As we grow through our childhood years, we are encouraged to pursue hobbies. However, as the years go by, the school work increases, and we start having other responsibilities. We have less time on our hands now to do the things we love. “I would love to paint but I got a quiz this week”. We keep in touch with some of our hobbies, still.
Then comes senior high school, the time when we need to brace for a job or university. A lot of questions start weighing on our minds now: “Would I want to pursue doing what I love or go for what is hot in the employment market?” You’re lucky if they’re the same thing, for most people it’s not. Here people either go for what’s selling in the market, work 9–5, and before long realise they’re 52 and midlife crisis has hit them like a truck on a slippery highway.
Those who go for what they love realise it doesn’t bring enough food on the table. They decide to shift to the career path, promising themselves they’ll keep pursuing what they love on the side, until their big break; except there’s only limited time in a day, and the inherent luxury of free time is not for most working-class folks; they end up the same, wondering where did it all go wrong.
Finally, we’ve got folks who pursue what they love and it also happens to be hot in the market. However, over the years the passion and love for the niche slowly changes into a need to get good at it and to beat the competitors. The desire to be better for the love of it slowly changes into the need for it, and in the midst of all of this, the passion is replaced with the urgency of bringing food to the table and money to the bank.
We’re somehow embedded with the notion that a healthy body, mental wellbeing, and other things good are inherent to us and it’s the bad choices we make that make us unhealthy, mentally unhappy, and throws other bad things our way. It’s high time we let go of that notion. Good things do not come naturally. Having a super slim body isn’t what a healthy body is. Being happy all the time and smiling every morning right as you get out of bed isn’t mental well-being. Having a back that aches without reason and constant dissatisfaction with your life is not normal.
What I’m trying to say is maintaining a hobby takes work. We’re all seeded with the notion from our childhood that if we love something we’ll find the time to do it. Maybe back in those days, we could. We had a lot of time and very few responsibilities. As adults, we forget how to be happy unless something of monetary value is gained. To do something you love, efforts need to be put in, responsibilities fulfilled, schedules cleared, mindset changed to find the time to do it, not because you want to make money out of it but solely because you enjoy doing it. Of course, there is a small percentage of people who work in the field that they love, but for the vast majority of us, that isn’t true.
We, humans, have a very different notion about things associated with a monetary value and as soon as you assign your hobby one, it stops being your hobby. You might love painting and can paint endlessly for hours submerged in the splish-splash of colours across the canvas but as soon as someone offers to pay you to paint a dozen pieces for them, the hours put in start seeming longer.
Why are the only places where we have colouring books the kindergarten schools and mental health clinics? Why is it that only children or troubled adults are given the opportunity to paint or read silly books? We need to change our mental model of being an adult from someone who is constantly tired and grinding every day to someone who is happy and interactive, making new friends, and looking at life from above its tragedies. We need to start doing silly things and playing silly games and feel the sand in our toes and rub some crayons on paper for fun, not intending to make a masterpiece but because we love doing it. It’s time to normalise mental well being and I strongly believe diverging from daily routines of life with a hobby is the first step towards it.

[email protected]

Faizan Nabi