Simplicity and Less
It has been stressful lately.
In part because everything always bunches up before Christmas, and the burnout has been building up for some months since the summer vacations, and in part because it is simply self-imposed.
Society, work, our partners, and our family always tell us to do more. Go co-found a startup, try hard to be funny, build all your hobby projects this very evening.
The hustle culture is praised as being ambitious and knowing what you want in life. That you are interesting and exciting in a world where dopamine hits need to be religiously supplied because - god forbid - we sit quietly on a couch together without consuming some kind of content. Always pushing and pushing until your body is exhausted and your mind can’t keep up with all the impact you are supposed to be creating and the to-do list that only grows.
Why have one job if you can have 2? Why not volunteer on the side also? And practice for your guitar class. Or that language course. And always cook and eat healthy because your body is a temple. And exercise.
And hobbies. Some people have like one hobby, their whole lives. Oh, but not you. You have 10 and you need to rotate through. And then you feel bad because the progress at each seems to have stagnated, and you will never be able to live up to your own expectations and the ones that others might have of you.
A weird idea popped up in my head: what if, per season, we only had one hobby? You could sit down after work full of determination and focus fully on progressing that one thing.
The underlying concept is that most of the time, we are surrounded by noise. It distracts, and it eats up mental bandwidth. Even if you theoretically have the time, the energy is just not there when the moment to work on something arrives.
I guess they are the two extremes. The busy, manic, hectic, first option is not even that bad when you look at it: you are certainly making progress! Just look back at the state when you started weeks, months, or years ago! If you combine all hobbies, this is certainly impressive! Then why does it not feel like it? How does this feel bad and frustrating at times?
If you were expecting a conclusion or solution, I regret to say I don’t have one. If any, it would be that the pressure you are putting on yourself is the problem. Because you are overthinking and creating expectations around achieving progress instead of enjoying the process. And if a hobby is parked for some months: so what? The world is (probably) not going to end if you miss one event. Be kind to yourself, and remember what you are doing all of this for.
For fun... right?