I love questionnaires and filling in worksheets, especially about myself. Ha! But seriously... We have to fill out an information sheet about ourselves each year for work. There's the normal name, emergency contact, t-shirt size type questions. And there are questions I hate like, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" Umm, if I put too many strengths do I sound arrogant? If I put weaknesses do I sound incompetent? Or if I skip it am I cocky or can’t follow directions? Ugh! My favorite question is about hobbies. I have a million. Not really, but I do a lot:
- tennis
- kickboxing (when I can, on my own bag, in the garage)
- hiking (c'mon, fall weather!)
- camping
- singing (shower & car. I have stage fright, can you believe it?!)
- ukulele (still have a lot of learning to do)
- crafting (sewing, painting, etc.)
- yoga (need to do this more!)
- traveling (obviously...)
- reading
- horseback riding
- walking my dogs
- this blog
- family time
- friend time
- watching Braves baseball
- watching UGA football
- Bible time
And then there's things I would like to do:
- photography
- rock climbing
- bike riding
- nothing
- volunteer for charities
- be one of those teachers who grades things on time every time and has a cute classroom always
- write more
- archery
I am one of those people who doesn't excel at one thing; I’m mediocre at a lot of things.
Am I spread too thin?
Where's the line? How do you cut down on what you like? How do you balance it all? I know there’s priorities and time management, but is being overly involved beneficial or detrimental to a person and their growth? Does it work until it’s overwhelming or until you no longer are fulfilling your obligations? It's not like I'm trying to fill a resume or compete or find a career in these pastimes. I do realize I am very blessed to be capable to do all of these things I enjoy. I do realize not everyone has the same choices, privileges, and opportunities as I do. Please don’t misunderstand; I say all this to grow toward becoming a better person.
When I was at freshman orientation at UGA my group's leader, Eric, told us to join one or two groups, clubs, organizations, etc. and not fifteen. He said it's better to focus on one or two things and be invested in those and not be half-involved in a bunch of things. I’ve kept that advice with me for a long time. But now I’m thinking that perhaps I didn’t allow myself enough exposure to different types of things and so now I’m into everything. His advice really did help in college, though. Being involved in a handful of things made me a lot more committed and a lot less flaky. Granted, I can still be quite flaky, but I had more meaningful relationships with friends than if I had to be at 50 various places at one time. If I flaked out it was because I was lazy, not because I was busy. But now the only people I hang out with are Hubs and the furbabies, so I find myself looking for new things to do, especially since we don't have kids.
I only want to know, is it better to be well-rounded or to do one thing well?
Feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
-Sarah
