Real Special Interest?

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Over and over and over again, I think about special interests and how to extrude a future career out of them. No luck. As I think about it, it seems to me that while I've held those interests for most of my life, I can't get enthused about them enough to give them the single minded focus necessary to be successful. I guess I've overdone them to a point where I can't drop them, so they'll stay on perpetual simmer instead of boil.

I wonder if there's a special interest that I just haven't discovered yet, or might be lurking in the background and underdeveloped.

I just can't give up the search. I feel the need to achieve the one big thing, and it would be good if it was career applicable. It's an itch I just can't seem to scratch.

Annoying. Is this scenario familiar to anyone else?

Are there any skills you've developed because of your interests?

I used to have that problem until I kept analyzing myself and figuring out who I was and then one day all of a sudden it came together. Even though I was a shy girl who hated to be around people I was interested about observing them. I was interested in mental disorders, personalities, genes, psychology, reading and human development.

What do you find yourself constantly doing when you're bored?

For me it's music, which for me is "career applicable" - I teach bass and guitar lessons and I'm in several bands that do live shows. I also busk on occasion. It's not much money but it's much better than any job, I'm my own boss, I don't have all the stuff that comes with a normal job (socializing etc.) that burns me out - and at the same time it's my primary special interest. For me, music has been a huge special interest for as long a I can remember - I didn't direct myself towards it (and I certainly wouldn't if you want a more stable or predictable or easily procured source of income) - I just went that way naturally.

Thanks for the input.

Mostly I've just enjoyed researching my interests, except for martial arts and magic/illusions which I've done lessons for.

Starting to realise that I need to focus more on 'doing' and less on 'researching'. And the fact that I live in a small rural town far away from higher education probably doesn't help.

I guess that's the thing about being individuals. We meditate on these things, twirling round and round our minds, and where the penny drops is different for us all. So different I'm not even sure where that d@mn penny is.

I'll find it one day. Guess I'm just frustrated and panicking because I'm almost 45. Too much longer and I'll be too old for the answer to be of any use. If the answer were 'science teacher', well 2 years of senior high school + 4 years of uni, and I'd be a 51yo looking to be a teacher with no previous experience.

What age does mid-life crisis start?

More seriously though

Stunts or choreography
Performance
Body guard
Bouncer
Some other kind of security

If you like research and are interested in protection perhaps you could become a security expert and teach people how to secure their homes and protect themselves/family

I agree with both posts by Johnny23. The first one was funny and the second had some really practical ideas up your alley. I would also like to suggest you look into online colleges/ universities. Because you could do most or all of it at home, there is little or no travel time/costs involved, so you could do it quicker, and cheaper than in person. Also, many schools offer some free courses. The free courses usually don't include a degree or certificate, but can still be mentioned on a resume.

I don't know what other skill sets you may have, but you may want to consider mixing interest work, with working part-time for non interest work with a regular paycheck. My younger brother works almost a full shift 5 or 6 nights a week (grave yard shift), as a janitor. During the day he often works for himself doing odd job/handyman work, and also keeps the family cars running--he used to be an auto mechanic. There are three family households in the area, including his, so that's several cars. One of his main special interests is to live self sufficiently off the grid, and he is gradually working towards that. His place has several acres, and you can hunt there. He once bagged a doe shooting from his upstairs deck! Our father has a summer place about a block away from him, and has a garden every year, that my brother helps with.

If you have any property at all a garden can make an excellent special interest, as you can keep food costs down and eat healthier by growing your own produce, freezing, canning, and drying some of the excess, and you can sell any excess you don't need. The more extra you grow, the more you can sell, either at a home stand, or at a farmer's market, or even to local restaurants.

If my knees were better I'd have a garden, but my knees are both bad. I can't grow stuff in pots on the porch, as it is on the north side of my trailer and gets too little sun. Also, I'd have to cover everything with clear plastic to keep the local cats from messing with it. Some of them mark turf on my porch, and there are often cat fights on my lot. I don't know what I've done to deserve such honors.

Another source of info on careers, including unusual ones, is your local library. There are books on such things listing all sorts of jobs, both for others and self employment jobs. I even bought a few years ago at a book store, as I was in the same boat you are now. Unfortunately, my other health problems got worse, so I am now unable to work and am on disability.

I sure wish I could have a garden now. Anyway, good luck with your own search for employment.

Very strange special intrest is for example inventing artificial languages. Tolkien made career on that and Star Trek guys. And those X-Men - I think someone who invented this mutant concept felt mutant himself.

Wow! When I mentioned martial arts and magic, it was mostly just because that's where I'd done most in context of a hobby. By the way, 'Ansatsusha' is the Japanese word for assassin and 'Ansatsuken' is a constructed word for any martial art focused on assassination techniques.

As an aspie ages, s/he often gains multiple special interests. The reason for the wow at the beginning of this post is just how many of your examples happen to be special interests that I hadn't mentioned. For example, over half my bookmarks are on the subjects of self sufficiency and survivalism. A lot of books in my personal library deal with those subjects as well as primitive technology and experimental archaeology.

Constructed languages. I brushed on that while contemplating the possibility of fusing Gaulish + the six surviving Celtic languages/dialects. And I often visit Omniglot in the hope of constructing a script for personal writing. Love Tengwar, but too sloppy at it. Think it might be better with a chisel tip than a ball point pen.

Mixing all interests, and considering I actually do live in the highest unemployment section of Australia with one of the lowest state populations (half million spread across entire state), a diversified portfolio might be best. Magic/psychic entertainment, teach classes in primitive tech at adult ed., to generate a little cash to supplement a vegetable garden (1 acre), until I can earn teacher cert in martial arts to teach privately.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Need to learn more about music. Only play one instrument... a cd player