Generalists Vs Specialists: to be a jack of all or master of one
The rate of a chemical reaction can be raised by increasing the surface area of a solid reactant.
When we think of successful people, we assume they must have been groomed from young in that specific discipline to become the best in their fields. That may be true for the likes of Tiger Woods who was already imitating his father's golf swing as a toddler, however the opposite is generally more true. A lot of the greatest athletes were trained in multidisciplinary fields before honing in on their specialism. Roger Federer played basketball, Football, badminton, and tennis, the sport he's known for . Michael Jordan played American football, baseball, and basketball. The examples can go on, the 8 time NBA all star Steve Nash played ice hockey, and football(soccer) in his youth, he took up basketball aged 12.
These extracurricular activities may seem like distractions, why bother with a game of football if my sport is to hit a ball with a racket, right? We tend to get tunnel vision and put blinders on to anything that may seem a distraction away from our main goal. I'm not advocating for you to try and play 10 sports at once, for many the age for you to have time and energy may be dwindling, however by engaging in hobbies you open your mind to new possibilities and connections.
Research supports this idea, Nobel prize winning scientists are 3x more likely to engage in creative hobbies than their non-prize winning counterparts. Why is that so? Openness to novel experiences allows for the scientists to take a step away from their work to their hobbies, and in this space their minds are free to wander and come up with insights they would have not if they had focused solely on the scientific research.
Reflecting on my own journey I can see the periods where I've been engaged in various fields had led me to connections I wouldn't have otherwise made. In secondary school my time was spent playing as many sports as I was introduced to, the two main sporting disciplines that stick out was athletics and football. I started training BJJ/MMA when I was 20 years old, which in the world of professional martial arts could be considered late. But building off my own curiousity I was able to pick up concepts easier, and adjust to the difficulty of the new sport. In my spare time I don't spend as much time at all playing many other sports, but this is not for not wanting to. I try and keep active with hobbies such as videography/photography, swimming and reading.
Taking time away from the mats learning, immersing myself in creative endeavours, and not focusing on the nitty gritty details of why a certain grip is better than another, helps me to come back with a fresh mind, clear of any baggage or toxic buildup.
So, what does that all have to do with surface area and the rate of a chemical reaction? Just as increasing the surface area of solids speeds up a reaction, expanding your experiences through different hobbies increases your minds "surface area", allowing for more ideas and solutions to materialize. Hobbies stimulate different parts of our mind, and with more neural connections the sharper and more flexible our brains can be when problem solving.
If you're reading this and you feel as though you're always feeling stuck or unmotivated then maybe it's time to pick up a new hobby or restart an old one. The benefits are beyond what we can visibly perceive. Like in a chemical reaction, the larger your mental surface area, the faster and more effectively you’ll find solutions.
More Hobbies = More ideas = More solutions