better person by mentioning how a particular hobby adds to a particular skill in your life, such as writing or storytelling.
Don’t mention anything political or controversial, as political opinions can vary among individuals and organizations. Avoid adding any political interests or controversial hobbies. Instead, mention something you are learning during that time or any interest you have got inclined to, such as cooking or watching psychological thrillers.
When asking about your hobbies, the interviewer wants to know more about you as a well-rounded individual that aligns with their company culture. Key things an interviewer wants to know and assess when asking about your hobbies include understanding what you are passionate about and your interests outside of work, how your interests align with your work responsibilities, how you spend your pastime, whether on day-to-day activities or learning something new or doing something creative, and to discern a little bit about your personal life and the person you are outside of the work responsibilities.
What are the 4 main hobbies?
Develop four types of hobbies: learning, reading, arts, fitness, health, and content creation. According to Steven Johnson, legendary innovators like Franklin, Snow, and Darwin share common intellectual qualities and a defining attribute: having a lot of hobbies. These hobbies allow individuals to create and reinvent themselves, showcasing the vast possibilities available in the world. Developing hobbies can help individuals explore and develop their interests and skills.
What is a hobby short answer?
A hobby is defined as an enjoyable activity that is pursued in one’s leisure time. Examples of hobbies include activities such as letter writing, football, music, photography, and tennis. Such activities are also referred to as pastimes, relaxation, leisure pursuits, or sidelines. The aforementioned hobbies are included in the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
What can I put for hobbies and interests?
In the context of a student resume, it is advisable to include details of any hobbies that may enhance the document’s appeal to potential employers. Such details could include involvement in the local community, writing, blogging, language learning, photography, travelling, sports, reading, and art.
📹 15 HOBBIES TO SLOW DOWN WITH (cozy, easy, fun!)
Open for useful links and details: Hey, friends! In today’s video, I’m sharing 15 hobbies and a ton of other activities associated with …
This is not always true, it depends on the individual. For example Richard Feynman was probably the most curious person ever and he tried everything he could. He was still a very successful physicist but he was also a drummer, painter, “chemist”, “biologist”, safecracker, joker…. And he also tried many many things simply because he was so curious(read his autobiography Surely You Are Joking Mr Feynman ). It is true however that one should do at most 5 things at a time, not like 20. If you do that you’ll be fine, but don’t ignore those other things you wanna try / do forever. Try those other things for few months because its simply worth it, this way your life will be much richer.
Problem? Guys this isn’t a problem. Having a variety of interests is a gift. Since I was in high school, I’ve pursued every single interest that’s been sparked and I gotta say, I do not regret it at all. I play the guitar, I draw, I paint, I make rap songs, Techno, piano, dance, act, make animations, article editor, filmer, designer, and I actively seek more knowledge everyday! I’ve accomplished so much and people recognize me for it. I meet people, make new friends, and experience new things pretty much every week. It’s amazing. I feel like my soul would die if I stopped pursuing my interest. And what? I won’t be successful because I spread myself thin? Money isn’t the key to happiness. As I always say, “Invest not in things that last forever, but instead in memories that last forever.”
A good TED talk for fellow collegehackers would be Emilie Wapnick’s “Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling”. She explores how ‘multipotentialites’ have problems with commitment, careers, decisions, etc. because they simply have too many interests. She also talks about 3 benefits though so it’s definitely worth checking out!
I totally agree that too many interests can be a problem – I know in my own life it has led to some paralysis on things that really matter (like finishing the last edit on my book). I think this article will be useful to others who suffer from the same thing. I know students often struggle with what their college major should be because they are interested in so many things that they lose focus (I’m a college adjunct teacher). Excellent article!
I’ve read this book called “Simpleology” that helps you simplify your life by focusing. While my personal advice would be somehow relating all of our goals/interests so we could align them on what we should do first by doing so we will be motivated and be patient to do them one interest at a time. By the way off-topic, the best advice that I’ve heard from Thomas is what he said on his article about waking up early which is doing something that makes you happy before going straight to work.
