Honest Iron

This is for those of us who like to wander…

What comes to mind when you think of a jack of all trades? For some of you, it may have a positive ring and be interpreted as someone who is skilled in many areas. To others, you may finish the saying by adding, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Whatever your interpretation of the saying, we can all probably agree that it is easy to become a jack of all trades when it comes to our hobbies.  Lets take a look at why this is important and why you should strongly consider your hobbies before you start paying the opportunity cost.

Passion or Interest?

This may not be a million dollar question but it could easily be a thousand dollar question. If you have an innate thirst to learn/explore, there is a good chance that you can find something interesting about nearly anything that crosses your path. This is a great characteristic if  leverage properly but it can also be our Achilles heel. When interests spread us too thin, we either wont have enough time or enough money to accomplish what we want.

However, it is our choice and it can be a great feeling to let go of something to allow us to pursue something else more intently or more thoroughly. But what do we need to consider to make these choices? Well this is the crux of this rant and like anything that can stir emotions, there is a sense of loss which can very easily cloud our judgement.

The overarching question should be, “is this a passion or an interest?” Lets go through these two categories in detail so that you can start to better understand the implications.

Interests – These are things you find cool. Maybe you know someone who is really into this hobby and they showed you a thing or two. Maybe you saw it on Youtube and you binge watched it for an hour before pricing equipment on Amazon. Maybe you saw a picture on Pintrest and you thought, “yea, I could do that.”

Something that is cool will only hold our attention for so long and then we will latch on to something else and cycle continues. Now compare this with a passion.

Passions – Passions are things that you live and breathe. You wake early or stay up late to get more time in. You can see yourself doing this indefinitely. Even the worst parts of this hobby energizes you, whether through the work itself or through the satisfaction of completing it.

Passions are typically life long endeavors that while they may have to wait, you will always come back to them. If a significant other doesn’t like this hobby it would be a game changer. Passions are part of you.

Your Money or Your Life… or Both

Why does it matter? Maybe I like having tons of hobbies. That may be true but it wont be without the loss of something. You only have so many days with so many hours and so many dollars. If you spread all that time and money around, it wont go as far. I’m not saying you can’t be into a variety of hobbies but you must understand the opportunity cost. I’ll go into this in more detail in a later article.

For many of us, we never take time to sit back and look strategically about where our time and money are spent. The best time to do this is before we get into something new. Once we have committed time or money, the decisions get harder to make. Make sure you do your due diligence in advance. Make sure that if you are to become a jack of all trades, that it is by choice and not by accident.