First Written: 12-Mar-2023 | Sun

What is the spice of life?

Your work is… well… work. No, that doesn’t count. Are you doing it for free? Entirely of your own volition? If you had the choice not to show up, would you? Are your coworkers your best buds in the whole wide world?

Like it or not, your work is work. You have to admit it – Even if you enjoy your job, there are still things about it that suck (and let’s be honest, enjoy is an overstatement for lots of us).

I’m talking pure 100% enjoyment. Doing for the sake of doing. No expectations. No obligations. No expectations. Just pure bliss.

That’s the secret spice of life.

Flow state each time. For nobody other than yourself – strictly for pleasure. Strictly for relaxation. You enjoy it because of what it is, not for what it could lead to. No, you enjoy it in the here and now.

The secret sauce?

Hobbies.

Go, right now, list your hobbies. Straight off the top. 3 things you do for yourself on a daily basis (at a MINIMUM weekly). What are they? Right now, Go.

If you took more than 0.3 seconds to come up with at least 1 hobby, you are a dispassionate, soulless creature and I am sorry for your existence… for your own sake. (haha kidding, but also not really)

Don’t worry, that was me for most of my life :/

I was so dang busy that I never really found time for hobbies. Life was always so fast paced. Always moving faster than I could catch it. It felt like I was on a Japanese bullet train at all times.

I had more pressing matters. Responsibilities and school and sports and people and plans and the future. Sure, I enjoyed pieces and I learned a lot – About self and life. But there was always a level of obligation. There were pieces and requirements in life that I despised. I just didn’t think I had time for “whatever I wanted”.

Everything takes time, and hobbies were always a side project. I rarely initiated them and when I did, it was ‘because I had time’.

Dude, seriously? No hobbies?

What kind of existence is that?

Are you even human?

You don’t have any hobbies?? What’s wrong with you?

Crazy, right? But I’m here to propose an alternate form of thinking. Change your everyday life – How you think about yourself and the world around you. Matter of fact, it’ll change your life.

Swap priorities.

I’ll get to that in a second.

New Hobbies, man

Hobbies are for nobody but you. They are strictly for you to enjoy.

It seems so obvious – “oh yeah, we should all have hobbies”.

No, it’s more than that.

Hobbies are where you go for a release. Hobbies are where you turn when the world is pissing you off. Hobbies will consume your whole being (the right ones!).

Hobbies are when you set aside time for you.

They’re the one aspect of our lives we get to control. They demand nothing of us. There is no obligation. They have no time commitment. The good hobbies are the ones where left to our own devices, we still feel a gravitational pull towards them. Listen to that pull!

So Much

There is so much of our life that is dedicated to other people. We work for our bosses. We take care of our family. We set aside time for our friends. We compromise with peers. But how often do you make time for YOU?

No responsibility. No obligations. You do it for nobody other than yourself. How often do you enjoy life just because you can?

That’s what hobbies provide. They’re time for you.

Make YOU a Priority

In an age of ever-increasing distractions and competition for our attention, it becomes harder to prioritize Self. Our focus is making other people dollars and we become the commodity – We’re straying farther and farther from our own enjoyment.

We end up down rabbit holes of other people’s enjoyment. We are constantly being pulled every which way. Our friend wants to do this. Our family wants us to do that. Our kids need this (yikes, kids?).

But where do we draw the line? When do we say no? More importantly, when do we start doing things for ourselves?

We think we don’t have time. Here’s a hint – You don’t have time for the things you don’t prioritize.

Chances are, you don’t prioritize yourself. For the longest time, I know I didn’t. I wanted to do well in school. I wanted to do well in sports. I wanted to set myself up for the future. Or that’s what I thought anyways.

But I was so busy setting myself up for the future, that I didn’t set myself up for the present. It’s still a work in progress, but my priorities have changed. Sure I still do the work, but I’m tired of living my life for other people. I’m starting to prioritize my own goals, my own time, my own enjoyment.

And that means hobbies.

HOBBIES!

It’s your responsibility to prioritize your life how you want. You’ll end up as part of somebody else’s plan. That goes for hobbies, exercise, your job, religion, friends, etc. The list goes on.

If you don’t prioritize yourself and your goals, nobody else will either.

So enjoy yourself. For the sake of your well-being. Take 5 gosh darn minutes and think about those things you actually want. Those goals you had passed you by.

That’s why they call it enjoying yourSELF, not enjoying your-others. (yikes, cheesy, I know)


For the sake of a good life, go find some hobbies.