As we are leaving the first month of 2026 behind, I want to talk about something we all have been experiencing lately: just how fast the time changes – and the bittersweet feeling it brings along.
I’m 27, the famous age that everyone warns you about. To be honest, I didn’t expect anything other than usual, just another year, another age and to be fair nothing much changed with my life. I live and work in the same places I used to, still have the same friend circle and I feel blessed for it all. From an outer perspective everything is as it has been, yet I can’t help but noticing a shift in my way of experiencing life.
Once you are done with school, life gets x2 playback speed. Mainly because of how routine things get. If you have a traditional work routine with 40 hours of work 5 days a week, it leaves you a very limited room to play. The meet ups with friends are scheduled way ahead of time, every travel, event or celebrations are decided months in advance. Life does not (or more like is not able to) surprise you anymore, it only pleases or discomforts. Your routine provides a safe bubble, a comfort zone and that’s actually a dangerous place to be in 24/7. One simple reason: Our brains feed on new experiences. Lack of learning alone can cause early age dementia, let alone the emotional side effects of it. If you fell into that comfort loop, time moves much faster and it’s almost as if you don’t keep an eye on it, routine will take over and suddenly days roll into weeks, then to months and years.
I guess this realization made me motivated to open this page in the first place. A collection of my thoughts, without any algorithm, likes or followers to deviate my focus. It was quite a rush to start writing like this again, especially in a zone that I created. The feeling of expression created a domino effect. I found myself motivated to do more, create more. I started yoga, gym and vocal lessons all at once, while still thinking about how many days it has been since i visited ice rink or learned a new piano piece. It was this hunger that felt like impossible to satiate. As I was craving for more, I was also starting to get tired. Slowly, I started to question whether it is common to feel like this: being torn apart between interests while trying to max out experiencing different aspects of life.
It is almost as if trying to inhale all the oxygen world has to offer in one breath – but your lungs start to hurt.
If you feel the same, I will hold your hand while I say this: you cannot do it all at once. Your time, energy and resources are limited, and even if you manage to fit them all in your schedule, you might not feel present in the moment to actually enjoy what you do – because you are stuck thinking all the other things you took on your plate. You eventually get lost in that multiverse of a life while running around trying to have it all.
So what do we do? We understand whats going on, then find a structure that fits our needs.
Let’s start with basics. Why is this happening? First off, this is not gluttony nor being a show off. It’s actually rather a dilemmatic way of existing, the more you try to have the more limitations on how deep you can go. Like Icarus getting too close to the sun, you walk in the edges of burnout. So what is it?
To each their own, we have different psychological backgrounds and it can be many things. Maybe fear of failure keeps you from deepening your expertise and variation feels safer? Maybe you have an outlier case of FOMO. Or even more frequently mentioned, it can be ADHD. Since I am no clinical psychologist, let me tell you a little bit about some other alternative: multi-potentiality.
Multi-potentiality (multi-pod) is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability and preference of a person, particularly one of strong intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields.
It was first mentioned by Emilie Wapnick on a 2015 TED Talk: Why Some of Us Don’t have One True Calling. The term refers to people with a specific cognitive pattern. Their exploration thrives with pattern noticing, curiosity and fast learning.
These all sound like superpowers when you came across, and they can actually be as such, with only one key component that is structure. Without direction you are lost, without purpose your efforts are just scattered all around without any progress. So how do you structure it? According to Wapnick you have three alternatives:
- The Slash Approach Do several things at the same time(writer / designer / yoga teacher)
- The Einstein Approach: One main job pays the bills, others live on the side
- The Phoenix Approach: Dive deeply into one thing, then reinvent yourself when it’s done
Think about it for a while, experiment with them and once the shoe fits, watch how you become much more comfortable with your way of living.
Before we go, I will leave a bonus tip, one from my own – maybe it makes sense. Design your life as if you are making a lecture plan in college. It works perfectly especially if you go with The Slash Approach. For example, divide 2026 quarterly, and dedicate each quarter with their highlighted areas along with side quest. Imagine as if you are studying your very own university, one which you determine everything. If you want you can even see it as a video game, whatever that works for you.
As long as you strategize your way of living in a way that soothes the chaos that comes with it, you will see life with many interests can be quite joyful and fulfilling.
For those who want to read more: “How to Be Everything” by Emily Wapnick is a highly recommended one.
With love,
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