Do it for fun

Do it for fun

It's easy to get caught up in the daily grind. Do you have a hobby that people keep telling you that you should monetize? Here's a novel idea - just keep doing it for fun. Hobbies don't have to be all about earning money. It's enough if you just enjoy the time spent doing the thing, whatever that is.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been getting back into reading physical books, but I also really like playing video games, and building Lego sets. I've also been enjoying the process of building PlainFeeder, not there's much there yet (although I do have it at least capable of ingesting RSS feeds now, so that's nice!). I don't do any of these things with the goal of earning money off of them. Honestly - and this applies doubly so for the Lego sets - most of them cost me money to do them. I do them anyway because I get enjoyment out of them. I don't need another job to keep track of on top of my daily work. That's stressful enough as it is.

Be bad at things

This is also going to sound a little counterproductive, but you should also try to be bad at things. I know that sounds weird but hear me out. No one is an expert just starting out - everything takes practice and learning to build up experience to get better at it. When I say be bad at things, I'm saying try new things, look at them from different angles, experiment. I get the most enjoyment out of projects when I run into new obstacles to work through. The feeling of accomplishment and knowing that I just learned something new that I can use in the future is honestly kind of satisfying. You also don't even have to get good at things to enjoy them. For example, I recently went bowling with some friends of mine - I'm absolutely terrible at it. I like it anyway because to me, it's a more about spending time with my friends and doing something together. I don't ever intend to get better at it, and honestly? That's part of the charm to me.

I mean heck, I'm pretty miserable at web development. I'm much more adept at the server-side of things, setting up routing, handling performance, delivery, and security, that sort of thing. Actually making things? That's a trial if I've ever seen one. Still, I do it for fun and to keep learning something new. That's part of the reason why I pretty much do everything on this site by hand. I used to have a static site generator do it for me, but there's been a cool charm about writing these posts in basic HTML. Sure there are more efficient ways of doing it, but that isn't the point for me. I like being able to see something that I directly wrote turn into something online. It may not be flashy or styled at all, but it's something I've created for the fun of it, and that's all that matters to me.

Teach others

Another great way to spend your time with hobbies is to teach others just starting out too. And this doesn't even have to be anything super formal! Spending time in your community teaching others, getting to know people with similar interests, it's a great experience. Even something as simple as a mini book club or just checking in to see how someone is doing with their art or writing is enough to keep the hobby flame alive. People want others to take in interest in their favorite activities - it's great seeing them light up when they can talk about it.

For me, I'm going to keep plugging away at PlainFeeder. I'm also nearly done with Golden Son, the second book in the Red Rising series. I find it hard putting it down, it's so good, and the third book is in the mail now!

Let me know your hobbies

I'd love to hear what you do for fun. Do you build model planes? Have a miniature train set? Woodworking? Poetry? I love seeing what other people can imagine and create. If you want, send me an email at the link below!

Reply to this post