I'm really grateful for my hobbies, and I'm happy that I've made more time for them in the past year.
I was briefly reading something earlier today that discussed the importance of hobbies that weren't for the sake of monetization (actually or potentially), and the importance of having more than one hobby.
Although, of course, "if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life," making your hobby into a source of income can be tricky. The obligatory nature of it adds stress and pressure to keep creating/selling, and this is the opposite of what a hobby should be— relaxing, stress-free, an escape from obligations. Constantly feeling pressure to monetize what you enjoy takes the enjoyment out of it.
Beyond this, it's important to have more than one hobby. With just one, it's easy to become obsessive or fixated on it, and at least for me personally, this leads to pressure to do it "perfectly." Again, placing pressure on something that's supposed to be a leisure activity is counterintuitive. With more than one hobby, I feel more at ease to float amongst them, indulging in whatever I believe will serve me best that day without the pressure to do it perfectly or good enough to make money off of it.
So, what are my hobbies? My newest addition this past year has been playing the ukulele, which I've been doing much more frequently. I'm not amazing at it by any means, but I love picking it up and learning a new tune to take my mind off of things. Challenging myself to get better at something for the sole purpose of learning is kind of a new thing for me, but I like it. I also love dancing, which is hands down one of my favorite activities ever. I can't be upset when I'm dancing.
Additionally, I enjoy reading and writing. With reading, I often pressure myself into reading "worthwhile" books, particularly non-fiction educational or self-growth books. I tell myself that if I'm going to spend my time with a book, it better make me smarter or help me grow as a person. This is a thought pattern I'm trying to break! Sometimes it's nice to just read a book for the heck of it, and I've almost forgotten how fun it can be to get drawn into a good fiction book. There's no immediate purpose served— I'm not more knowledgeable or self-aware— but being drawn into a story is an incredible experience in and of itself.
Along with reading, I love writing. I always have. When I was younger I wanted to be an author, and I wrote numerous books, speeches, poems, etc. In light of this, one can imagine how excited I was to start this blog, but also perhaps understand the pressure I attached to it. I set out wanting everything I wrote to be groundbreaking, and when I decided to do this whole blog writing challenge for a whole year, I felt the need to make it profitable in some way. I figured if I was going to spend so much time with the blog, I should find some way to make some money off of it. Now, not that I would mind a little cash every time I posted on the blog, but that's really not the purpose of this, and it never was.
One of the biggest challenges of this year of writing has been letting go— of the pressure to consistently write masterpieces, of caring about what people would think, of the need to get a certain number of views on each blog post— and I think I can honestly say I've made some major progress in that regard. And, because of this, I've been able to enjoy the process much more. Though sometimes it does still feel a little obligatory, it's nowhere near the extent to which I initially thought it would feel that way.
So, returning to my initial point, it's important to have multiple hobbies that you don't monetize. For me, this means playing the ukulele, finding any opportunity to dance, reading a fiction novel every now and then, and writing the blog, among other things. The significance of these is not diminished by their lack of immediate work/school/career benefits, which is the beauty of hobbies. And, after years of neglecting them through middle school, high school, and college, I'm enjoying being more intentional about making time to spend with these activities. I'm not perfect at any of them, but amidst the mundane chaos (which may appear to be an oxymoron but I believe is indeed the most accurate way to describe this final, busy year of college), they do bring small moments of ease, sanity, and joy, and that is more than enough.