I would suggest the time window approach. I would not just write the goal based on the importance, but also write an estimated period to achieve each goal. Then, I make an order which target I want to accomplish first. I will use year as a time unit for my time window. For example, my list would look like this: Year 2018 – Perform stand-up comedy in front of more than 500 people. – Record 5 new song. – Get IELTS score 5.5 – Able to do handstand. Year 2019 – Participate national stand-up comedy audition (progress) – Get IELTS score 6.0 (progress) – Able to do leg-split (still on a physique-related target but different goal) – Write a fiction novel (different aspect from previous year goal)
My trick is to look at my list of 25 and then find points of commonality that let me focus on a few subjects that require a broad enough knowledge base that I’m forced to indulge many interests. So for example AI theory (a minor hobby of mine that I need go focus much, much more on) requires a decent grasp of philosophy, neurology, computer theory, quantum physics, information theory, number theory, computer engineering, psychology, game theory, probability theory, sociology, economics, and more. Most of these fields are actually pretty closely related to start with, like information theory and probability theory, or psychology and sociology, or neurology and computer engineering, which keeps the pool of domain knowledge actually manageable rather than Gauss level polymath level, which is then pared down further by mostly just focusing directly on the stuff that’s actually relevant to AI theory.
These tips couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m kinda at that point in my life where I have lots of ideas of how my creativity can be useful while also profiting financially, but I gotta pick one, right? I’ve heard that by focusing a majority of my effort into one study, I can be really fucking good at it. I’m speaking career wise, of course. Also, you only have so much money/time to spend on honing your skill . It sucks that I feel like I have to choose one career specialty even though there are a lot of things I like to do. I’m okay with settling and keeping the other things on the list as hobbies.
I wish you would stop calling having many interests a problem…I think that there is a happy medium. As a creative person, I really needed those people who encouraged me to pursue all of my passions. People always said you must pick one thing and that simply is not how some people function. Though I think that focusing is good and necessary because you really can’t do all 25 things at once and you offered a great strategy but being interested in many things is not a “problem” and those 20 things can come back in the future. I’m certainly thinking of a article response to this…It’s not bad advice, I’m just not convinced it’s for everyone…
I really like the 5/20 idea, but I really enjoy learning new things in my spare time, like history and science. I find it relaxing, and I get stressed when I start to feel stagnate. I don’t count that as a priority because it isn’t a career goal, but should I cross that off altogether? It feels unhealthy, even if that would make me more productive.
5 things in your TO DO list for many people could be still A LOT… expecially if some of those 5 things are really time consuming.. The real challenge is when you have just few passions or goals in your life (for example 3 or 4 goals and everyone has the same priority), but you dont have the time to follow all of these so you have to chose just 1 or 2. In this case how to choose? sry for my english btw, I hope is correct
URGENT! Dude please help, can you make a article on the best online search engines/tools for academic data mining (such as academic papers, journals, books etc) Please help i have to present my thesis proposal in 4 weeks and i can’t find shit in google scholar. If you dont make article at least name few in reply of this comment. I’ve tried some other search engines such as semantic scholar, but sadly it covers only the field of computer science. My field is media and communication studies.
Being focused on your “few” priorities is definitely important. You can’t be a “jack of all trades” and expect to get ahead in life. Met a few people who are high-achievers in school. They excelled in many subjects from math to science. Some learned to speak more than 1 foreign language, played a music instrument and still found time for a few hours of community service each week.
Great article!! What works for me is a mission statement. I am pursuing the CFA designation full time but I work a few hours a week. My professional goal is to be a finance professional, I sometimes have a few hours per week freen and because there are online online courses available I sometimes get a bit carried away and enroll on courses that are good they in the end dont add value to my “Finance Professional Goal” I have at times enrolled coding classes and lanugauge classes beause I had a little free time. Althougt I think it is important to know another language and know how to code those courses took up so much time that my finance started suffering. Since then I have my mission statement printed and stuck on my desk so i would always remember to stay focused.
