This is an idea that I struggled with as far back as my freshman year of high school. It’s this feeling of being overwhelmed by all of the things you want to do. There are so many projects you genuinely want to work on that your attention is split, and you feel like you could never possibly do all of them or do them well. You almost feel paralyzed by choice – which activities should you devote your time to, when you want to do it all?

Recently, two small, unrelated online blogs I stumbled across both had articles on this exact topic – and seeing their college-graduated authors grapple with this very idea made me realize that I’m not alone in facing this. Fortunately, since freshman year I haven’t dealt with this issue as much, and I want to talk about why that is.

For me, I think the key to escaping this mindset was to realize how much of life I truly have in front of me. It sounds cliché, but instead of being agitated at the lack of time to accomplish all of my goals, I took a long-term view: there is seriously so much time out there. It’s okay to take things slow, to enjoy the process of getting better at the tasks you’re trying to do. There’s absolutely no rush to cross everything off of my list at once. What would I be left with then? Instead, it’s so rewarding to make steady progress on a few things at a time, knowing that these are projects I’m doing because I enjoy them.

I haven’t become any less ambitious in the three years that have passed, but I’ve become much more at peace with the idea of having goals lined up that I’m not currently working on and may not get to for a while. It’s actually comforting for me now – I know that if I ever get truly bored, there’s always a list of fun projects waiting for me.

So instead of feeling overwhelmed at all of the goals that I have on my list (there’s over 30 items, and this blog is actually one of them), I get excited thinking about all of these wonderful projects that are just waiting for me to start. There’s no set timeline, and I can add or drop projects whenever I want. But rather than having the intention of completing all of them, I find satisfaction in even just working on one of my goals.

That’s not to say that I encourage complacency. I’m very definitely making progress and chipping away at my list, and I’m certainly not trying to say “have a list but never work toward any goals on that list.” My point is just that it’s okay not doing everything – it’s okay to just focus on one project at a time, or to work on a few small projects lightly.

I think it’s great for people to have personal goals that they want to accomplish, and personally I derive a sense of purpose from working on my projects. When I wake up in the morning, it’s not the thought of school or entertainment or even seeing my friends that makes me eager to start the day – it’s the excitement of having time to work on goals that are self-set, self-directed, and ultimately meaningful to me. I hope my perspective will help you create these goals for yourself without being overwhelmed by the amount of projects you’re intending to tackle.