Coaching practices for I Feel Like I Should Already Know My One Thing and Lock in but Honestly I've Barely Tried Anything I've Been Circling the Same Narrow Few Options and I Have No Idea What Else Might Grab Me Because I've Never Gone Out and Sampled it
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Feel Like I Should Already Know My One Thing and Lock in but Honestly I've Barely Tried Anything I've Been Circling the Same Narrow Few Options and I Have No Idea What Else Might Grab Me Because I've Never Gone Out and Sampled it, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I feel like I should already know my one thing and lock in, but honestly I’ve barely tried anything
- I’ve got two or three things I’m genuinely into, and I keep feeling like having more than one means I’m scattered and unfocused
- I keep hopping from one new thing to the next, waiting to feel that lightning-bolt passion before I’ll really commit
- I come up with three or four obvious options, one of them seems fine, and I just grab it
- Every time I pick one thing I ache about all the paths I’m closing off, and I keep half-committing to leave my options open
Practices that may help
- Sample widely before committing to a niche
Premature specialization forecloses interests you haven’t discovered yet.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Allow multiple active interests without forcing a hierarchy
Having more than one developing interest is not a sign of lost focus — it’s how passion develops for many people.
Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love - Develop interest, don’t just wait to find it
Deepen passion through engagement over time rather than expecting instant fit.
Grit: Passion and Perseverance, Honestly Assessed - Go for quantity first
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Embracing necessary missing-out
Accept that every yes is a thousand noes — and choose anyway.
Four Thousand Weeks, Made Practical - Follow genuine interest, not strategic interest
Pursue the thing that genuinely excites you — even if you cannot explain why or see how it fits.
The Creative Act: Rick Rubin’s Approach to Making - Experiment without attachment to outcome
Make many small experiments and treat each result as information — not as success or failure.
The Creative Act: Rick Rubin’s Approach to Making - Quantity first: generate the most ideas possible before evaluating any
The best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas — originality rises with volume, so generate recklessly before selecting.
The Beginner’s Mind in Creative Practice - Bias toward action over deliberation
Ship a rough version fast to learn what the problem actually is rather than theorizing indefinitely.
Creative Confidence, Made Practical - Balance divergent with convergent thinking
Treat creativity as two phases — open up to generate, then close down to select.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas
Related concerns
- Follow Your Passion Research
Paul O’Keefe and colleagues found that people who believe interests are fixed ("find your passion") tend to abandon pursuits when they get hard, while those who see interests as developed through effort stay curious and persistent. The evidence suggests "follow your passion" is not just unhelpful advice — it may actively discourage the effort that transforms shallow interest into deep, sustaining work.
- When Divergent Thinking Balance Divergent Convergent
Treat creativity as two phases — open up to generate, then close down to select.
Balance divergent with convergent thinking
- When Grit Develop Interest Deliberately
Deepen passion through engagement over time rather than expecting instant fit.
Develop interest, don’t just wait to find it
- When Passion Vs Interest Allow Multiple Interests
Having more than one developing interest is not a sign of lost focus — it’s how passion develops for many people.
Allow multiple active interests without forcing a hierarchy
- Choose Your Influences
Curate the artists, ideas, and work you love — your taste is the raw material you will recombine.
Collect your influences deliberately
- Creative Confidence On A Budget
Creative confidence, as defined by Tom and David Kelley of IDEO, is the belief that you can generate good ideas and act on them — and research on self-efficacy shows it is learnable, not fixed. The core method is accumulating small creative wins through guided practice, which rebuilds confidence that was typically damaged by early criticism or comparison.
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