I had this problem. I loved my job, and later it dipped to just liking it. I never hated my job/profession, as it satisfies some of my interests, not to mention pay the bills, but I definitely had times of boredom. I would do other interests on the side, but not seriously – just for satisfaction. Several year later, still on the side, I decided to start a business with a friend. Suddenly, I lost my day job at the last company I worked for. I saw it as an opportunity to focus on the business, and just didn’t look for another job. It was a good choice (I think). I’m still at the beginning stages of the business with a lot of things to still learn and prove. But what I realize is that with it, I’m accessing a lot more of my interests. I have not found success in this new venture yet. But I have a strong feeling that for people with many interests, entrepreneurship is the way to go. It’s where you would have to really give your all. Hope it works for me!
I’m going to give this a shot and see what happens. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I’d just like to say something: I see people making the argument that perhaps this isn’t the only way to live, or that only focusing on 5 career goals is way too limiting. I certainly see how it can seem that way. But I would like to ask people if they would be willing to look at this from a different perspective. Let me speak to all my gaming friends for a second (it’s been a long time since I played article games, so I hope this is still relevant, haha). If you are playing the game to just poke around and explore the levels/characters/weapons/whatever, you play in Practice Mode. It’s fun for a bit, especially when you get to smash things over and over again with no consequences, but after a while it grows old. It’s not as exciting (or intense or scary or funny) as when you are actually playing the game to win. You employ strategy, allocate ability and equipment slots and develop your characters according to your specific plan to beat the game, right? Sometimes your plan works great! Sometimes your plan is an epic fail! But it’s at those times when you can rework your strategy and move forward. What’s more, it’s impossible to get the most out of a good game if you don’t make a plan and focus on how you are going to hit each campaign in the right order for the outcome that you want. And if someone doesn’t feel comfortable making their own plan the first time through, there are things like walkthroughs and strategy guides. And look at the names of those thingies! That’s intentional. So, I think the over arching principle of needing to make a strategy (a winning one, by the way), and stick to it in order to get the outcome you want for your life is pretty universal. I’m not saying that it’s easy for everyone to do this; maybe this guy is already really good at doing this kind of stuff, so now we might feel a little defensive if that doesn’t come naturally to us. But it is a super important skill to living a successful life. And while you are the one who gets to decide what “successful” means, you still need a plan to get there.
+Thomas Frank I believe this article contradicts one of your other vides titled “Why You Shouldn’t Tell People About Your Goals” where you support the idea of not publicly revealing one’s goals and priorities because and I quote, “your mind mistakes the talking for doing”. What do you have to say about that?
I heard someone say before “if money wasn’t a thing, what would you be doing” and for this to really work you want to really try and think what it would be like to live without money. Are you choosing a career path because it’s good money? Or are you picking it because you are truly passionate about it?.
I think this is true if you’re feeling anxious or guilty about not getting things done. For example, I am a fitness trainer who constantly needs to stay fit and up to date. My 95 year old mother is losing her ability to speak English so I am brushing up on my Norwegian, I am an author who hasn’t completed a book in a while and I am an artist who hasn’t finished the painting on my easel. To ease the grief and guilt, I focus on just one or two things. The book and painting can wait, my Mum and my fitness can’t. And then I rest. One day I will be inspired to pick up a brush or start a new novel, but, as Maverick says “But not today.” (Can’t believe I am quoting Top Gun lol)
Guys! He’s giving advice on HOW to do it. He’s not COMMANDING you to narrow down your interests. Some of us are struggling to succeed, because we always get sidetracked by another interest, in stead of finishing the current project up, or focusing on a specific skill or career. This is definitely a good tactic. But whether or not you like to limit yourself is totally up to the individual. I’ll probably try it, and if I’m still happy, then I might keep doing it 🙂
I divide my priorities into three main categories: spirit, mind, and body. Spirit includes being a servant of Christ – Bible, prayer, living out my faith. That can be anything to studying or spending time with God to going out an evangelizing the lost. Mind includes academic priorities. My major in college is aerospace engineering. However, I am currently taking a bit of a break from that to pursue military training. Along with that comes plenty of knowledge to build. Also, the military training extends into the last category of “body,” with physical exercise. Another part of “mind,” is any personal development literature. This is meant for improvement in a broad range of areas, but is definitely not the most important literature I focus on. It’s useful, but I rarely get to it. The last category of “body” deals with anything physical. So, that means getting enough exercise, getting plenty of sleep, eating a healthy diet, drinking plenty of water, etc. I would also put things like going to work in this category as that is earning an income. Money is a physical means to an end. I have a set morning and evening routine that includes a bit of all three. The rest of my is a mixture of all three. I’m working on implementing a routine of 45 minute intense focus sessions followed by a 15 minute break. I tried once, and it worked quite well. Now, I just need to keep that up. If I have 1 hour, start on a task (usually just spirit or mind), focus on it, and then use the 15 minutes to do other lower level activities (washing dishes, putting laundry in the washing machine, taking out trash, or just doing a few push-ups or sit-ups.
