I’ve heard that the age at which most people die is in their first year of life, and the year they retire. At first glance, I would assume this is because once you retire, you lose a lot of meaning in your life.

I’m never going to retire. I may retire from paid work, it’s one of my biggest aims, but for as long as I live, I’ll be working on some creative project.

Which is where the two-pronged attack comes in.

Keep chipping away at one project, but have a second (or more) project periodically taking jabs.

Ever since I started my professional career, I’ve always had at least two projects on the go.

My first job out of uni was at a bank, but I was working on the side as an English teacher too. Then when I got my first job in Japan, I used my spare time for study, earning N1, the highest grade in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and a Master’s degree in the process.

These days are a bit of a mess. I have multiple projects on the go, but I couldn’t imagine it being any other way. Not because I’m hedging my risks, but because I feel compelled to do all these things. They just feel too important to me to not get done.

There’s an important caveat here though. As someone who’s lost their job out of the blue before, I’ve learned that people can turn from angels into assholes at the drop of a hat. For the most part, I’ve made it so these projects either entirely rely on me, or if they were to fall through, that I could get back up on my feet relatively quickly. In that case I am hedging my risks.

Professionally it might just be a better idea to focus on one thing. But I feel even if you succeed at that, depending on what it is, you may be lacking in other areas of your life. This constant chugging away would give you something to keep you entertained indefinitely.