Whysloth

I've felt your pain a lot in my life Sargon[OP]. I've enjoyed Magic: The Gathering and Chess, along with gaming and reading for a long time and I've always felt like these hobbies, chess and magic in particular, compete with one another because of the way they feel similar in terms of their strategic gameplay. And like you, I get more enjoyment from my hobbies when I'm really able to dive deeply into something and feel the gains from becoming aware of the meta, or what ever. It feels better to be INTO magic or chess for a few months than always playing a bit of both. For some background, its very difficult to improve in chess without studying, and magic takes a lot of time other than playing because of the physical collecting side of it. So playing both isn't practical, so I allow myself to get pulled into one and from the other pretty much on a rotating basis of 3 to 4 months. But I try not to force it one way or another because despite what I may think I want for a fleeting moment, on the whole, I'm not engaging with these hobbies as a professional, so keeping in mind that fun and things like satisfaction and fulfillment are the objectives and not necessarily improvement for its own sake. With that in mind, maybe hobbies like golf are less important because it feels like work, if you know what I mean. Ultimately this approach keeps me from achieving things like becoming a master-level chess player, but it keeps my enjoying chess and not turning it into a work-like hobby which I think all hobbies have the potential for if we let things like competitiveness or the possibility of 'going pro' get the better of us.

Thanks for reading and hope this helps OP!