Well i have exact same problem. I want to learn programming, like every language that exist and also i want to study my job more. I decided that i learn programming by internet, like SoloLearn, freecodecamb ect in my freetime, and i mainly focus to my career and study more of it. But still, i want to learn everything. Why i did not want to learn when i was in highschool ?
I noticed people are offended by him calling having many interests a problem. We can choose door 1, or door 2. Door 1 is hard at first, but eventually becomes easier. It has its problems, but they are good problems. Problems that are good to have. It’s the right door. Door 2 is the wrong door. It’s easier at first, but it gets harder. There are problems and they’re bad problems. They are not worth the easy path because there are no rewards, which makes it the harder path. Having many interests is a good problem to have. It’s a problem because it can be challenging, but the rewards are worthwhile. It’s problematic in the world and culture we live in, but with God we find a way to fulfill our souls purpose.
What if you don’t want to be a superstar at something? What if you just want to be humbley good at a few things and live peacefully? Why are we all so hung up on being The Best Fill-in-the-blank? It feels like a really contrite and frivolous ego pursuit. If everyone is the best, then no one is. My culture is so caught up on being inspiring and excessive instead of just being mindful. I think you have other articles regarding being mindful with your energy and time and efforts. I shall go watch those…
One more issue with pursuing too many interests is also the demands on your personal ‘Energy’. In the book, ‘The Power of Full Engagement’ the authors delve into How our Energy keeps depleting with our Increasing Professional Commitments and other To-Do’s. And if we don’t focus on Energy Renewal or Recovery, we’ll burn out very soon.
This is pretty solid advice…if your goal is to reach maximum productivity. Pick X-number of long-term goals/interests from your list, then take the rest of the list and avoid them. However, for people who have the issue with LEISURE hobbies, is it really harmful to have too many? Does suppressing your curiosity and appetite for certain things really help if you become burned out on the hobbies you selected to keep?
Hey Thomas, so must your whole life revolve strictly around these priorities and your career? It seems restrictive and monotonous.I mean outside of these career goals I still have hobbies I would like to pursue, personal insight I want to gain and expand my knowledge overall. So my question is: Is there any way to differentiate career goals from personal interests? Can I possibly have two different kinds of lists?
Hey, Frank/ People. Whats, up! I was wondering if hobbys shoud be on those lists. For example, you like playing a game on your computer, and sometimes, you like perusal articles of people talking about that game, giving tips and things like that. When making the first 25 items list, does that game must be listed with all those things else? I can’t forget to say I loved the tips, they’re helping me a lot! Thank you, man.
