Diversify your life and avoid role engulfment

JAMES HAFNER

Everyone deserves to live a positive, fulfilling life. Not everyone will agree on what the best way to live is. Role engulfment or going all-in on one role in your life, is limiting your chance of living your best life. Profession, athletics, parenthood, religion and literature each grant meaningful aspects to an individual’s life, but problems can arise when someone restricts their entire self-image within one of these categories.

Labeling theory is a prominent theory in criminology that first created the idea of role engulfment — where a person’s identity is created from a role. Initially, this was theorized with negative roles, like deviant or felon. Future orientation is the ability to understand your future isn’t predetermined and you have the power to control your future. Labeling theory found that people who become engulfed in their roles enter a fixed mindset suited to their role and have a harder time using future orientation. This means someone who was labeled as a criminal would have difficulty imagining a future as any other role, unknowingly leading the individual to make decisions that coincide with their label. Whether the role is athlete or mother; research on role engulfment has proven multiple times people consumed in one role, suffer in other relationships.

NFL players are an excellent example of role engulfment at work, because it can be so easy for them to be consumed in athletics. Many of these athletes spend their entire lives training to join the NFL, but retire as early as 24 years old. What happens to the athletes who have already achieved their lifelong goal and retired at a young age with a majority of their life ahead of them?

Many NFL players become consumed in their role as an athlete and could suffer an identity crisis after being ejected from a role they were thoroughly consumed in. These athletes struggle to find direction when they retire. Imagine working your entire life to accomplish your dream job, but after only three years you retire. This is what many NFL players experience. It is easy to tell how big of an issue retiring from the NFL is when there are companies like The Trust which is dedicated to helping these retired players find opportunities to explore more aspects of life like careers, education and entrepreneurship.

While role engulfment isn’t exclusive to athletes most of the research available focuses on athletes or coaches. People can become engulfed in any high-performance role. Athletic role engulfment is so well-researched because it is the easiest to notice.

Self-determination and dignity of risk play an important part in how role engulfment manifests. Both reflect the choices a person makes. Self-determination is the personal factor of making decisions and goals, and ultimately working toward them. Dignity of risk, on the other hand, is making decisions that have the potential for negative outcomes, like getting physically hurt, getting lost and ending a romantic relationship.

Ultimately, having a choice can make a big difference in a person’s mental state. When the choice is removed from an individual they are less satisfied with whatever the outcome may be. Some people endured role engulfment during their college years and enjoyed it; the difference here is the choice to willingly become consumed for a set time.

Despite the people who experience role engulfment and enjoy it, taking on multiple roles has more benefits. Physical and mental health is improved when involved in multiple roles. Additionally, role multiplexity creates a strong and well-supported career. Specialization is great, but when it comes to people and their happiness, it seems they are at their best when they aren’t hyper focused on one aspect of their life. This principle doesn’t only apply to the role that a person takes, but also to the interests they have. Diversifying your interests is a great way to broaden your horizons

People who have many interests and creative pursuits are called multipotentialites

This concept is best visualized as the opposite of a specialist. There are three key advantages of being a multipotentialite: idea synthesis, rapid learning and adaptability. Pursuing multiple interests essentially trains your mind to do these three things better than others. Understanding many topics allows you to pull knowledge from a wide variety of concepts, which can help significantly with the brainstorm step of problem solving Everyone should strive to pursue multiple interests, whether it’s a side hustle or a hobby, there are many benefits to having multiple sources of satisfaction in life.

A classmate of mine built their life around their role as an athlete, but a crossroad in life suddenly forced them out of the dream they spent 18 years working toward. The uncertainty about what to do next was the most notable trait I saw firsthand. I grew up with a constant variety of interests, so role engulfment felt foreign to me. If I ever found myself unable to pursue one of my interests, I know I could move on and focus on other things that bring me joy. After all, the world we live in is so vast. It would be a waste to limit yourself.