(Not so) Trivial Pursuits

This morning I'm thinking about my hobbies. What do I choose to do with my free time when I'm not re-tooling my resume for the 80th time or using LinkedIn to track down the hiring manager for a posted position? Well, I write this blog daily, for one. I love to read fiction and self help books. There's Candy Crush Saga on my phone and I pull oracle cards daily as well. So, while Candy Crush is just a tool to help my brain tune out for a bit, the other two are actually very purpose driven.

Given the fact that I'm in the middle of a job search, I've been giving my interests a deeper once over. I say that I love to write, but the truth of the matter is that while I Can write academic papers, news articles in AP style and company newsletters etc, the writing that truly just pours out of me is much less formal. I like to be able to speak in the first person, relate my own learning and hope that it resonates with others. I also enjoy writing fiction but that seems to require more discipline and therefore I've deemed it less fun lately. For years I've told myself that my affinity for free flowing writing was laziness because the other types feel more like work. This week I'm of the mind that because the formal types of writing feel like work, they aren't my passion. This stuff, right here, is (part of) my passion. So, why did it take me 34 years to get into a daily writing habit??

I also mentioned before that I'm in the process of learning how to write a novel, since my completely disorganized attempt left me stalled out. I've been attempting a 10 step process called the Snowflake Method. I'm only 2 steps in, but already I'm starting to see why I stalled out. I know how my book starts, I know how it ends. I know Some plot stuff along the way and lots of characterization but I do not have a solid idea of how all of these things link together in a logical chapter by chapter process. I'm in the process of coming up with that kind of an outline and guess what? It's kind of fun. Disciplined fun. Last night Alissia read me a beautiful quote about the discipline it takes to follow our passions (which I absolutely cannot quote from memory). The bottom line was that when it really matters, haphazard discipline won't do. In the past, my writing was always subject to haphazard discipline... I'be stepped up a lot the past month or so and I absolutely plan to leverage my newly sharpened blogging discipline to carry me through on my other projects as well.

As for reading, I'm currently in the middle of The Power of Now, When You're Falling, Dive (re-reading this one) and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If these were fiction books, I'd undoubtedly be getting through them faster but I am enjoying the three of them all the same. I'm sure, if you've been reading my blog posts that my attraction to these types of books is unsurprising. I am pretty passionate about self awareness, reducing suffering and living a life of service. While others might rather do a polar bear plunge in Lake Michigan than spend their free time reading these titles, I feel inspired and alive.

The oracle cards are more a part of my meditation/spiritual awareness practice than a hobby but of all of the things that I do connected to spiritual work, those feel the most fun... well, that and arrhythmically tapping away on the djembe I bought from a used book store. I might not have any idea how to play it correctly but it's kind of in the Candy Crush column... it takes me out of my thoughts. On days when I just don't feel like sitting and meditating in silence, with incense burning and candles and the whole shabang, I find that 10 minutes with the cards is a worthy substitute. Some days I do both but I pretty much always pull cards.

Alissia and I have been dialoguing about fun a lot lately, as our grownup lives seem to just be naturally devoid of it. We've found great joy in reliving childhood entertainments (thus my posts about the Snoopy Sno Cone Machine, sprinklers and lemonade stands) and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I've been living my life backwards. Valuing torturous tasks, because the less fun they are, the better they must be for me... you know, like vegetables.

In general, work has always been the stuff I wasn't so excited about and play was always the stuff that I LOVED but had to come only once work had been done. If you listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs at any given time (especially vegetables and water, though certainly other stuff as well). Your soul will tell you the same thing and my soul has been screaming for more fun, to the point of obsession. While I have some ideas floating in my brain about how to apply this to my career, for now I've simply adopted another hobby. Hay House (the publishing company that puts out Most of the self help type books I enjoy) has a blogger program where they will let you choose new books to read/review on your blog and send you a free copy.

Free books? Yes please. Sharing my opinion about them? Like you could stop me. My first choice is a novel called The Last Laugh, since none of the books on my current reading list are fiction. Here's to the belief that following  my passions in this way will lead me to not just more fun, but a better career. Long live fun!