I actually think a lot about this issue, and most of the advice I has seen is along these lines. Cal Newport always talks about doing fewer things (especially at one time), and I think that strategy has a lot of merit. However, I saw a TED talk (youtube.com/watch?v=4sZdcB6bjI8) earlier this week that made me revisit the question. Basically, the speaker talks about the merits of being a ‘multipotentialite’ (basically a polymath) and how people who fall into this category should consider a different approach to life and career planning than what she calls ‘specialists.’ I’m still not sure which way (if either) is the right one, and I think any solution (for someone who does feel drawn to many fields) needs to include a balance of both. Right now, the best solution I can think of is to focus on a few things at a time, like a now list, but allow yourself more freedom to switch paths. Personally, in my productivity system, I clarify which projects are on “my desk”, which is essentially my now list, but I also keep a list of projects on “the shelf”, which allows me to preserve the “20 items” from the Warren Buffet story as things I can still do in the near future, but won’t distract me right now. Does anyone else have a system for organizing many priorities? I feel like productivity literature tends to favor a specialist approach, but I think their are a lot of merits to broadening your lens.
“Have too many interests and not enough time? Here’s a really long article about how and why you should build a website!” But… but i’m not interested in that, and don’t have the time for the things I am interested in already… I think I am going to try the list technique, however I would alter it as something to do dynamically. Ie once you accomplish sufficient knowledge and skills from one or two of the five things. Redo the list and assess your new priorities and then focus on those. So it’s an “avoid those at all costs, for now, list.” I just got diagnosed with a foot fracture which will take another 3-5 weeks to heal, so I am ignoring/shelving anything to do with martial or movement arts, aside from just general fitness, for a month then will see where I am at for being interested in those again in a month or so.
my tip is very similar to this story list all the things you have to study/watch/exercise…. and define a number of things to do everyday now I have 20 things to do,and I’ve decided that the minimum is 6 things to do everyday,and I mark when I do each thing,so I can see what I’m doing more and doing less also,I follow a concept which is “you must have at least 3 hobbies: one to get you money, one to develop your body and one to develop your brain”
This has been a huge problem for me. I need to complete my stock trading course in order to gain a source of income, I want to pursue my writing goals and complete my first novel and I want to continue developing my vocal and guitar skills to form a band and pursue my music career but I’m so easily distracted. I’ll start working on one thing and I’ll feel like, yes this is it, this is what I’m gonna do from now on, then the next day I will have either lost motivation or my motivation will have moved on to something else. I start so many projects but never finish them and as a result I’m living in a rut. I’m still living at home, I don’t have an income other than the £50 a week I get because of my Asperger’s but it’s impossible to live on that and I wouldn’t want to anyway cos I want to earn my own money. I spend a lot of time feeling depressed and useless and not actually working on anything cos I feel like there’s no point when I know I won’t see it through. Basically I’ve become a waste of humanity
Dude I got many also… I wanna be an artist, chess player, pianist, and programmer. I’m serious in all of them but all I could ever get the time to get on is drawing and piano and I also play article games that rely on reflex because I believe it helps me focus but studying is getting in the way. 5pm-6pm is game time. 6-7pm is piano. 7-8pm is drawing. Oh and I watch anime 8-9pm to lessen depression and I wake up at 5 am to get 8 hours of sleep and lessen depression how do I do this I can only do 2. Can somebody pls give some tips
Being a “jack of all trades, master of none” or a “one-trick pony” is bad. Its better to have a small group of core interests (maybe 3-5 depending on how much you can handle) and a bigger group of side interests. If you can confidently call yourself a master in 20+ different interests then you are an exceptional human being. If having too many interests is preventing you from mastering 1 or 2 of those interests then its time to drop some and prioritize.
