Tim Ferriss Shares His Strategy for A Happier, More Successful Life: It’s Especially Useful If You’re ‘Feeling Stuck’

Tim Ferriss contends that a singular concentration is not inherently the optimal route to success and happiness.

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Engaging in many passions and side ventures can enhance your happiness and create new job prospects, asserts the investor, bestselling author, and podcaster. Ferriss refers to "identity diversification" as a concept he has advocated to every business founder he has invested in over nearly two decades.

According to him, new hobbies and interests are not only distractions; they are avenues for cultivating passion, enhancing mental well-being, and infusing greater purpose into one's life. Identity diversification can be beneficial for individuals experiencing stagnation, weariness, or anxiety, according to Ferriss.

The counsel may appear paradoxical from Ferriss—an early investor in firms such as Uber, Facebook, and Twitter—who also asserts that concentrated focus enhances productivity and is a prevalent characteristic of successful individuals.

However, the two pieces of advise are not mutually incompatible, he elucidates: The most successful individuals cultivate several interests and passions, thereafter organizing their time to allocate suitable individual concentration to each when necessary.

Individuals with "self-complexity" — characterized by many interests or roles — exhibit greater resilience in the face of setbacks, as reported by the American Psychological Association. This concept is not novel: possessing multiple passions facilitates the management of disappointment in any one domain, as it prevents that domain from becoming the sole determinant of one's identity, as articulated by psychologist Patricia W. Linville in the academic journal Social Cognition in 1985.

Psychology researchers discovered in 2015 that participating in diverse hobbies and interests helps alleviate stress, resulting in increased happiness and overall fulfillment.

Commencing on a modest scale is acceptable

When success is evaluated solely via a singular aspect of life, such as employment — a perspective notably common among company founders, as Ferriss observes — every failure is more likely to elicit an intense negative response, complicating the process of surmounting that challenge.

“Experiencing temporary failure is acceptable,” asserts Ferriss. “However, individuals who ultimately implode and experience total failure frequently lack the embrace and engineering of some form of identity diversification.”

Possessing several hobbies and passions can offer you both "professional insurance and psychological insurance," according to Ferriss. He has implemented this logic in his business by concentrating on developing and selling his podcast, for instance, while recuperating from investment fatigue.

For individuals experiencing feelings of stagnation and anxiety, Ferriss suggests initiating new interests with simple activities, such as attending a local game night or locating a chess partner. One may enroll in an online course, acquire a new skill, or engage in physical exercise; commencing with modest efforts is OK, he asserts.

The duration dedicated to new endeavors "does not have to be extensive," asserts Ferriss, further stating: "It merely requires consistency." Engage in activities a few times weekly, or even once weekly, to facilitate advancement in a domain beyond your major focus.

Ferriss' passion for board games prompted him to collaborate with game designer Elan Lee, co-creator of the card game Exploding Kittens, to create a card game titled Coyote, he asserts. The game was released in Walmart shops in March and will be available at Target and Amazon in July. Although it has sold successfully thus far, Ferriss notes that developing the game has provided him with an unforeseen amount of fulfillment.

He may never have considered the prospect of developing a game had he "merely donned blinders and persisted on the podcast trajectory until the well ran dry," he argues.