Recently, Holly wrote a blog post about ways to simplify that really stuck with me. The part that spoke to me was the first part about making new hobbies. I relate so much with the need to make everyday tasks into hobbies. Here's why:
I work a lot. I could talk a whole lot about this, but I'll keep it short. I love my job and it has grown and grown and kinda taken off in several different (very time consuming) directions. There are a lot of things that I do on a daily basis that are classified as "work", most of them are fun and most of them started out as hobbies. I love that ABM has the tendency to turn almost any hobby into natural content for our articles, photo shoots, books etc. It's all good. There's only one weird part about it... I don't have very many hobbies that are not tied to my everyday work flow. So even though sometimes everything feels like a hobby, sometimes nothing does. Because of this it's hard to find stuff to do to "unwind". Most of my hobbies tend to hype me up for future projects and inspire more work. Next thing you know I'm on the phone with Emma trying to talk her into another project we should try... you see what I'm saying? It's weird.
So when Holly wrote about making everyday tasks feel like hobbies I had a light bulb moment. It's one of those things that I've been feeling for a while, but wasn't able to put into words. Since my job is mostly about hobbies, my new hobbies tend to mostly be really normal stuff like dates with Jeremy, going out with friends, having cocktail nights and sprucing up my home (aka shopping). These are the things that help me clear my head and feel refreshed and reset!
I realized that since most of my work time is spent making really fun crafty projects that I need to do other stuff that helps me decompress and relax. It's really just a different perspective. I think that understanding this balance makes my work life and my personal life better... and it dramatically improves my mindset and sense of balance. I'm an overachiever and I like to try to do it all. Sometimes it's just nice to know I don't have to.
It's been healthy and comforting to give myself permission to live a more simple life when I'm spending time with Jeremy and having days off. The rest of the time I can work like crazy. ♥ The end.