Hey, Tom I really liked this Now idea of DS and read through your now page too. Btw, I also read some other article about the same topic that suggests you to actually balance your life with 3 lists :Must haves, nice-to-haves and avoid at all cost(he called it procrastination activities) then you make a weekly plan with these 3 lists in mind….you enter your must haves first then fit in nice-to-haves if possible and avoid Avoid-at-all-costs…… He’s Antoine Ribordy from Tinybuddha.com give it a read (Y)
after clicking through your links somehow ended up perusal a fb vid of you jumping around a playground lol i enjoyed it.. and with that impossible list, i had the very same idea of coding a site and doing that type of thing but it never manifested for whatever reason… right now though i’m thinking about creating a website as a portfolio and showcasing data science / machine learning projects; i believe i’m ultimately going to pursue that as a career. i’ve done a couple simple ones and one big one that i put ~14 hours into and i really enjoyed the process and outcome; learned a lot and had fun with my partner i was working with at the time
hey thomas ..I absolutely love your articles I think they are very intellectual …I recently watched your article on the importance of sleeping … i am studying for mcat and for me to stay focused and productive I need a way to be proactive which I think will be useful if I take naps through out the day instead of actually sleeping .. can you pleaee give your insight on this ..and if you think this is a good idea please do let me know… thanks 🙂
Interesting idea. Right now I’m about to graduate with a bachelors in Graphic Communications with a double emphasis and a marketing minor. For me all that encompasses photography, article, design, coding, animation, etc. And that’s where my indecision really comes from. I love most parts of digital media, but I feel like I should be an expert in all of it. I’m job hunting right now and I suppose it’s good that I can apply for multiple different areas and still have enough knowledge to start, but I’m not sure what I 100% want to focus on. Then of course, I have my hobbies outside of my career like women’s studies, writing, running, reading and AH! I could definitely pick 5 career based goals to focus on and ditch the rest, but I wouldn’t be willing to give up any of my outside hobbies because I think they round me out as an individual and they’re fun and they’re things I do when I’m not working. What’s interesting for me is that I read a lot of YA and I’ve considered looking to find a social/digital media job in the publishing industry like Harper Collins YA BECAUSE reading is something that I love to do. So eventually that hobby could become apart of my career. INDECISION.
There are more important and lesser interests always in life. Even in the top priorities there is a hierarchy. It’s important to be very talented in one area and very familiar in others. I’m a Russian expert who is well versed in Spanish and to a lesser degree French. I’m looking to move towards a master’s degree program in Russia for business management or economics. It’s useful to see how you can expand your knowledge and grow it in different ways. By doing my master’s in Russia 1. I’m saving money, 2. I’ll continue to improve my Russian language, and 3. I’ll learn a new skill. Be a diversified expert I say. Like Mikhail Lomonosov the founder of Russian science and Russian grammar.
You should also think about what your skills an abilities are. Thinking about these things helpen me form my choice and making a good schedule helped me maintain that choice(i recommend google calendar). I did it like this: What special skills do I have? What are the things people compliment me about? What are my interests? What things do I dislike? What are things I’m really bad at? I’m psychological minded, I can read and recognize behaviours. I know what a good design is. I love technology, computers and science. People compliment me about how assured I look when giving presentations. They compliment me about how I’m able to fix every computer problem and how I have such a knowledge about science. I really suck at math. And for that reason I was not able to study science or computer engineering. But the assurance I have, the psycological mindedness, the dream of being a business men and travelling around the world led me to study Marketing and International Business. My goal is to work for a technology or science company and to do their marketing because I can easily understand new concepts in these categories and I’m also able to “sell” it. The second thing I did is make a schedule in Google Calendar and scheduling time for classes, school tasks and studying time. I also made some time for my priority interests like meditating, gaming, reading books, coding, learning new languages (human languages, not codes) and some relaxing time. And I will now try to fill in the gaps in my schedule with other interests I maybe have.
I’ve been doing this since around 2013/14, 👍. I think first, rule out the jobs/major’s you definitely don’t want to do and then narrow it down to the least to most fav job. Also your lists can change over time, (mine do). Thus people have career changes. Atm I’m at Uni but maybe after can go to community college/TAFE in Aus.
Few days back i felt like i should sketch( its one among my hobbies). So to do so i set aside all my major priorities ( routine studying ). Then the next day i realised i broke the chain( the daily study chain). Then i dint feel like to study for 3 days in a row. I regret choosing on sketching because at the end the sketch was not that perfect and that made me focus more upon building sketching skill which obviously needs more time n concentration.. This article was so appropriate. But now i have reset my priority list. N got back on to studying again. Thanks for the article !!.
