How to utilize maladaptive daydreaming

Generally speaking, we live interesting lives by discovering our passions and creating value for others to be inspired by. However, sometimes the thrill of trying new things, or wanting to be a part of something that you loved in your childhood can really lead you down an endless of road with no concrete direction in sight.

Personally speaking, I have been called a 'renaissance man' for having so many interests and trying to do so many things all once. This of course, really hampered my focus as you would find when multitasking and that only leads to wasted efforts. So over the course of my education and career, I have found ways that I could utitlize my obsessions with wanting to be a 'jack of all trades and master of some'.

Many of the working class may hold careers that are unfulfilling and may seek a new passion or multiple passions out of desperation to find what they were meant to do for a living. With the current job market, it is becoming very compeitive and to have a job that you like during these tough times is a blessing in itself. However, some of us may not enjoy the work, we may feel stressed if we hold a higher position that entails working after hours at home or having a job remotely that can cause a disruption to our worklife balance. We value our weekends, vacation, and eventual retirement and that is not a fulfilling life. For some of the working class, these stresses can cause us to think about the possibilities of wanting to start over on a new career path, or make a drastic change to escape.

Personally speaking this had become an issue as I would be constantly daydreaming about the things that made me feel happy in my childhood which can explain the surge of nostaligic items being resold online. I know for a fact that many others around me who are stressed out with working overtime, is causing them to seek an escape.

So this is where the benefit of allowing your daydreaming to guide you begins; we can use repeating thoughts to give us a starting point on setting up multiple sources of income.

We can first look at what you spend the most time thinking about, and this could be thoughts about perhaps, writing a book, making music online, teaching a new language, tutoring, starting a website to share your insights, and the list can go on. Really take the time to prioritize these recurrent thoughts and notice if they occur when you are stressed as this is a sign that your body finds peace within them.

I for example, would think about animation and sharing ideas on a blog as an interest whenever I am working on a task that does not interest me. I realized that we should not be frowning upon being distracted with our thoughts but instead, realizing that these could be a calling for us to capitalize on.

What we can look at next is if any potential interests have synergy, which means can the skills from one translate to the next. For me, my love of animation and telling stories can translate well into blogging and also can transition to better interactions with patients from my full time healthcare position. With these transferrable skills, I can do all these jobs easily without feeling like I am disengaged. It makes handling the potential multiple sources of income that much easier when we find similarities between the them.

This is not without its struggles, pursuing a lifestyle where you are the 'jack of all trades' can make many individuals who are insecure about the idea, present their stance that can also make you hesitant about pursuing this lifestyle. The worries about not having a stable career, or the need to specialize on one skill so you are more valuable in a specific industry can make the idea of balancing your passions less fulfilling. However, putting your eggs in one basket may not be the wisest move, especially with companies going bankrupt due to the fallout of the pandemic. We should be letting go of the idea that we can only be great at one thing and one thing alone and embrace the idea of opening our horizons and being great at many things if it truly matters to us.

Telling our children that they can be anything they put their mind to is nice, but it causes uneeded stress if plan A does not work out. We should be encouraging the next generation that they can be great a many things and therefore become a more well rounded individual. An individual that does not need to daydream about what ifs, vacations, retirement, travelling after retirement etc. By living a life filled with your passions and a solid way to integrate them in your lifestyle can be a way for us to never have to think about retirement, infact you may consider that you have already retired since you are doing things that you love. By prirotizing what our minds are telling us instead of listening to the insecurities of people who value status, and having one solid career to settle into, we truly can be a 'jack of all trades and master of many'.