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Bicycle
A few weeks ago I bought a bicycle online, and let’s just say it came in a few more pieces than I would’ve preferred. But, determined to ride my new bike, I got to work. I like to think that I’m a little more savvy than the average person when it comes to bikes, but this task proved much more confusing than I anticipated. As time went on while I was building this bike, instead of getting frustrated, I surprisingly found myself getting more excited. It was an interesting realization, and it got me thinking about the importance of side projects.
For large portions of my life I have considered myself to be hobby-less. There have always been things I liked to do but I never had a consistent hobby that I was passionate about. As I’ve gotten older and talked with more people I’ve realized that a lot of people fall into this same boat of not having a hobby. But picking up a hobby isn’t necessarily an easy thing. It can be really hard to find a hobby that you truly enjoy and want to stick with. As I was building my bike I realized how small side projects can fill the same space that a hobby would. In my mind the difference between a hobby and a small side project is consistency. I think of hobbies as something that you could do pretty consistently over the course of time, while I think of projects as having smaller, and possibly more intermittent, time lines.
Building bikes obviously can’t really become a hobby of mine as I only need one bike and don’t want to become a bike technician, but just owning my bike can become a small side project. I very easily could’ve taken my bike and all of its pieces to a bike shop and paid a small amount of money to have it professionally built. But now, after building it myself, I am much more proud of myself and look forward to any further work I might do to it. I don’t really know what I am doing but some of the fun, in my opinion, is figuring it out as problems present themselves. During my first ride the chain got all messed up on the gears, but after a little troubleshooting I was able to get it fixed.
Now you may love bikes or you may hate bikes and think building a bike sounds miserable, and that is ok. The point I am trying to make is about having some sort of thing that you are continually pursuing, no matter how fast or slow that may be. For you, maybe your project is landscaping and you slowly teach yourself and learn more as different parts of your yard need to be landscaped. Or maybe your new project is cooking and committing to making more meals and forcing yourself to learn. At the end of the day I think the value of a project is putting yourself in a situation where you are forced to learn.
So that is my challenge for you this week: find a project. This can be anything where you think you will be a little outside your comfort zone and forced to learn. This doesn’t have to be anything long term either. Maybe you want to re sod your backyard one afternoon. That project won’t last a long time but if you’ve never done it before you’ll definitely learn a lot about the best way to do it. At the end of the day what I am trying to say is that if you don’t have a consistent hobby, try to put yourself in new situations so that you can learn new things through smaller projects. Continually doing interesting projects, no matter how big or small (whether it is building a house or just hanging a single shelf), can definitely act like a strong hobby. And even if you already have a strong and consistent hobby, I think the occasional side project can also help just stimulate your brain and get you thinking in a different way for a short period of time.
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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