I have the same problem but with me the maj prob is that ny priorities are short termed .Like I donot have long term goals because I loose motivation.this short term goals doesnot satisfy me.I still want try everything.I feel like I am not ready to be commited only to one thing and its effecting my studies.
dear i am so greatful for your articles i have watched all of them and all are great, i need your advice i cant decide what to be i am in the last year of gimnasium i want to become a doctor or a priest or maybe a teacher the thing i want to do every day is helping people i am not confident in being a doctor because i am not enough good at chemistry i eont be able to be a priest because i a.m to shy and my last problem is becoming a teacher because in my country they dont earn enough money( Hungary) I would be glad if you could answer or give some advice God bless your life Balázs
I’ve realized I’m someone who is interested in nearly everything, and can get invested in tons of different things, at least for a while. This is actually a strength, since I wouldn’t even want to focus my career around one or two things. I could never aspire to be the world’s best coder etc. In stead I chose to study in a field (political science) that prepares me for multiple career options as an expert who can analyse various kinds of information. If you’re anything like me, maybe don’t bother narrowing down your interest more than necessary, but pic a field where you learn analysing skills etc that are applicable to many things!
Thomas, I am 39 years old and I want to live on my own. I have lived with my parent for most of my life. If that is one of my goals, do I still have time to continue to learn Latin, and Spanish on my own or do sitting and bowing mediation? Do you have to share your “Priorities” page with anyone else?
Hey, I loooove your articles and you motivate me so much!:) I have a question. It is good if I can only come up with 13 goals, and all of them rotate around the same topic (writing/translating/editing/or working for such people/companies)? Also, some of them are time-related (such as diplomas, language certificates, memberships etc.). I don’t know if I am just so narrowed down or if I just can’t see more posibilities in other areas… thanks a lot! 🙂 xx
this is great advice but i actually dont think it works for me. i honestly work better when i’m working on all of my interests at once. So for a while i was just doing medicine and it really drained me and made me feel unmotivated to just work on one thing and it seemed too stressful to add more interests into my life.but then i ended up really missing my other interests (videography, learning languages, painting, humanities, etc) so i ended up signing up and pursuing everything all at once and somehow im even more productive than usual. Like before if i just had one thing i was pursuing i would always put it off because I had a lot of time. Now because i have a lot of other interests im always staying on top of things to make sure i have time for everything. idk lol.
Question: How do you let go of everything on that list of “avoid at all costs”? It’s easy enough to circle the top 5 interests or goals, but it’s pretty hard for some people to fully let go of things they enjoy. For me, I enjoy drawing, playing guitar, playing piano, level design for articlegames, voice acting, 3d modelling, any many more things. I know I can’t really get good at any of those unless I focus on only one or two of them, but sometimes it’s really hard to do so. I focus on what I feel like is my top priority for a while, but I get bored and have a very strong urge to do something on the do-not-do list. It’s like my top 5 list is always changing.
I usually write down my aims so that when I have some time I try to dedicate to them in the first place; before doing something else; but often, in order to accomplish them more efficiently you need some inspiration, or maybe some more energy; that’s my problem. When you’re too tired, cause you’ve been working on something else, or you’ve been studying all day, or you wake at 4:20 AM and after taking the train to come back home you’re too tired, how do you approach the things you have to do? I kind of ranked my chorse to classify them basing on the amount of energy I have to spend when I’m dedicating to them; so when I’m too tired for one of them, I try to give some time to the easiest ones, and that’s my attempt to optimize time. For example: too late at night and too sleepy to try some maths? Let’s do some english exercise. But still, it doesen’t work so easiliy very often. Sometimes you have just to take a breath and dedicate to stuff like drawing, playing an instrument or doing something relaxing. I don’t like this idea, because I’m always trying to be the most efficicient I can be, but it’s a fact you have to face sometimes. So, how do you manage those moments in wich you can’t do nothing, simply beacuse youre too tired?
