Every pursuit has a maintenance cost after the excitement of choosing it.

Choosing something is the cheap part. Afterwards comes the upkeep, which is ongoing, unexciting, and rarely counted at the moment of decision: the maintenance, the admin, the attention it will require every month for years. Lives get overloaded through accumulated upkeep rather than through the initial commitments.

Before taking something on, estimate its monthly cost once the novelty is gone. Then decide. That number, rather than the excitement, is what you are actually signing up for.