One Life: Why I Stopped Trying to Pick “The One” and Started Sequencing Instead

I’ve always been the guy who gets excited about way too many things.

One month, I’m deep into coding. Building React apps, experimenting with new JS libraries, thinking this could be huge. Then I switch to learning prompting for AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, because honestly, mastering prompts has become part of my daily life and work. It feels essential. But then come the random pulls: diving into books on stoicism, trying to learn data engineering (even though it’s way outside my current path), messing around with video editing just for fun, or daydreaming about a podcast on tech from Jaffna. It’s fun… until the guilt kicks in.

The unfinished tutorials. The half-started side projects. That voice in my head is going, “Why can’t you just focus on one thing like normal people?”

I used to think I was the problem—maybe not disciplined enough, maybe not passionate enough about anything. Then I found a YouTube video called “Career Strategy For People With Too Many Interests” by Knowspire. It described my brain exactly, without making me feel broken.

The big idea? It’s not a passion problem. It’s a strategy problem.

For people like me (multipotentialites who love variety), cramming everything into a single straight path usually leads to half-finished work, burnout, or never really getting good at anything. The video shares a simple 3-bucket system that actually made sense to me:

The Money Maker — Right now, this is coding + getting really good at AI prompting and new AI tools. These are the skills I use every day; they pay the bills (or will soon), and the market needs them. I put most of my focused energy here—building projects, shipping code, freelancing, and learning better ways to prompt LLMs. It’s building real momentum and giving me options.
The Soul Stuff — This is teaching at Uki Technology School. I studied there in 2017, worked full-time at the Kilinochchi branch, and now I do part-time. Teaching has always been my real passion. Seeing young minds light up when they understand something new and connecting with students fills me up. No pressure to monetise it more or turn it into a business. I protect time for it like an appointment because it keeps me feeling alive.
The Curiosity Shelf — Everything else goes here. Data engineering curiosity, video editing experiments, new book rabbit holes, maybe starting that podcast one day. I let myself dip in lightly—an article, a quick tutorial, a few minutes of tinkering—but no big commitments. They wait until I have more space.

This isn’t about killing what I love. It’s about sequencing: build stability and skills first, get some breathing room and freedom, then bring in more things later without the chaos.

For years, I chased the classic Ikigai Venn diagram—that perfect overlap of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what pays. I kept hunting for “the one thing.” But my interests don’t line up neatly yet. My coding and AI skills are growing, but teaching feeds my soul in a different way. And honestly, the popular Ikigai is a Western version anyway—the real Japanese idea is simpler: finding small daily joys and reasons to wake up, not always one big career mashup.

Forcing my scattered brain into one tiny circle felt wrong, like I had to drop parts of myself to “succeed.”

The 3-bucket way permitted me to be all of me—just not all at maximum intensity right now.

These days, I’m doubling down on the Money Maker: more code, better prompts, open-source contributions, and stronger freelance work. It’s not always exciting, but it’s moving me forward. Teaching at Uki keeps me grounded and happy. The Curiosity Shelf is still full, but it doesn’t stress me out anymore—it’s just waiting.

It doesn’t fix everything. Some days, a shiny new idea pulls hard. Some days I wonder if I’m playing too safe. But I feel less scattered, less guilty, more in control.

If you’re nodding along—if you’ve got 10+ tabs of courses, ideas, and dreams—your variety isn’t a flaw. It’s a strength. You just need a better structure.

Try it: grab a notebook, list everything, and sort into the three buckets honestly. Pick your anchor for now (not forever). Protect your soul time. Park the rest. Stick with it for 6–12 months and see.

Your interests aren’t disappearing. But your focused energy is limited. Use it smart.

And maybe one day the buckets will naturally blend into something that feels like my own version of Ikigai—not forced, but built step by step.

What’s in your Money Maker bucket right now? Drop a comment—I’d really like to know.

— Parathan Jaffna, March 2026