How I rediscovered myself and prioritize my interests (You can too)

For the longest time (say for the past 8 months or so), I’ve been feeling lost so I’ve decided to give myself a break. I’m determined to find out what’s been making me feel this way: I’ve been uninterested in things, (things I used to enjoy such as creating art or writing), my days feel the same, I wasn’t looking forward to anything and I don’t feel fulfilled regardless how much money I was making. All my life, ever since I was a teen, I’ve taught myself to chase after money, thinking that would solve everything. It didn’t.

I then realize I have the tendency to do too much too fast and that leads me to burn out. I’m dedicated and committed, I care about the work I produce and I work hard. I burn bright, and then shortly after I’ll mentally exhaust myself and I’d have to rebuild myself from the ground because there comes a time when I don’t know who I am anymore or what I like. The irony is I went from someone who has too many interests to having no interests at all.

First step,

I took a break (a proper one), I went on short vacations and I allowed myself to do nothing. I stopped my business “Rawlulu” to have a bit more time for my mind to relax and to reduce my responsibilities. Shortly after I quit my full-time job at an agency where I was a CRO & UI UX Regional Lead. I know instead of jumping on different projects or ideas what I have to do is figure myself out. So I treated myself like any client I would when I’m handling a design job. I then ask myself simple questions:

Who is Ally?
What does she like?
What is she good at?
What does she value?
What are the skills she has acquired?
How many years of experience does she have doing what she loves?
What does she have that makes her happy and what doesn’t?
Why do these things make her happy/unhappy?
How much effort, time, joy, and profit are involved in those activities?

Second, I put those information in a table on Notion

You can then sort the table based on certain filters. As for me, what’s important would be my joy meter and profit. After analyzing how each interest made me feel I came to the conclusion that no matter what I do in the future it has to revolve around this:

Because I’ve taken the time to understand myself and my capabilities, I know now what I should focus more on and less on. What I need right now is definitely to do more of what brings me joy and fulfilment. And to just treat other interests that don’t revolve around Art, Design, Writing and Ideating as mere hobbies I’d do in my spare time.

If you’d like to use the template I’ve created, you can download it here for free.