Hobby Can Be An End In Itself
Why are you wasting time on this instead of focusing on better things like career or {names of activities that generate money}?
Me with much enthusiasm, shows something : I made dis
Them : What's the point of this? You got paid for this?
Me : ...But how is it?
Them : Woah, it's worthless!
If I got a dollar every time someone asked me why I am putting so much efforts in something which doesn't pay me, I would be paid.
Many people just can't wrap around their head around the fact that hobbies can just be - hobbies. There's a growing trend of hobbies being converted into side hustles. There are many influencers on Instagram and Youtube, who are rocking at this - which is absolutely great! It's awesome when your work is your favorite hobby. That said, there's this growing invisible pressure around hobbies. With insane expectations of productivity, every activity is weighed and gauged in terms of material gains or success defined as per society standards.
This is how a hobby is actually defined:
hobby -- an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
Hobby is supposed to be an escape from reality and expectations. It is the oasis of a desert. Hobby is a happy place - where one can dabble in something without the pressure of producing a masterpiece. This doesn't mean that learning the craft of a hobby or pursuing it seriously defies it's purpose. The main purpose of a hobby is to be a source of happiness. And perhaps, it may probably become a source of serendipity one day.
Why are we under constant pressure to produce only masterpieces? Why can't we just create just for the sake of creation?
Is it still a hobby if we spend 99% of the hobby time on managing the business it has become?
The entire point of hobby is to be stress free, to relax, to be lost in it's flow. If we associate it with only high standards and always be on the look out for how it can be a source of income, a hobby ceases to be a hobby. It becomes a source of stress and yet another thing to be dreaded and avoided.
An almost miraculous thing - for some people, their work line is their favorite hobby. They spend time on side projects in their leisure time. Many scientists are hobbyists. Open source software is contributed as a liesurely activity by many. And here too, even if the pursuit of the hobby can be serious, the activity itself is joyful and there are no expectations. Often these people are criticized as workaholics, who have got nothing better to do in life and who lack skills for anything else. Their lives are considered boring.
On the flip side, the tables turn, when these monogamous hobbyists/workaholics criticize people who dabble in anything which isn't work. They look down on the arts/DIYs etc. The favorite statement here seems to be - "Oh, you are so idle that you are doing all such trivial stuff."
Why can't we just respect other people's hobbies? We don't have to find others' hobbies "useful" or even joyful, we just need to accept the fact that it's their rainbow in a storm without any judgement.
Hobby doesn't have to be a means for something grandiose, it can be an end in itself.
Create without any fear of judgement. Create without any expectations. Create just for the sake of creating. Create for yourself.
Find your inspiration.
Dabble and let people dabble.
~
PS: I would love to mention my inspirations for starting and keeping up with this blog : Ryan Higa and Tim Urban. The amount of effort, time and resources they put in their work is just insane. And it really shows - every single sentence is witty and has so much thought behind it. The thing is viewers/readers may completely miss the charm of it or fail to grasp the complete meaning of it. But they still do it. It's unreal that they are so underrated even when their content is so much amazeballs!
~~
Me with much enthusiasm, shows something : I made dis
Them : What's the point of this? You got paid for this?
Me : ...But how is it?
Them : Woah, it's worthless!
If I got a dollar every time someone asked me why I am putting so much efforts in something which doesn't pay me, I would be paid.
 |
| Hobbies |
Many people just can't wrap around their head around the fact that hobbies can just be - hobbies. There's a growing trend of hobbies being converted into side hustles. There are many influencers on Instagram and Youtube, who are rocking at this - which is absolutely great! It's awesome when your work is your favorite hobby. That said, there's this growing invisible pressure around hobbies. With insane expectations of productivity, every activity is weighed and gauged in terms of material gains or success defined as per society standards.
This is how a hobby is actually defined:
hobby -- an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
Hobby is supposed to be an escape from reality and expectations. It is the oasis of a desert. Hobby is a happy place - where one can dabble in something without the pressure of producing a masterpiece. This doesn't mean that learning the craft of a hobby or pursuing it seriously defies it's purpose. The main purpose of a hobby is to be a source of happiness. And perhaps, it may probably become a source of serendipity one day.
Why are we under constant pressure to produce only masterpieces? Why can't we just create just for the sake of creation?
Is it still a hobby if we spend 99% of the hobby time on managing the business it has become?
The entire point of hobby is to be stress free, to relax, to be lost in it's flow. If we associate it with only high standards and always be on the look out for how it can be a source of income, a hobby ceases to be a hobby. It becomes a source of stress and yet another thing to be dreaded and avoided.
An almost miraculous thing - for some people, their work line is their favorite hobby. They spend time on side projects in their leisure time. Many scientists are hobbyists. Open source software is contributed as a liesurely activity by many. And here too, even if the pursuit of the hobby can be serious, the activity itself is joyful and there are no expectations. Often these people are criticized as workaholics, who have got nothing better to do in life and who lack skills for anything else. Their lives are considered boring.
On the flip side, the tables turn, when these monogamous hobbyists/workaholics criticize people who dabble in anything which isn't work. They look down on the arts/DIYs etc. The favorite statement here seems to be - "Oh, you are so idle that you are doing all such trivial stuff."
Why can't we just respect other people's hobbies? We don't have to find others' hobbies "useful" or even joyful, we just need to accept the fact that it's their rainbow in a storm without any judgement.
Hobby doesn't have to be a means for something grandiose, it can be an end in itself.
Create without any fear of judgement. Create without any expectations. Create just for the sake of creating. Create for yourself.
Find your inspiration.
Dabble and let people dabble.
~
PS: I would love to mention my inspirations for starting and keeping up with this blog : Ryan Higa and Tim Urban. The amount of effort, time and resources they put in their work is just insane. And it really shows - every single sentence is witty and has so much thought behind it. The thing is viewers/readers may completely miss the charm of it or fail to grasp the complete meaning of it. But they still do it. It's unreal that they are so underrated even when their content is so much amazeballs!
~~
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