You do what you have to do.
That's always been one of my mottos; sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do, or hate doing, or didn't forsee doing. Such is life. I always thought that my own personal "you do what you have to do" things was work multiple jobs.
It started in college when I decided to move into an apartment with two friends instead of continuing to live on campus. We wanted freedom from oppression (more on LU and their lovely rules later) and independence; and after all, when you're almost 21, you're definitely mature and adult-like.
Anyways. Because of the full-time nature of my schooling, I couldn't work full time at one job. So, I did what any resourceful college student does - I started waiting tables. Along the way, I added teaching piano and TA'ing to my list of jobs, until I was working 3 jobs plus taking 18 credits a semester to finish my degree. And since my degree was music performance, I had to fit practicing piano in there somewhere, too.
All in all, it was a very busy, stressful time. I barely had time for working out and sleeping (my two hobbies!) and didn't pick up a book for almost a year. Eventually, I got worn out and gave up waitressing. Still, juggling two jobs and full time school was stressful. I always assumed that soon I'd have a *real* job and this would be a thing of the past.
Fast forward 3 years - I've since graduated from college, gotten married, and entered graduate school. Along the way, I've picked up a job waitressing and a job teaching music theory at the university I attend. Sound familiar? Still trying to graduate, too.
The reason this is interesting to me now, though I've not been unaware of the pattern, is that this spreading-myself-thin thing is, well, spreading-myself-thin. I'm performing at less than my best in ALL areas now that I'm so divided. Even more interesting is the fact that I have free time now, and I'm still performing at less than 100%. I teach for one hour per day (one class). I have almost all day, usually, to do whatever, before working in the evening. I have all day to work on school related things and to prepare for the next day.
And yet... my projects still suffer. My thesis is not finished yet, because I cannot devote 40 hours/week to its completion. My classes aren't stellar, because I can't devote 20 hours/week to being completely awesome at teaching. My house will not stay clean, because I do not have 15+ hours/week to take care of things like laundry, dishes, and dusting.
My brain is somehow rebelling at being pulled in so many different directions that I have become unhappy with what I do on a day to day basis. I work because I help support our family; I teach because I love it (and it pays my school bill!) and am preparing to continue teaching as a career; I "thesis" (yes, I just made that into a verb) because I need to graduate and have a masters degree. I do each thing on my agenda for a reason - but having to do all of them at the same time is making me unhappy.
I hope I am not foolish enough to suppose that "the grass is always greener" and suggest that only one task for the rest of my life will always make me happy. I am, however, pondering ways to reduce the amount of responsibilities I have so I can focus on fewer things and *hopefully* be better at them.