Get a purpose-free hobby.

"You're going on a hike? But you just start and end at the SAME place. Get a hobby with a PURPOSE." - Atelic Activity Chris

What happened to value-free hobbies? You can't have a stamp collection without trying to justify its existence by telling people how rare they are and how much money they'd bring at auction. Do you carve wooden figurines? Well, you'd better open an Etsy store and work on your creative side-hustle...

What about socially acceptable hobbies that are related to accumulating stuff that have a specific utility? We have some of those... Record collections--you can gather and listen to the music and pore over the liner notes. Knitting, you can make hats and warm clothes for your friends (I saw someone knit a sweater for a hamster). These hobbies have a tangible result that everyone can see or relate to the experience; you listened to that album, you made that wool beanie. As long as your hobby is product-driven, can be sold, or experienced easily by everyone it is acceptable. (Stick with me, I'm using a bit of hyperbole to make a point...)

In his splendidly on-the-nose "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" (public library) writer Oliver Burkeman posits that we get the most meaning out of hobbies that are not product-driven because they provide a needed contrast to our very goal-oriented work. He relates the concept that philosopher Kieran Setiya calls “atelic activity,” something that doesn't have an ultimate goal. Setiya himself shares further detail:

"...He (Setiya) was heading toward the age of forty when he first began to feel a creeping sense of emptiness, which he would later come to understand as the result of living a project-driven life, crammed not with atelic activities but telic ones, the primary purpose of which was to have them done, and to have achieved certain outcomes."

I have felt this lack of meaning in my life! If I had a paper copy of this book, I would stamp "that me!" in the margins of most pages.

Playing music is something that falls into a fuzzy area of being "hobby-adjacent". It's very much an activity that people start doing for fun (especially if they start as an adult and chose it for themselves) but as soon as anyone knows they're doing it, it brings on questions like, "Are you taking lessons?" "Who's in your band?" "When can I see you play?" Playing music quickly gets pushed out of the realm of a "hobby that a person does for its own sake" and into the realm of an activity that needs an end product to justify it.

Even though we call it "playing" music, the expectation from a lot of people (for themselves or others) turns to "Why aren't you as good as that famous musician?" I'm not here to say that people should be less product and performance oriented but--oh YES, that IS what I'm saying. Even if you have a goal to be an active performer and play in bands (goals are great, I goal so much), what if you spent a bit of time working on something you've never done before and have no expectation of playing in a performance?

I'm a strong believer in working hard to learn something that I WANT to learn so that I can end up with a thing that I can do at the end of that learning process (ok, that's a goal and a product). You know what, that can also be fun like a hobby! I've been playing music for over 20 years and if I'm being really honest, some of the most fun I have is practicing by myself playing stuff that I'll never share with anyone. Lately I've been working on some tricky drum phrases played by Tyshawn Sorey and I could eventually make a really slick Instagram video playing the material, but I really don't care about that right now because I'm having my own fun with it (stay away from my fun casual judges of social media!). Can we all twist our personal expectations to enjoy music as if it were our favorite hobby for a little while every week? I recognize that is very hard to not judge your self or be paralyzed by the future application of your musical experience (I shouldn't do this, it won't have VALUE). It is also hard not to filter yourself when you tell yourself to just "play," but give it a shot! Feel free to let me know if you have any good mindless fun playing this week. Or don't tell anyone, that's great too.

Burkeman wraps a chapter by disclosing that the hobby he loves for it's own sake is
jamming along on piano to Elton John songs. Then he shares the following final inspiration:

"The publisher and editor Karen Rinaldi feels about surfing the same way that I do about cheesy piano rock, only more so: she dedicates every spare moment she can to it, and even wiped out her savings on a plot of land in Costa Rica for better access to the ocean. Yet she readily admits that she remains an appalling surfer to this day. (It took her five years of attempting to catch a wave before she first managed to do so.) But “in the process of trying to attain a few moments of bliss,” Rinaldi explains, “I experience something else: patience and humility, definitely, but also freedom. Freedom to pursue the futile. And the freedom to suck without caring is revelatory.”

Treat your profession like a hobby and embrace the suck.