How to Choose a Direction When You Have Multiple Interests

Too many options. And a brain that's frozen.

Sports, work, school, business. Every other day someone's trying to convince you that it's time to decide. That you need to pick one thing. That you should have it all figured out by now.

And you're standing in the middle of it all and... nothing. Can't go left, can't go right. Paralysis.

Every athlete I've worked with over the past few years knows this feeling. Volleyball players, hockey players, track athletes. They're interested in multiple things at once -- and that's exactly what everyone around them sees as the problem. "Just pick something already." "You can't do everything." "Be more specific."

But here's the thing: the problem isn't that you're interested in multiple things. The problem is how you're trying to make the decision.

Why decision-making gets stuck

Most people decide like this: they sit in their heads, think about what might be a good fit, and then pick whatever sounds best.

Marketing sounds good. Business sounds good. Sports management sounds great.

But what does it actually involve? What does a Monday morning look like in that job? What will you be doing in the first hour after a year in that role? What will still excite you in year four -- and what will drive you crazy after three months, even though it seems cool right now?

Your brain can't answer these questions. It doesn't have the data. It only has assumptions.

What most people do -- and why it doesn't work

They think. They make plans. They take notes. They read articles about which careers have a future. They ask friends: "What would you do?"

And then they decide based on what seems most reasonable. Or safest. Or sounds best when they explain it to their parents.

That's not a decision. That's a guess.

A guess can work out. But in most cases, you'll realize after a year or two that the job isn't what you imagined. You've wasted time, energy, money. And you're starting over from scratch.

Athletes know this from another context

Imagine picking your strength program based solely on how it looks on video. You'd never actually lift a weight. You'd never find out whether you enjoy it or it drains you.

In sports, you don't do things that way. You try it. You feel it. Then you decide.

Do the same thing with work and career.

Go after experience

My recommendation is simple. Instead of making a big decision, test the direction first. Practically. In real life. For a few days or weeks.

You've got nothing to lose. All you stand to gain is information you can't get any other way. And that information -- how you feel inside the work, not how it looks from the outside -- is the most valuable thing you need when choosing a direction.

Four ways to test it

1. A short internship or part-time gig. Two to four weeks in a field that interests you. Enough to understand how things actually work there. Most companies welcome this -- you show up for free or low pay, they get an extra pair of hands.
2. A few days of shadowing. Know someone in the field? Ask if you can come in for a day and see what it's really like. Not as a tourist -- as someone who wants to see how things actually work.
3. A conversation with someone who actually does the job. Not a coach. Not a career counselor. A person who wakes up every morning and goes to do that work. Thirty minutes with the right person will give you more than a week of googling.
4. A mini project on your own. Interested in business? Try selling one thing. Try organizing one event. Try finding one customer. That will show you whether it energizes or drains you.

Sports gave you this ability

Here's something I feel strongly about. As an athlete, you have a massive advantage that most people forget about.

You know how to learn through action. You know how to try, fail, analyze, and try again. You do it at every practice. Every game. Thanks to sports, you know that uncertainty at the beginning doesn't mean you've made a bad choice. That experience always beats theory.

Use that here too. Approach choosing a direction with an athlete's mindset: test it, collect feedback, adjust course.

And one more thing: athletes are used to the fact that results don't come overnight. You train for months before you see improvement. Career is the same. A two-week internship won't answer everything -- but it'll give you more than six months of overthinking.

What to do when multiple things interest you at once

You don't have to pick one thing forever. You don't need to have it all figured out at twenty. What you need is one concrete next step.

Can you pick one thing right now that interests you the most? Or at least slightly more than the others? Good. Now choose one of the four testing methods above and do it within two weeks.

You're not deciding for life. You're only deciding for the next fourteen days.

Choosing a direction isn't a one-time event. It's a process.

Nobody "picks" a career once and that's it. Everyone builds it step by step. One experience leads to another. One contact opens the door to the next opportunity.

You don't have to know everything right now. Just take the first step. And the first step isn't a "big decision." The first step is "trying it out."

That's exactly how sports works. That's exactly how career works.

If you're looking for ways to find your first internship or part-time gig while maintaining a full training schedule, check out our guide for athletes on balancing work and training -- you'll find concrete tips on which jobs are compatible with training and how to make time for both.