I agree about the trying to focus on 5 interests at a time so that you don’t feel boggled down by all the ideas floating in your head, but the whole turning down new opportunities thing bugs me. The Now page is a good idea, but I don’t think a person should be chained to it like Silvers did unless it’s a crunch period, like exam times, or a time where you have to make a crucial decision and you really can’t afford to be distracted.
It doesn’t have to be five things. It could be three or fifty, or whatever is right for the life you want to live. The main point to to determine what those priorities are and focus on those. The hard part is coming up with the list and sticking to it. Further complicating things is that we don’t live linear lives so our priorities change over time.
I had several creative projects I was working on. I took the three I liked most, wrote them on index cards, and pulled one out of a hat. I’ve actually made more progress on all three of them since then, since I can’t actually control what pops into my head, when an idea that could be used for one of the others I take note of it and leave it alone. The one I drew out of a hat is moving along quite nicely.
I appreciate you so much! I balance interests and projects constantly, and simply not comfortable when I am not working on something. My best friend though is severely lethargic when it comes to having interests in almost anything at all. I’ve tried to motivate him but he seems to be becoming my polar opposite in this sense. Is there any hope to motivate him? btw I am also learning Japanese! Anyways your awesome
Additional priority tips as asked in chronological order: I got rid of friends people I wanted to better (career wise) for their own good (years of gentle persuasion) but to no avail so I moved on from those metaphoric anchors in my life, got closer to Jesus Christ that helped me drop bad habits I picked up from family and friends, moved out and away from my family that really opposed my views strongly, take like $350 worth of vitamins and organic supplements a month for health and brain function, watch the most beneficial articles on YouTube articles I can find like Ted talks Thomas Frank and anything else, and solely concentrate on my career goal. It’s a good life now. Also I would like to say, this is a post information age as I quickly read somewhere. Don’t listen to people do what you think is right Thomas Frank listen to a couple of “Paul Joseph Watson” articles with a discerning eye I could only watch a couple of his articles before not being able to look at people; he really hits it on the head of the nail sometimes like his “pop culture” article. I don’t really comment but when I do (in this instance) I feel it’s important to distinguish between people like blabber mouths, and people who just watch articles and want to get better at things like me… you know.
What if I have my shortlist, but I find that things that I should find most important (College, networking) are what I’m focusing least on because I prefer focusing on other interests (sports activities, work, internet browsing). How can I effectively prioritize and/or change my perception of my goals in my shortlist so that I feel motivated to spend more time on the more important activities, rather than those I like to do or those that are a habitual necessity, like work?
But what exactly is a career goal? Is it something we want to do, like ” swim every day”, something we want to be, like “be an engineer”, or something we want to accomplish, like, “get above a 3.5”. There are intangible and tangible goals, as well as long term and short term goals. What do we do to choose the best goals for us? Do we make a list of 25 goals for the semester, for our lifetime, for our academic selves, or our personal selves, for our spirit or what our third eye desires? Or do we make a list in all categories and see how they align?
Hey man i love all your articles, i hope they can motivate me to go to college or just to become a better person. I just recently subscribed. Im abit divided on this one cause I remember learning somewhere else that you should not tell people your goals because that gives you a sense of accomplishment even if you haven’t actually done anything.
I’m graduating this spring in electrical engineering. It’s been interesting. (sort of)I have been an honors student all of college, but I don’t have passion for it…. I’m interning right now at an amazing company, but I really don’t have the passion like my coworkers….I don’t want to force myself to memorize things that I don’t care about. I’m not sure how to choose my path when money is such a huge factor nowadays. Your articles help a lot. I want to pursue my art and possibly becoming an organizer. It’s really difficult to start, but I think I can do it if I work hard after college. Thanks for the articles
Hey Sarah 👋😊 Great list; I know I enjoy several of these hobbies whenever I have the time. I even plan on combining some; I’ve made several balls of plarn (plastic yarn made from shopping bags) and plan to crochet macrame plant holders for when I start gardening this spring. Wish I was a much better baker, but perhaps that’s for the best, as it would only counteract my healthier living hobbies… is that a hobby? 🤷♀️ Anyway, hope you’re enjoying your weekend!